Wednesday, February 20, 2019

A Memoriam

Recently, two people I cared about deeply have died. One is an old lover. The other is a fellow blogger. I'll write soon about the old lover, and today the blogger.

Back around 2006, I started this blog. Over the next year, a little blogging family started. It was remarkably diverse. Over time, as social media became a thing, there was less blogging and more Facebooking. One guy who never stopped blogging was Erik Donald France, who continued his wonderful blog Erik's Choice.

A few weeks ago, I noticed that both his Facebook posts and blog had stopped being updated. With a little fear, I ran a search, and my fears were confirmed: Eric had died of cancer in December, 2018.

He was a fascinating guy. I had always assumed that when I was done with having kids in college, and was more free to travel and spend money, that I would meet him in real life. We had emailed back and forth a few times over the years. He was a college professor, and had a seemingly limitless capacity to be interested in things-- literature, history, art, cinema, the military, geography, science. There seemed to be nothing he did not find interesting. He could be writing about the American Civil War and he would tie it to something unlikely. He was as fascinated by 19th century events as he was French New Wave cinema. He wrote about events that had nothing to do with him, and he wrote about events that touched him personally, like the murder of a Chapel Hill bookstore owner, Bob Sheldon, in 1991. His last blog posts and social media posts were just a couple of weeks before his death.

I feel a deep sense of loss and sadness. The world was a more interesting and beautiful place with Eric Donald France in it. He shall be missed. 

2 comments:

Otak kiri said...

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I think stereotype sometimes help a lot in encouraging racism.  For example, blonde usually is stereotyped as bad in mesothelioma vs lung cancer mathematics while Asians are usually very good in calculus and science. It is not always true for everyone, but it usually does. I have a friend who asked me, "Why are you so good in math? Is it because you are Asian?" I am sure he was just kidding, but he made me think. I have a part-time job as a tutor in a residential house and every night three to five students come in for help. Sometimes, they do need a lot of help in math, but sometimes their math isn't that bad. Some of them, as a matter of fact, do a wonderful job in other subjects but math. I was amazed by how good they are doing in biology, or graphic designs, or whatever they like. It made me realize that there are always good and bad in every person.

It took me some time to get used to people around me. In my sophomore year, I joined an International menghilangkan jerawat dan bekasnya Organization named Students for Global Connection. It is a group of International students (including Americans) that provides a place for International students to make friends and organize events together. I met wonderful students from different countries across the world and we had stories to tell. Yes, we have many differences and we always work on them. However, isn't it nice to taste a piece of other countries in the world from people who actually from that country? Last semester we had an event called the Worldwide Showcase. It is a cultural show performed by different groups of students from different countries. We provided a place for International Students to show their cultures and for American public to see other cultures. It was a pretty successful show, and we were proud of ourselves. Finally, I understood that the differences are to be respected Jasa SEO Judi

Grimo said...

I was just looking for him. I miss him too.

Thank you for your post, sad news though it is.

All the best.