Foto: Johan Wiid (nog 'n ou BTK legende en fotograaf)

Julian van Zyl, die BTK se bekende maanmannetjie is onlangs by 2013 se Gala vir die tweede en laaste keer opgeskiet maan toe, dit na ‘n volle elf toere en twee termyne op die bestuur! Hy was eers in 2011/2012 die Rekenaar nerd van die bestuur en in 2012/2013 die onbetaalde rekenmeester wat een van die beste Tesouriers was wat die BTK seker ooit gesien het (maar met ‘n BRek graad agter jou naam sou mens so hoop=P)! Nie net dit nie maar die tye wat hy nie op die bestuur was nie moes die bestuur hom byna 2uur by die kantoor uitjaag of hom daar toesluit. Maar niemand het ooit gekla nie want sy lag was so aansteeklik en die wyse ‘ou’ man het so gereeld hand bygesit wanneer die bestuurslede vasgebrand het dat dit net ‘n plesier was om hom daar te hê. Legendes soos hy is wat die BTK aan die gang hou en sonder sy bydraes sou die BTK nie gewees het wat dit vandag is nie. Op die 29ste Desember 2013 het hy vir ons vir oulaas vaarwel gesê. Ek sou skat dat hierdie baie emosionele oomblik terselfdetyd sy hoogste en laagste punt was van sy tydjie by die BTK. Dié wat daar was en enigsins iets met die ‘ou’ legende te doen gehad het, sal getuig dat hulle almal met tenminste ‘n traantjie in die oog gestaan het, ander het weer krokodiltrane gehuil. Hier is wat hy te sê gehad het:

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To the Moon

Julian van Zyl

This morning I sat looking at the sea and thought about what the BTK has meant to me over the last two and a half years.

The BTK was the place I could go where my soul could rest from the constant thrashing and battering of the waves that make up our lives. It taught me that when you truly accept the power of this world and let a massive wave take your body and shunt it up, down, sideways – stretching your limbs to where they should not be – you feel infinite.

At the BTK I learned to marvel at the beauty of the natural world and found that the more I stared at it, the more wondrous it became, and the smaller my problems.

Here I learned to forgive the world that once rejected me: to look it in the eye and accept that the world is full of hurt and pain – but that this is okay. Because all you need to do is go outside and touch the grass and feel the power of the universe glisten through your body.

At the BTK I learnt that loving someone is not being the person that tries to comfort their hurt. Instead loving someone is sharing their pain: Looking into their eyes and feeling their disappointment in your own gut.

It is here where our hearts merge and separate, leaving behind pieces of ourselves in our friends. Fortunately this allows us to also share in those glorious triumphs of life – giving us double our dose of happiness.

I tell myself that this is why I have seen so many very tough men cry when being sent to the moon: It is the agony of life tearing us from our friends. It is the torment of being the one leaving after you have been forced to bid farewell to so many of your heart-friends.

But I say to life: Not today.

For I am merely leaving the crowd and entering the arena that is life and I know that my friends will be there to applaud me and cheer me on. And I know that this throbbing emptiness I feel now is but a shadow of the joy and abundance I have received.

To some of you today I say goodbye. To the rest I extend the invitation to hike the mountain that is the rest of my life. Perhaps at the summit we will find Heaven, Valhalla or Nirvana. But perhaps we will look down and realise it was really all about this incredible journey of life.