Bryan Rivas

He was wearing a nice pair of slacks, a ironed and lightly starched white button up shirt, and a holster on his hip. Bryan was in his mid twenties and was about three years younger than me. I was an urban born guy, but I’d never had someone in my circle packing heat. It was our first meeting.

I’d never met anyone with a greater ability to praise and elevate others. To this day, no one in my experience has done it more authentically and more uniquely than Bryan. As a Merchant Dharma type, Bryan was purpose-built for the people. He was born to do no harm.

Bryan was the friend of my brother from another, Nate. We chilled that day in a West Tacoma apartment, explored a couple hours of non-stop commonalities, and began working together two weeks later when I fast-track hired him as a enterprise software sales executive. With no college education, the only one in the company where this applied, Bryan was in a league of his own. His ability to credibly break down the most complicated subject matter should have developed fifty years later. It was like Bryan was preloaded with high intellect, but the wisdom was uncommonly equal.

The two of us spent the next several years trading examples of our senses of humor, drinking macro Jack Daniels, and fishing. We eventually lost touch. A consequence in which Bryan had absolutely no responsibility.

In early July, 2021, seven days into a fasting session that was aimed at eradicating my jailbird bacterial overgrowth, I noticed Bryan in a Central Oregon Whole Foods. It had been a decade since I’d seen him. And if not for the fact that he and I were the only ones not wearing Covid face panties, it would have never happened. I was broke, blind, and really skinny. Each day that passed I was gaining a huge appreciation of the Hebrew people eastbound from Egypt.

The last words I remember from Bryan upon our reunion were, “you will not be doing this alone Eric.” Even now, typing in a Barnes and Nobel with free internet, I’m crying.

We could never do what’s about to be done without Bryan Rivas.