Kyle K. Mann here. Still thinking about Hunter Thompson’s birthday, and the fact that he’d have been 82 today, had he not killed himself.
Thompson lived hard, played hard, and was pretty beat up at the end. Frankly, he looks scary when Johnny Depp sees him in the Fear and Loathing movie. But it’s hard for me to accept that he offed himself over his health.
I know, he was hurting. He’d had enough. And I won’t pretend to be objective about suicide. I’ve lost some dearly loved ones that way, including my mama when she was much younger than I am now. You never really get over that.
So as much as I honor the spirit of Hunter S. Thompson, for me his legend is tarnished by him shooting himself. It’s put somewhat of a bad spin on his famous ending to his seminal book Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas “…just sick enough to be totally confident.”
I bring this up to be real, and to help get closure, not to be divisive.
I say a blessing for his spirit, and a thanking, on his birthday. Today, we celebrate as we choose. Tomorrow we creators move on into a future where we create, not in slavish imitation, but with inspiration and determination, in this grotesque end time that we have no choice but to inhabit as gracefully as we can.
Kyle K. Mann
Topanga/Glendale
July 18, 2019
