This is the 16th post of a blog by Matt Porubsky called “satisfactual,” which will be updated whenever he damn well pleases, discussing odds and ends about Topeka history and culture, with a little opinion thrown in for good measure.

I didn’t know Micah Rolfs very well. I knew his name and photos from his work with the magazine. I have very few memories of him and they are very much like the artwork he shared in seveneightfive magazine: pictures. The first time I met him was before last year’s Arty Party at Oscars. He was sitting with Kerri, the publisher of the magazine, at the bar. We shared some excitement for the evening, but I don’t remember anything we really said to one another. Then, another evening at College Hill Tavern, I was out with my friends Brie and Zach after a graduation party and saw Micah there with some of his friends. They were dancing and jumping to the live music and Micah was happy behind his camera, documenting the night for everyone to remember. He took a picture of Brie and Zach and I that night.

I can’t remember saying anything to him, but I do know that he was having a blast and helping everyone else to share that same feeling. When “Porubsky’s – Transcendent Deli,” a documentary I co-created with GIZMO Pictures, premiered at Hollywood 14 Theaters, Micah somehow was the only person there with a camera and managed to document that night for me. I was running around like a crazy person, but through Micah’s pictures, I was later able to enjoy the night in a way I never could have if he hadn’t been thoughtful enough to bring his camera.

Hours before Micah slipped into a diabetic coma, he attended a contributors meeting for seveneightfive. I wasn’t there, but my wife Leah told me later that evening how well the meeting had gone and, strangely enough, how excited Micah was about his next assignment, a photo essay of the renovations of the Capitol Building. I really didn’t know him, but I was glad the meeting went well. I think it was the next afternoon that Leah called me and told me what had happened to Micah. Just about everyone I knew either worked with him or rode in Critical Mass with him or went to Universalist Unitarian Fellowship with him or were friends with him. They were all in a kind of slow moving shock, like a cloud of breath on a cold, cold night. I can’t imagine how his family felt. I didn’t know him, though. Those next few days were full of changing information and fluxing emotion and everything was up in the air. My next real memory of Micah was the celebration of his life a few days after he passed away. It was during that mosaic of Micah’s life and accomplishments that I first learned about his love of kites.

When I heard that ReThink Topeka’s next event was to be Micah’s Kite Flight I wasn’t surprised. The artists of ReThink Topeka and the riders of Critical Mass, along with many others, painted and shared a last image of art on the coffin Micah’s body was laid to rest in. His impact on their lives cannot be written and, again, I really didn’t know him, so I can’t share those kinds of feelings. Something happened for me at the kite flight, though.

ReThink Topeka events always have a light and carefree mood, so it is completely natural to enjoy yourself and just go with it. I think at one point I was trying to fly two kites and take a picture at the same time.

It was liberating to let my kids run through the fields around the Governor’s Mansion and exhilarating to get kites in the air and watch them swerve, bend and climb higher and higher. With the heat of the day, I was completely opposed to a hike through the woods, but when my daughter wanted to join in on a hike and I let myself lighten up, we went ahead and headed into the flora. The short hike, though, the short one.

We were led through a winding trail and saw beaver-gnawed tree stubs, blue and black dragonflies and knee high Queen Anne’s Lace, stretching high and fanning out, like the kites flying in the distance.

When we got back to the kite flying site, I started to help my son fly his kite, which happened to be sporting a fantastic design of Brobee, from Yo Gabba Gabba, wearing a pair of huge headphones. He was a natural with the kite. He would tug and pull and tease the kite in the wind, letting it move freely. His smile was breathtaking. He was doing it and he knew it: that’s why it was so breathtaking. While I was watching, I noticed that Micah’s mother, LaVetta, was there and was watching him fly his kite. I introduced myself, mentioned that I knew of Micah and was glad to finally meet her. She didn’t bother with small talk and shared her excitement for the event and told me that a couple of Micah’s kites were being flown, not as well as he could have done, but they were being flown. I thought about asking her how she felt about an event like this named for her son, but it didn’t seem right. She started to comment on my son’s kite flying ability as Brobee nose-dived into the grass. She was quick the grab the kite to help him get it back in the air. She had seen his explosive enjoyment and was ready and willing to help him get to that moment again. I thought of Micah and that night when he was taking pictures at the College Hill bar of all his friends.

Watching LaVetta helping my son fly a kite, I think I finally got to know Micah, in a way. I will never know him in the way his family did and does. I will never know him in the way that his friends in ReThink know and still do, along with those in Critical Mass Topeka and seveneightfive. But what I did see was his mother sharing a moment with my son. I did see the happiness in the faces of everyone there at the Governor’s Mansion as they tricked kites into the air to fly in circles and sways. I did enjoy every minute that I was able to take photos of my children and friends to save that exact moment and the emotions contained within. I finally knew Micah Rolfs in a way: the idea of appreciating a moment, preserving it and enjoying it for all it was worth.

Matt Porubsky is not a licensed therapist, statistician, historian or medical professional. But he is the 2009 Distinguished Kansan of the Year in arts and entertainment. Take that! Most of the time he just makes stuff up. But all of these stories are based on actual events.

[June 2010 | Matt Porubsky | photos by Matt Porubsky + Micah Rolfs]