There are times like these in our lives, where change, change takes us down that uncomfortable path, removes the familiar and and gives us uncertainty. We came to know 7th edition, it was our friend, our cousin, our loved one, 7th meant a lot of things to us. We escaped into her bosom when the dishes need be washed, a presentation in school had us stressed out, our partner wanted to talk to us about why you watch gory moves. 7th was our mistress, and at other times everything else became the mistress as 7th took first string. In those nights, when 7th had your full attention, and you made notes to yourself, when you had that aha moment seeing that by putting a techmarine on bike in your devastator squad and it conferred relentless to the rest of the lads, or when you realized that if the Iron Hands Librarian took Gorgon’s Chains, rolled endurance on their psychic power and pulled an extra plus one on their warlord trait you could effectively have a one plus feel no pain. Moments like that made you feel special, as though you looked into the heart of the universe and found that little secret, that leg up that nobody else knew about it made you feel like a king for a night. Or, maybe it was that day when you discovered that a bubble affect went off inside your rhino happy to think that you gave your transport a five up invulnerable save, your opponent disagreed, the two of you couldn’t find the specific rule so you rolled off on it and won. A week later you saw in a forum that the model is considered to be “removed form the table when embarked in the transport” and could not cast their bubble unless otherwise stated and you were crushed. We look at these things, a series of push and pull and we think “that is a bunch of crap! How dare GW ruin my army, I am never playing again” and the following week we are back down at our friend’s house with another list trying to avoid admitting that we were wrong all the while enjoying the game. These events, the push and pull that remind us of our love. The clerk at the fast food drive through doesn’t give us that push pull, they do not cause us to pause and think, they operate, we exchange, we eat we poop and we move on unfazed. But it is these rules, these models that cause us to debate whether or not Centurians are fluffy or a cheap shot at more money, months later as we try to figure out how we could magnetize their weapons and what they would look like as Obliterators. The love made 7th edition matter, and even though 7th edition passes today she will always matter.

Remember, this is not about death, but a life well lived.