Living with Grief
Tuesday 21 August 2007
A joy of my life is taking long walks with Andrew Wimmer through Forest Park and the Central West End. I told him I should carry my tape recorder with me and capture his scintillating stream of consciousness, political commentary, theological vision, and take-no-prisoners fiestiness.
Last Thursday, the day after Dan Horkheimer’s funeral, we took an early morning walk and talked about many things. I was pleased to see some of that walk’s talk ended up in his moving piece in Counterpunch this past weekend. So many personal, communal and political themes are astutely connected in this gripping account. Here’s one passage: “Tuesday evening was Dan’s wake. My wife and I didn’t stay long, and I avoided the open casket. More grief. Many good folks. Afterward I walked over to Left Bank Books to meet Camilo MejÃa and listen to him read from his book, Road from Ar Ramadi. It was strangely soothing. He was honest, soft-spoken, direct. I had taken his book in small doses this summer. It’s written with such force and clarity that I found it impossible to digest large bites. The moment of his liberation, he said, was when he was taken into custody to begin serving his prison sentence for refusing to return to Iraq. Nothing flashy. He seemed a lot like Dan. Thursday morning I talked with him briefly at the Veterans for Peace conference. I thanked him for his voice and his courage, and I told him that his father’s music had been a constant companion and sustained me when I was in Nicaragua during the Contra war years of the mid 80s. He seemed pleased to hear it.”