
I just found out one of the most creative and complex people I've ever met killed himself today. I didn't know him that well I guess, even if he was the sort of guy I saw all the time out and about for years and years (we knew each other from clubs and parties and business, and he stood me up on a date once, but he was articulate and elegant and we were going to put together a society of fine diners who went out to all of the great New York restaurants in our ridiculous gothic and historical finery, but be well-behaved, fabulous tippers, the sort of people you wanted to swoop into your restaurant and delineate it as a happening and unique place) -- it's one of those things where on the one hand you lament not having known the person better and on the other I suppose you wish that there was less of a history there to mourn. Funny to think it matters, but he was the first person I ever drank absinthe with.
I don't really know what to say about it, because I'm still processing. I am also necessarily skittish about talking about the dead, just because of history and the way I've seen people be petty and strident over grief as if it were a matter of intellectual property rights.