Music and Poems

Caminante, son tus huellas
el camino y nada más;
Caminante, no hay camino,
se hace camino al andar.
Al andar se hace el camino,
y al volver la vista atrás
se ve la senda que nunca
se ha de volver a pisar.
Caminante, no hay camino
sino estelas en la mar. 


Traveler, your footprints
are the only road, nothing else.
Traveler, there is no road;
you make your own path as you walk.
As you walk, you make your own road,
and when you look back
you see the path
you will never travel again.
Traveler, there is no road;
only a ship's wake on the sea.

--Antonio Machado

Contributed by Mary Dean

The last time I chatted with Marvin, he wanted to know about Tulum and other places to explore in the Yucatan. I mentioned the awesome youth hostel on the beach of Isla Mujeres, and the spectacular underground cave restaurant in Playa Del Carmen, and encouraged him to use the local bus system, which is excellent. I don't know if he did any of those things, but it was sweet to see a young person spreading his wings and exploring the world.

How he ended up in Zanzibar -- Wait, Tanzania? -- Oh! Zanzibar is in Tanzania? -- was a total mystery to me, so I googled the resort he was working at, Kendwa Rocks. I came across this this advertising video. It shows the brand new poolside bar where Marvin spent his last days creating cocktails to fit peoples' moods, and a view of the ocean where he loved to swim. In the background, you will hear the beginning of a song called "Follow the Sun."

I wanted to hear the rest of the song, so I looked it up on YouTube. Now, maybe when you are mourning someone, everything reminds you of that person, but it really did seem to me that this song was written for Marvin.

Marvin followed the sun, and rode many waves in his short, intense life. Whenever I hear about a young person dying unexpectedly, I automatically fear that he might have taken his own life, so it was a huge relief and comfort to learn that Marvin's last days were spent swimming in bioluminescent ocean waves under the stars and living life to the fullest in an exotic land, and that he was happy and full of plans for the future.

Be brave, friends of Marvin. Follow the sun. That's how we can honor him.