DU was informed that JeffR passed away one year ago today [View all]
I wrote this on Facebook that dark day.
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It's funny. Due to the nature of my work - writer and editor for an online alternative newspaper since 2002 - I live online. Some of the relationships I've built are going on 20 years old, because I was in the game before the Clinton impeachment...and that can be hard, because your friends are just a screen name, and so many others will say shit to a keyboard they'd never DARE say to your face, and it can be aggravating.
...and then a guy like JeffR - who I have known and admired for years - dies out of nowhere, and I find myself with tears in my eyes for a man I never once met. I only knew him as a screen name, but the news of his loss hit me like a blow. That was the measure of the man; he made that large an impact on someone he never laid eyes on, because of the excellent force of his presence.
Technology is strange and terrible and beautiful...and I'll tell you something, and take close note: The keyboard is the content of your character in this weird space. People like JeffR are sadly rarer than hen's teeth. You know, or not. It depends on where you look, and how you act yourself. In the immortal words of Jim Morrison, "This is the strangest life I've ever known."
Fair winds and following seas, Jeff. I never met you, but by God, you will be missed.
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