Missing "Espo" Jim Esposito

On September 6, 2019, our good friend "Espo" went to the other side... I'm reposting this to remember! 

Missing "Espo"

Back in September 2019 good friends and family gathered together to console each other on the passing of a dear friend, Jim Esposito.

Before his death, Jim requested that I preside over his wake service. As I think about the friends we miss, I decided to post the framework of my remembrance the night of his wake.  The room was filled with emotion, especially considering the impact of 9/11 on all of us. 

September 11, 2019

Tonight, we both celebrate Jim’s life, and his birth to eternal life. I find wake services very difficult, I’m uneasy and often don’t know what to say. Tonight, we share the void in our hearts of Jim’s absence and look for the hope of the promises made at our baptisms by Jesus.  That he has a place set aside for us.

In speaking with Jim’s family, the doctor’s described his condition as an enigma. 

Through the many tests and hospital stays and the results, the doctors were puzzled about Jim.

Enigma: a person or the thing that is mysterious, puzzling, or 

difficult to understand.

mystery, puzzle, riddle, conundrum, paradox, problem, unsolved the problem, question, question mark, quandary, a closed book; 

teaser, brain-teaser, stumper

      The enigmatic questions of Who am I? What is my purpose? 
      What happens when I die?

Why do people suffer, and those questions we still ask—will we see them again in the next life, and why, so often, do the good die young while it seems the nasty hold on for so long? 

Where is the Evidence of the Divine Source of Love, the power of authentic love—which is God—when it comes into our lives even briefly, and leaves us touched, and forever changed?

Twenty-some odd years ago I was one of Jim’s roommates in Wantagh. I loved Jim and yet he was an enigma to me.  This quiet, introspective, tall fellow with a keen wit, sly smile, and hidden talents, is a mystery to me, and maybe for many here tonight.  After meeting with his family, I understood a bit more about my old friend. He had two families of sorts. His blood relatives and his family of friends. As he suffered in the hospital, Jim shunned any visits…. And to be honest, I was mad at him over this, until I gained a new perspective. The character of Jim’s selflessness.  His care for the “other, as other” A dutifully son to his mother and father, a caring brother to his siblings, and a loving uncle to his nieces and nephews. This unassuming gentle-man, placed the care of others before himself, even in his dire conditions…” spend time with someone in better need that I.”

Celebrating Jim’s Life:

I think about the time that we first met at Arby's & the indignity we both shared wearing those polyester shirts with which seem to be a flowery stitch bib on the front and then later see Jim is it raining hard in through mutual friends my friends who are here today think about Tom Waitt’s song “Come On Up to the House, The book of wisdom, and we cannot know God's ways I think about the type of person Jim was.

Jim found solace New York Times crossword puzzle and say Jim was an introvert I would say more of a contemplative guy. “think of me is one you've never figured”

I know Jim didn't invent the playlist but let me tell you something he really knew how to work through Music I remember clearly the number of cassettes that he had for the road music and piecing recorded music together for the different road trips you take in our 20’s. Jim maybe not have  invented the playlist but it definitely was one of the early pioneers of the cassette mixtape.

Orbit of our relationships how they change through time how Jim is a real mystery to me in many ways.

Jim is a mystery, the quiet man it was a deep voice it seemed like the voice of God at some point and learned a lot from Jim unexpectedly a kind gentle thoughtful intelligent man. This brings me to the mystery of God, and the evidence of him though Jim. Jim’s unassuming ways, humility, self-sacrifice, and service to others.

Having been his roommate, Jim would often go to the room to contemplate and to be “in the zone”.

Jim’s passing seems to be Jim going to another room and what's happening on the other side. Sometimes you got a let your spirit bring home, Alman Brother’s Band Soulshine, into the mystic songs rambling through my mind.

Jim was a guitarist, short story writer, and audiophile. He found his solace in music.

Tom Waitt’s song seemed to speak to me this past couple of days, as we mourned Jim.  I thought of Jesus’ call home in the lyric and I suspect Jim’s advice to us.

Well, the moon is broken and the sky is cracked
Come on up to the house
The only things that you can see is all that you lack
Come on up to the house

All your crying don't do no good
Come on up to the house
Come down off the cross, we can use the wood
You gotta come on up to the house

Come on up to the house
Come on up to the house
The world is not my home
I'm just a-passing through
You got to come on up to the house

There's no light in the tunnel, no irons in the fire
Come on up to the house
And you're singing lead soprano in a junkman's choir
You got to come on up to the house

Does life seem nasty, brutish and short
Come on up to the house
The seas are stormy and you can't find no port
Got to come on up to the house, yeah

You gotta come on up to the house.. Someday, I hope to be Jim’s roommate again. Although I know he’ll have the best room… You gotta, come up to this house…