It was recently that the point of my visit all those years ago was brought back to me when I learned of the death of this remarkable man from a friend of a friend. It struck me rather harder than it might, renewing in me the message he had given me. And thinking of this, of how I was more affected by the news than I would have supposed, I pondered everything about that visit, and about the man himself.
I came up with two quite distinct thoughts—well, three, actually.
First, I felt a conviction that his must have been the most peaceful death imaginable. Second, I felt the profound sense of loss inside of me, as though some small but core element of my heart had been removed. And third—I realized this one only gradually—how much the visit with the old man had changed my life.
I thought ba
