Reflections

This is an important month — for so many people, in so many ways.*

It’s Easter — the Resurrection month for Christians. It’s Passover for Jews. It’s Holocaust Remembrance. It’s also a month filled with Islamic, Hindu, and Sikh celebrations — and many others not mentioned here, each one a reflection of history, belief, and survival.

But this month is also deeply personal.

It’s the month my dear friend Sergio Piza was born — and the month I arrived in Brazil, back in 1989.

Reflecting on the decades that put the “old” into Fogy, I can’t help but celebrate my own growth and the deepening awareness of what it means to be human. Sergio, one of my first friends in Brazil, shared my passions — Formula 1, computing, and the art of aging disgracefully. We grew old together, in laughter and discovery. But in January of last year, he left me flying solo. A great loss, even if in recent years we had fewer opportunities to sit and talk. How do you quantify a friendship that spanned more than three decades?

Yesterday, my Brazilian family — remembering what I had forgotten — quietly celebrated the anniversary of my arrival in Brazil: April 12th, 1989. That moment of unexpected recognition gave me pause — a pause to reflect on the importance of now and the shared meaning we create in the lives of others.

I remember — though I don’t dwell on — the fragmented lifestyle of my youth, and how that pattern wove its way through my young adulthood. Fogy, after all, was shaped in those years. Born not out of comfort but out of chaos.

Attachments — to people, objects, places — get harder with every new beginning. Fogy, I reckon, is living his third or fourth life. So many opportunities, so many resets. He’s become something of a castaway — surrounded by people, things, and places he loves… but always on borrowed time.

And yet, Fogy has learned the value of long-term friendships. He understands the emotional glue that binds Brazilians — and Latins more broadly. But he also holds close the fleeting moments, those brief, brilliant flashes of connection that matter just as much. Living in the present. Remembering the past. Honoring both.

When I look back on Fogy’s many lives, I see whole chapters written, experiences carved, adventures taken, and people met.

Every dialogue — no matter how brief — leaves a mark. Every conversation matters. So the next time you feel the need to speak, reflect, share, or simply be heard, remember: your words will ripple. They will land somewhere. They will make a difference.

Take the time to listen, too — not just to what is said, but to what is lived in those around you. The lives well lived. The reflections quietly offered. And the connections, however brief, that build the story of us all.

So take a moment — not just to look in the mirror, but to see what got you here.
The past doesn't just stare back. Sometimes, it nods.

In memory of Sergio Piza —
who taught me that true friendship spans continents, doesn't judge and supports you across all trials and tribulations. You are sorely missed my friend.

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