Soccer teams around the world remember the passing of someone associated with the sport with a minute of silence before a match. Both teams and the referees line up around the center circle and bow their heads, together with the multitude of fans who, standing up from their seats, keep a religious silence for a long and moving sixty second homage.

In Italy, this silence is broken with a long and sincere applause that lasts the whole minute. I don't know why, but I guess that we, Italians, can't keep too quite for too long and decided that a minute of silence to remember a deceased person wasn't good enough and decided to replace it with a noisy and heartfelt applause.

When I first moved to Wabash, the first person I met, walking across the Mall, was Mike Bachner.  He knew who I was but I didn't know who he was.  He called out my name, approached me with a great smile, shook my hand, introduced himself and welcomed me to Wabash.

In the months to come, I got to know Mike a little better and even though our encounters were always brief and far in between, he always shook my hand and gave me a friendly smile.

Upon my return to campus today, I found out about Mike's passing and the news saddened me quite a bit. Perhaps, it was his friendly smile, or his good nature, or perhaps it had been our casual first encounter, but today I feel that I need to remember him with a minute of silence. My head bowed, my eyes closed, and a long, endless applause inside my head.

Mike Bachner, R.I.P.