[00:41.362]Thomas
[00:42.454]
[00:43.000]We are gathered to honor the life of alvin kelby. He was my best friend.
[00:48.303](he finds a pen and makes a correction.)
[00:49.074]
[00:51.238]My good friend.
[00:53.987]My oldest friend.
[00:55.790]My insert-adjective-later friend.
[00:57.570](he tears the page from the book and tries again.)
[00:58.130]
[01:01.787]Hello. My name is thomas weaver.
[01:03.126]I'm a multi-award-winning, best-selling author and i have absolutely no idea what to write.
[01:08.460]
[01:09.618]Write what you know, tom.
[01:12.992]
[01:15.032]Write what you know.
[01:17.464](thomas writes.)
[01:17.924]
[01:22.187]We met in first grade.
[01:28.340]We were friends for years.
[01:35.058]Good friends.
[01:38.624]Inseparable.
[01:40.072](he stops writing.)
[01:40.499]
[01:41.228]That much i know.
[01:44.235]That much i know.
[01:46.845]
[01:48.377]Write what you know, tom.
[01:51.564]Write what you know.
[01:53.774](he resumes writing.)
[01:54.136]
[01:56.104]He was a smart kid.
[02:02.179]He was sort of odd.
[02:04.588]No. Interesting.
[02:05.992]No. Odd.
[02:08.414]
[02:09.259]He worked in his father?s bookstore.
[02:12.454]His father got sick.
[02:13.676](he stops.)
[02:14.115]
[02:15.034]That much i know.
[02:17.985]That much i know.
[02:21.642]
[02:22.534]But that's not the story.
[02:25.791]This is just fact.
[02:28.539]What was the crisis that went undetected?
[02:31.111]When was the instant it splintered and cracked?
[02:33.891]What was the moment?
[02:36.146]I missed it somehow
[02:39.769]And if i could narrow it down to a moment,
[02:42.673]What good is knowing that now?
[02:45.702]What was my responsibility?
[02:48.717]What did i owe?
[02:50.641]Am i to blame
[02:51.849]For all of the details i?ll never know?
[02:57.835]But how could i know?
[03:00.760]Write what you know, tom.
[03:02.930](he makes another attempt to write.)
[03:03.253]
[03:04.183]I went to college
[03:10.493]Alvin stayed behind.
[03:17.332]His father passed away.
[03:20.559]I left him here alone.
[03:22.773](he stops.)
[03:23.187]
[03:26.816]That much i know.
[03:29.975]That much i know.
[03:33.172]Some lives hurtle forward
[03:36.185]And some never budge
[03:39.047]And sometimes a life takes a different direction
[03:41.864]With an innocuous innocent nudge.
[03:44.503]Did i do the nudging
[03:47.320]When his life careened?
[03:50.236]Now how do i bounce through a lifetime
[03:52.260]To pinpoint when i should have intervened?
[03:55.007]Where is that story?
[03:57.858]What should i say?
[04:00.674]I've gotta do this right, alvin.
[04:03.347]I've gotta find the piece of the puzzle
[04:05.940]That brought me here today.
[04:12.915](as thomas violently tears the page from his notebook,
[04:13.277]The funeral chapel fades and thomas finds himself deep inside
[04:13.600]His own mind surrounded by endless shelves cluttered
[04:14.455]With papers and books - a lifetime's accumulation of memories and stories.
[04:14.911]Seated among them is alvin kelby.)
[04:15.275]
[04:18.375]What is the moment?
[04:21.280]What is the story?
[04:24.466]Use your own words tom.
[04:27.584]Write what you know.
[04:32.999]
[04:33.478]Alvin
[04:33.734]There's gotta be thousands of stories in this head of yours, tom.
[04:36.056]Thomas
[04:36.330]Don't bother me, alvin. I'm writing.
[04:37.859](alvin looks at thomas?s empty notebook.)
[04:38.400]Alvin
[04:38.641]No you're not. There's nothing there.
[04:39.727]Thomas
[04:39.946]Writing's a process. Words are just the final step. Now be quiet. I can do this on my own.
[04:45.031]Alvin
[04:45.274]Really? And when was the last time you actually wrote something, tom?
[04:50.024](this touches a nerve. Alvin starts to collect up loose pages.)
[04:50.830]So, here's what we're going to do. We're going to pick a story and you're going to write it down.
[04:56.569]Then we'll pick another... And another... And another. You get the idea?
[05:02.656]That's all a eulogy is, tom. You tell a bunch of stories, save the tear-jerker for the end and...
[05:07.524](alvin places a large stack of pages in front of thomas.)
[05:07.885]... There you have it. My eulogy. The story of my life.
[05:14.041]Written by best-selling author thomas weaver.
[05:16.805]Thomas
[05:17.429]You make it sound so easy.
[05:19.025]Alvin
[05:19.635]Isn't it? Here's a thought. Why don't you begin with this one?