My good friend Wiz died in 2019, and since then I've been trying to write something about him. The word that best describes him is "kind." I can never begin to describe his importance in my life.
I want to tell you about his contribution to the World of Royalty. He wasn't much interested in royalty, but he knew about computers and web design. When I redesigned Royalty.nu in 2008 (and no, he didn't like the way it turned out, so don't blame him!), he sent me color wheels and explained monitor calibration.
His biggest contribution was in 2001, when I was trying to create a favicon for the site. A favicon is the little website icon you see in next to the URL (web address) in some browsers. I downloaded a program to make one for Royalty.nu, but I struggled because I'm not good at that kind of thing. When I mentioned it to Wiz, he dropped what he was doing, downloaded the same program, and designed this for me in about 20 minutes.
Obviously it's perfect. I've been using it ever since.
Back in the late '90s, I would sometimes help him with his work projects, and at one point we compiled a big list of quotations. One of them caught my fancy, and I pestered him to use it for his online work profile. He did so to humor me. When he died, 20 years and many online profiles later, he was still using that same quote. He was like that. He held on to the little things and moments that make a friendship.
The quotation, said to be an Italian proverb, was this:
At the end of the game, the king and the pawn go back in the same box.
Of course, this applies to the world and to royalty. And it reminds me that there's never just one game. The pieces have been put away now, but they still exist, and one day we can play again.