Friday, January 01, 2010

Lost Boy, R.I.P.



There are souls who just never seem to fit into this world. Sometimes they can find a peace and sometimes you smash into them and wonder what happened. A free spirit tied down passed away yesterday. We met when I co-owned and ran a vegetarian restaurant a long time ago. In those days not many people were vegetarians and in Calgary our restaurant served freaks, n'erdo-wells, sot-pots, punks, hippies, and every vegetarian Alan-Watts-Bhagavad-Gita-reading and ufo-seeker within 2000 miles. Up from Montana and down from Alaska. Lost boy headed west to look for work and mountains. He was an incredibly gifted athlete who loved skiing and had shaggy hair and loved the Rolling Stones, Grateful Dead, The Band, Jimi Hendrix, Elvis Costello and in fact, I seem to recall when we first met he had a ginormous poster of Keith Richards in his room. He lived with a bunch of crazy Hindu/Buddhist studying mad cap roommates. He and his friends dragged me out on the highway to visit gurus and musicians and swim on Miami Beach when it was a falling down dead resort town. He played guitar his whole life. He was one of the first people to use rollerblades like a poet. Did I say he was a brilliant skier? He was one of the first people to practice ski ballet and free-style skiing. For much of his life he fought emotional burdens and moved around North America often estranged from his family and the many friends he had made throughout his life. He was a well-recognized resident of Banff for years. I once found him by tracking him down at a pizza parlour and asking total strangers if they knew him. They almost always did. Almost everyone who met him knew him to be a funny storyteller who was the life of a party. He loved to talk! I can't write much more than this today. He was someone who massively influenced my life, in ways too difficult to articulate today. I know he wouldn't approve of me writing much about him...probably not anything...but I think he would approve these two songs as profoundly apt. Safe passage to a sensitive warrior. I hope you find home.

I watched you suffer a dull, aching pain
Now you decided to show me the same
No sweeping exits or offstage lines,
Can make me feel bitter or treat you unkind

Wild Horses,
Couldn't drag me away,Wild, wild horses,
Couldn't drag me away...

I know I dreamed you a sin and a lie,
I have my freedom but I don't have much time
Faith has been broken tears must be cried,
Let's do some living after we die

Wild Horses,
Couldn't drag me away,
Wild, wild horses,
We'll ride them someday


I was unconscious, half asleep
The water is warm 'til you discover how deep
I wasn't jumping, for me it was a fall
It's a long way down to nothing at all

You've got to get yourself together
You've got stuck in a moment
And you can't get out of it
Don't say that later will be better
Now you're stuck in a moment
And you can't get out of it

And if the night runs over
And if the day won't last
And if your way should falter
Along this stony pass

It's just a moment
This time will pass

12 comments:

S.M. Elliott said...

Sounds like a wonderful character. I'm so sorry you've lost him.

Gardenia said...

I would have adored this guy - another "wandering soul" on this earth though he's wandered on. I love wild horses - it pulls our wild hearts. What a treasure remaining in your heart -

Doc said...

Sorry to hear that you lost someone special to you...

Candy Minx said...

You know...the thing about a lost boy is you usually lose them while they are still with us. I posted this small eulogy with trepidation. I am sure he would be pissed at me even writing about him...my "easy out card" is that I know he would love these songs as relevant. I have had a sense of him being at peace...it's an illogical sensation, I know...but it is an overwhelming feeling I have had since he passed away. If there are other dimensions, I am sure he is somewhere jammin' away right now. I've also had the happy thought that maybe he's now heard Brian Jones side of the story!

Greg S. said...

Sorry for your loss, Candy. It's interesting how we often associate certain close friends with particular songs. A good way to keep them in our thoughts and memories.

Underground Baker said...

A post filled with grace.

Only now have I cried for him.


xox,
kiki

Anonymous said...

Your Lost Boy is found. He lives in my heart forever.
Perhaps we can talk, in fact, I know we will.
G

Candy Minx said...

Dear G,

Please e-mail anytime. I would love to talk to you. When you're ready.

thehealingroom said...

wonderful Candy. thank you for sharing your tender sincere insights. Like Underground Baker, I have let the tears fall while reading this.
Thank you for that.
I didn't know him as well as you, but my sense of him is that he is thrilled that "You saw him" (nods to Avatar) though perhaps secretly. I see him blush and his half crooked smile.
lots of love

Anonymous said...

Thank you dearest one. We all shared some memorable moments together. And he had a lot of love by his side when he passed. A tribute to all lost souls that they can profoundly touch our lives.
SW

Janet said...

I'm sorry about your friend...he was right, Keith is the most amazing Stone :-)

Stephen said...

Mike was my cousin. Our families hung out together when we were kids. Although I had'nt seen Mike in years, when I heard he was down I was there with him till the end. He had some great support with him all the time. I will truly miss him. Gone but never forgotten.
Bye for now Mike...
Stephen

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