The great philosopher Plutarch once said:

“The whole of life is but a moment of time. It is our duty, therefore, to use it, not to misuse it.”

Today, I am sharing a brief moment with Erik from my life that encapsulates many wonderful things about him.

We met twenty years ago through a mutual friend, James Jenkins, as we shared a connection to Ohio. James knew me at work in New York, and Erik knew James from college in Cincinnati. The three of us loved heavy metal, and I was interested in the graduate program that Erik was attending at Stevens Institute in New Jersey. I met Erik at a “networking event” and we immediately clicked. I didn’t apply for the program, but we kept in touch on social media, imperfect as it is.

Life took Diane and me to East Asia and kept Erik and Michelle in New York City. Ten years later, I was ready to be back in New York. I followed Erik‘s career trajectory from a distance, commenting occasionally but never reaching out. In 2016, I made my first of many global journeys to find a job that could bring me back to where I had launched my career and where I wanted to plant permanent roots.

We reconnected as Erik was launching a new office for a new company with a loyal group of wide-eyed and ambitious colleagues. After ten years of our relationship in hyper-sleep, it reawakened as if only a short time had passed. We were aligned in our goals: New York was the place to be, and we would go beyond what we had achieved at our respective, established employers. Only this time, we would do it with a skeleton crew and on our terms. I didn’t know if it was possible, but Erik’s enthusiasm was infectious. We would work like crazy and double down on our families simultaneously.

Erik offered me a job when many others weren’t interested. But it wasn’t just a job; it was a golden opportunity to keep climbing the Everest of the dreams we shared - building breathtaking architecture, supporting our families, and having fun the whole time. In an act of selflessness, Erik gave me the responsibility to lead a project beyond anything we had done on our own - MSG Sphere. We both dug deep and put everything we ever learned on the table. Often, we would end the week looking at each other in disbelief. Was this real? Were we somehow both in the same dream? Was this just a delusion we would snap out of eventually?

Fast-forward to the pandemic. Our shared “dream job” is being built. We both leaned on each other and agreed privately that our team, which had grown in the meantime, was our priority. Everyone was facing an existential crisis, and we were not spared. In this moment of collective crisis, I decided I wanted two things from life that I had deferred: entering the world of drumming and getting a graduate degree.

“I don’t know where I will end up, but I know that life is short and I need to do this now or I never will. I also need your recommendation and support.” I said this to Erik in a coffee shop near our late-night “interview” four years prior, asking for his blessing and recommendation to apply for grad school. To my surprise, he was bittersweet but had no hesitation in extending his full support and, in his deeply vulnerable way, admitted that he also didn’t know where his career would take him.

We made it through the pandemic intact, and our dream project was, against all odds, to have its grand opening. Unsurprisingly, we both agreed that we had to attend the opening night and take the whole team. This was OUR victory, and we were going to celebrate together. I hatched a plan and convinced Erik to celebrate and get tattoos with the unimitable Dave Quiggle in Temecula. I had overlapped with a Dave in the Lake Effect Hardcore scene in the 90s when Erik was also in Erie, PA.

On Sept 28th, 2023, Erik and I did an early morning gym session and drove from Los Angeles to Temecula, had our tattoo sessions with Dave, and spent the rest of the day in a rental car. We reminisced about our childhoods and how we couldn’t believe we would enter the Sphere for the first time together. Twenty-four hours later, the first show in a once-in-a-lifetime project was about to start, and there we were again, amazed. Was this happening? Surely someone else did this. It couldn’t be us. We were just kids from Ohio, right?

We took that moment, followed the advice of much greater people before us, and used it. It’s our duty to use those moments, and it was my great honor to share one so magical with a friend who had given me so much.

My heart is with Michele, Arjen, Bram, and the rest of Erik’s family and friends in this difficult time.

Peace,

Noah