Loss...

Loss...

Last night while listening to NPR in the final preparation for dinner guests, I heard a rememberance for John O'Donohue. He died on January 3, at the age of 53. He was a poet, scholar and philosopher.

I first heard John a couple years ago when a friend gave me a tape of a radio interview on CBC. He talked in that interview about hunger for beauty and connection in a post-modern world. What I remember most was his voice, which was a rich baritone with a delightful Irish accent. Here was a man that you wanted to get to know, to sit down over coffee or a beer and compare notes on the human experience.

In a world that is sometimes overwhelmingly dark, he helped you believe that love and kindness are triumphant forces, and that beauty is as essential to the human experience as food, air and water.

Not that it made up for this loss, but last Wednesday I had a delightful evening with an as yet unnamed gathering of armchair philosophers. (I proposed GATAS - Guys Actually Talking About Stuff.) A friend from church convened the group and the light side of the agenda was a comparison of two chardonnays: the cheap $3 / bottle compared to the $12/bottle. Is the price difference worth it? (Since my friend bought the wine I concluded that it was.) The even more interesting agenda was an exploration of life, the universe and everything. The opening question was "How do you justify your existence on this planet?" This was a pretty heady group, including guys with PhDs in Chemistry, Physics and Computer Science. And then there was me. It was the most fun I've had in conversation since the great Pelee Island Greco/Christianity debate of Summer 2007. My friend promises this will be a monthly event.