Mary,
I'm relatively new at this group, and I never had the occasion to talk with
your father. I want however say that I'm close as possible to your pain.
I've read in your words the same sadness and the same sense of impotence I
felt just one year ago.
When I lose my dad a terrible feeling of emptiness pervaded my life. It
seems impossible to find the sense of all that.
I don't know if it helps:
"... before it could be asked ``Where did he go?'' it must be asked ``What
is the `he' that is gone?'' There is an old cultural habit of thinking of
people as primarily something material, as flesh and blood. As long as this
idea held, there was no solution. The oxides of Chris's flesh and blood did,
of course, go up the stack at the crematorium. But they weren't Chris.
What had to be seen was that the Chris I missed so badly was not an object
but a pattern, and that although the pattern included the flesh and blood of
Chris, that was not all there was to it. The pattern was larger than Chris
and myself, and related us in ways that neither of us understood completely
and neither of us was in complete control of.
Now Chris's body, which was a part of that larger pattern, was gone. But the
larger pattern remained. "
These words from ZAMM's afterword helped me. My dad was a photographer. One
year ago I was furnishing my new apartment. I chose some old black-white
snapshots he took in the seventies and hanged them to the wall. There's a
man playing a bagpipe in London, a fakir with a big flame rising from his
mouth, an elderly man with his wife on the door of their home, a priest
riding a bicycle in a countryside path....
Obviously it's not enough to fill that empty, but I like to think that I've
lost the chance to talk with him, not the chance to listen to him.
Sincere condolences.
Marco.
-----Messaggio Originale-----
Da: Mary <mwittler@yahoo.com>
A: Moq_Discuss (E-mail) <moq_discuss@moq.org>
Data invio: mercoledì 12 aprile 2000 12.52
Oggetto: MD Announcement
> Hi Everyone,
> Some of you will remember me. I used to post quite a lot. I still get
all
> the mail for MD and MF, but I don't always have time to read it right
away.
> I've collected over 1000 messages since I stopped posting regularly - and
> hope to read them all someday.
>
> Most of you should already know my Father, Ken Clark. I'm sorry to have
to
> tell you that he died last Monday, April 3rd. I think he has the
> distinction of being the 1st MOQer to do so.
>
> I have a favor to ask. When Pirsig's anniversary edition of Zen came out
I
> bought a copy intending to have him autograph it for Daddy. I tried
> reaching Pirsig through his publisher with no luck. The book is still
> sitting here. I'd like to have it autographed for Daddy's grandson now.
> Does anyone know how to contact Pirsig?
>
> Wishing you happiness,
> Mary
>
>
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