Grief

My friend Sam just died, a few days ago, of causes unknown to me. He was in his twenties.

I think I'm still in shock, because I keep forgetting this has happened.

Sam was my tent mate and room mate on my pilgrimage to Mount Kailash. He wasn't a Buddhist, but he went anyway. He was very athletic, unlike myself. My contribution was to tell him what I knew about minds.

I learnt a lot from him. It's hard to put it into words but his way of being is in me, somehow. He had a superbly straightforward and upright nature. It wasn't just the group of Buddhists who influenced me on that incredibly helpful trip. It was Sam. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have made it around the mountain without his persistent encouragement.

Some people have been pretty beastly to me this week, and it reminds me of the last time a close person died, and I was called a "moron" out of the blue in some online forum. For no particular reason, other than the fact that I was stating a disagreement.

But I'm feeling pretty cranky right now. Please try to be somewhat boundaried with me.

Oh, I guess I finished the final draft of Hyperobjects and sent it in.