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141 sats \ 2 replies \ @SimpleStacker 10 Jul \ on: My Old Friend alter_native
This is an amazing tribute and study into the life of your friend.
He sounds like someone who would've been fun to hang with, but who lived life and made decisions in a way that I just totally didn't understand. I wonder if you have any insights into what made him tick. Why didn't he ever marry that girl? Why didn't he ever go see a doctor? How come he didn't change his views when they were shown to be contradictory? I have so many questions after reading this piece, yet feel like I got to know someone quite deeply at the same time.
All good questions. Obviously I left a lot out.
Why didn't he marry the girl?
We'll, he would have if she was willing. She didn't want to settle down or marry anyone. In fact, she got married in her early 60s for the first time just weeks before his death.
I really don't think he could have shared his living space with anyone for an extended period of time. He had control issues. He was married for a short time. The fact that "she always was around" ended that quickly. He also dated some wonderful women who wanted to marry and have a family with him, but he always left when things got serious.
Why didn't he ever see a doctor?
He had no respect for western medicine, and believed that when your time came, you should go naturally. Probably just as importantly, when he was a six year old child he contracted very serious pneumonia. They weren't big on child emotional care back then. He was hospitalized in isolation for three months with very limited family visits. I just learned the details of this from his sister since his passing. I think he was terrified of doctors and hospitals.
His politics were inconsistent. He acknowledged this. He didn't feel the need to be ideologically consistent. Some of his biggest political battles were with fellow progressives.
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In any case, it was a fascinating portrait of a human being in their entirety
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