Hephaestion Remembered
As we learned earlier this week, Hephaestion has died. Many of us here do not believe in an afterlife, a place were the soul goes. But something of us does live on in others. I believe that if we took time to consider the lives of those who have left us, and chose to not just contemplate, but recognize and echo the best of that person, the world would be a better place.
And, as much as it is possible to know anyone through a message board, or through postings, making the world a better place was what made Hephaestion's heart beat.
Unionist and I conversed on this idea; he posted a very moving example of one of Heph's posts in the thread where we were notified. I would invite him to re-post it here.
Unionist also provided me with some links where you can take some time and find something of Heph that you will take into yourself, and share it here, and in a small way make the world a better place.
Here, Hephaestion comments on the selection of a new Pope. Amid the pomp and circumstance, the reality of the position could be lost, but not on Heph:
"...there is a massive organization spread across the globe that was led by this man. This man sat at the centre, like a loathesome spider in its web, scheming his malicious, hateful plans, along with his cadré of deranged lieutenants, and directing his wretched schemes against people in countries all over the planet.
The Vatican has an "observer status" seat at the UN. Karol Wojtyla had the ear of heads of state from around the world (and was not shy to use whatever influence he had, both at the UN and with the heads of state).
As far as the LGBT community goes, he was kind of like our own version of bin Laden, leading a type of al-Quaida that is even older, massively wealthier, and with a history of violence and repression that would make a fundamentalist Muslium terrorist blush.
As far as I'm concerned, he was cold (as in blooded) from the moment he became Terrorist-in-Chief to my community. Yer darned right it's "our business", faithful to the mumbo-jumbo of "the Magistrium" or not.
(And as an addendum, as far as I'm concerned, his complicity in the deaths of so many innocent people in Africa makes his actions, the church's actions, and who the church picks as his replacement a matter of concern to all caaring people everywhere.)"
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Links for Hephaestion's posts:
http://www.google.ca/#hl=en&source=hp&q=site%3Aarchive.rabble.ca%2Fbabbl...
http://enmasse.ca/forums/profile.php?mode=viewprofile&u=116
http://archive.rabble.ca/babble/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_profile&u=0000479...
If these are faulty or there's an easier way, feel free to simplify.
Repeated, as per Tommy's suggestion:
Several years ago, a babbler wrote of being depressed and wanting to "pass on life". Naturally, everyone was concerned. Here is what Heph wrote, if you want a little insight to who he was:
And we're here for you, Heph, old buddy.
All right. I hope this isn't inappropriate (as in breach of privacy), but I'm ploughing ahead anyway.
While we would snipe and snark and collude together online from time to time, I haven't PM'ed Heph since last August. Here was the very last private message he sent me - and, as always, there was a lesson in it:
I'm happy to say I was a bit wrong. Other babblers have taken up the job of opening threads there as well. And now we have Heph's memory as one more incentive, if we needed any.
Heph knew just how dangerous to our well being, individually and collectively, "religions" are. Note I say religions, and do not mean one's individual beliefs towards God and prayer.
As noted in the other thread, I would go to en masse, just to read The Rainbow Room and get snippets from his threads exposing the current travesties of the republicans and religions, and/or their representatives/leaders. They helped me often with my religious right fundamentalist relatives and friends to debunk their shit foisting.
In hindsight, realize I should have told him that I appreciated his efforts, and often utilized his work.
Then there was the time last year when I praised Heph publicly at EM - and he reciprocated privately! Had a good chuckle over that one:
Unionist inspired me to go through my private message inbox, and I was surprised to find a letter forwarded to me from Hepaestion. It was about the Kimberly Nixon case, and he informed me that he supported trans folks just like any other member in the GLBQ community. I want to say how personally thankful I feel that Heph always remembered to be inclusive in his support of everyone in the LGBT community. It made a profound difference to me that I am counted as a member of his rainbow coalition and that he seemed to remember everyone who is queer in any way. I regret very much that I did not ever email him even though he gave me an email to write to him. I don’t know anyone who cares as much about queers as Heph did. One of the sites that he wanted to tell everyone in the community back in 2007 was s called the Gay Republic Daily. It has not quite taken off. But for those who are interested, you can see it here
http://gayrepublic.org/index.php