Ed

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Posted by Stephen Heller on May 13, 2001 at 03:52:32 from 12.28.201.101 :

I came to begin to learn Ed in the last three months of his life. We met one night at a local restaurant that he and Karen frequented and fell into conversation, almost accidentally. We were asked over to their table, and that night began what came to be too few but very worthwhile conversations.

My first reaction when I heard Karen's message early that morning telling us that Ed had died, giving us that surprisingly stunning news, was to be intimately sorry that we would not be able to continue the conversation that we had begun… We were supposed to have more conversations.

The morning after the night that we met, I was surprised to find an e-mail from Ed; not least because we had consumed enough wine to leave me, a relatively speaking younger man, in some trouble that day. Apparently, not so Ed. If, as Blake says, "The road of excess leads to the palace of Wisdom" then we had been very wise the night before. Ed, notably able, carried his wisdom on. He wrote the following to me that morning concerning the topic of our concern the evening before, which had been very particularly,death:

"The death talk sent me this morning to George Woodcock's Anarchism for a
passage from Proudhon which has stayed with me for 40 years:

'...human life enters its fullness when it contains love, work, and
'social communion or Justice.' If these conditions are fulfilled existence
is full; it is a feast, a song of love, a perpetual enthusiasm, an endless hymn
to happiness. At whatever hour the signal may be given, man is ready; for he
is always in death, which means that he is in life and in love.' [P.29]"

It is, in large measure, the quickly indelible example of the man that makes this a quote I will not likely forget. Although I wish we had been able to go on discussing all that we had only begun to touch upon for as long as it might take--like that Hebrew notion of heaven as arguing Talmud with God for eternity,(a practice which I am coming to suspect Ed was, and perhaps is, more than capable of)--I am simply grateful that I had the chance at all, that I was lucky enough to have the time I did with this elementally kind, elegantly sincere, fine bear of a man.

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: I came to begin to learn Ed in the last three months of his life. We met one night at a local restaurant that he and Karen frequented and fell into conversation, almost accidentally. We were asked over to their table, and that night began what came to be too few but very worthwhile conversations. : My first reaction when I heard Karen's message early that morning telling us that Ed had died, giving us that surprisingly stunning news, was to be intimately sorry that we would not be able to continue the conversation that we had begun… We were supposed to have more conversations. : The morning after the night that we met, I was surprised to find an e-mail from Ed; not least because we had consumed enough wine to leave me, a relatively speaking younger man, in some trouble that day. Apparently, not so Ed. If, as Blake says, "The road of excess leads to the palace of Wisdom" then we had been very wise the night before. Ed, notably able, carried his wisdom on. He wrote the following to me that morning concerning the topic of our concern the evening before, which had been very particularly,death: : "The death talk sent me this morning to George Woodcock's Anarchism for a : passage from Proudhon which has stayed with me for 40 years: : '...human life enters its fullness when it contains love, work, and : 'social communion or Justice.' If these conditions are fulfilled existence : is full; it is a feast, a song of love, a perpetual enthusiasm, an endless hymn : to happiness. At whatever hour the signal may be given, man is ready; for he : is always in death, which means that he is in life and in love.' [P.29]" : It is, in large measure, the quickly indelible example of the man that makes this a quote I will not likely forget. Although I wish we had been able to go on discussing all that we had only begun to touch upon for as long as it might take--like that Hebrew notion of heaven as arguing Talmud with God for eternity,(a practice which I am coming to suspect Ed was, and perhaps is, more than capable of)--I am simply grateful that I had the chance at all, that I was lucky enough to have the time I did with this elementally kind, elegantly sincere, fine bear of a man.

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