A Eulogy...or perhaps, AU-logy
Feb. 21st, 2006 09:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
vanillafluffyI received a phone call this afternoon and was informed that a long-time acquaintance passed away earlier. I hesitate to say friend because there were times--easily as often as not--when the individual in question was a card-carrying pain in the ass...showing up at the wrong time, being nosey, blunt and tactless.
Say of the dead only what is good? A tall order, in this case.
I'll never forget the evening we first met, at the house of mutual friends. The place was mobbed, and there was no one to introduce us, or to clue me in that my new acquaintance was a pathological liar. That night, I heard a tale of a career as a diamond courier. During the course of later meetings, stories of having been a journalist, a Navy SEAL and a writer for a hit TV series followed.
I caught on to the fantastical nature of these sagas...but, like everyone else orbiting Planet Bullshit, I nodded and went along with it. Anyone who has to invent that much drama to maintain their ego has issues, I figured, and it's kinder just to go along with it.
Deteriorating health over the last several years means this death doesn't come as a shock. It's tragic, certainly, because two pre-teens are now without a parent. It's sad, because the person in question was only thirty-something, and spent too many of those years as a semi-invalid.
I feel a little guilty for not having called to say hello once in a while--the trouble being, any sign of friendliness was like pouring lighter fluid on a barbeque grill. The next thing you know, your eyebrows are singed and you're wheezing for breath.
I hope that in whatever Hereafter my semi-friend is occupying, it's a peaceful one where everyone there believes all those tall, tall tales...or maybe in that AU, the tales are all true.
Say of the dead only what is good? A tall order, in this case.
I'll never forget the evening we first met, at the house of mutual friends. The place was mobbed, and there was no one to introduce us, or to clue me in that my new acquaintance was a pathological liar. That night, I heard a tale of a career as a diamond courier. During the course of later meetings, stories of having been a journalist, a Navy SEAL and a writer for a hit TV series followed.
I caught on to the fantastical nature of these sagas...but, like everyone else orbiting Planet Bullshit, I nodded and went along with it. Anyone who has to invent that much drama to maintain their ego has issues, I figured, and it's kinder just to go along with it.
Deteriorating health over the last several years means this death doesn't come as a shock. It's tragic, certainly, because two pre-teens are now without a parent. It's sad, because the person in question was only thirty-something, and spent too many of those years as a semi-invalid.
I feel a little guilty for not having called to say hello once in a while--the trouble being, any sign of friendliness was like pouring lighter fluid on a barbeque grill. The next thing you know, your eyebrows are singed and you're wheezing for breath.
I hope that in whatever Hereafter my semi-friend is occupying, it's a peaceful one where everyone there believes all those tall, tall tales...or maybe in that AU, the tales are all true.
