I want to say something important. I have spent the last 24 hours
watching so many of my dear friends shatter and fall to pieces in the wake of
this loss and I need, so desperately, to reiterate to you the value of your
life. The impact of this loss is so severe, and has reached so far. It is
staggering, unimaginable, paralyzing. You cannot possibly overstate your own
value. The very act of living, of being, of filling a space, of sharing the
experiences, tragedies, hilarities, sights, sounds, smells and tastes of the
world connects you to the rest of us in ways that you cannot imagine. And when
you go, when you tear out those roots and disappear, you cannot conceive of the
damage you do, the destruction you wreak, the hideous vacuum that you create.
You cannot possibly know the countless hours that the people you leave behind
will spend staring into the abyss you left us, the confusion, rage, grief and
guilt that will rush in to fill this space you once inhabited. And you cannot,
you must not, know that everyone that you have touched, or met, or changed, or known,
or caused to smile, will spend one of the most ghastly and desperate moments of
their life when they recognize that empty space, when they stare into that place
that you will never be again, when they realize that you were real, and you
were alive, and we shared this earth, and that you are never, ever coming back.
You will leave so many of us to face those minutes of loss and fear, and they
will add up. You will inspire countless moments of terror, and of pain, and
they will be crippling. You will leave a legacy of hurt and destruction that
you cannot even imagine; you will create a loss so intense that it will
overwhelm us all. You are necessary. You are loved, and needed. Even if you
think you are not. Even if you think you have no worth. Even if I am mad at
you, or if we haven't spoken in years, believe me, you are so important. You
are a light on the earth, a miracle, a keystone. You are an inspiration, and a
co-conspirator, and a friend. You are so, so important. And you cannot possibly know, you could not
have known, because had you had the remotest conception of your worth and your
value you could never, never have done this. And so I needed to tell you, all
of you, those of you I haven’t seen in decades, and those of you I may have
just met, those of you I never will meet. You are precious, you are adored. You
have a place, and a role, and there is a need for you as a human on this earth.
We are all in this together, and your loss will stab the brutal fingers of
anguish into remote places you could never have foreseen. Please, please know
that you are valued. Depression lies. It perverts reality and it mutilates
truth. The truth is that you are special, remarkable, invaluable, irreplaceable. The truth is that you are you, and that there
is nothing more devastating that you could take from us. You are precious, and
you are not alone.
