Famous Reclusive Guy Makes Exit
Posted at 6:00 AM on January 29, 2010
by Dale Connelly
(36 Comments)
As a card-carrying member of Person's Anonymous, a fellowship organization for people who are limelight-averse, I get regular updates from the organization's online e-journal, "Incognito". I find their prickly obituaries especially enlightening. This one arrived yesterday.
In memoriam: S-, J.D.Person's Anonymous member J.D. S- expired recently of causes that will not be disclosed here. His age was none of your business. - what does age matter anyway? Do you want to know if you outlived him? Here's a hint - if you're reading this, you did. Hooray for you. Your time is coming. Don't gloat.
J.D. S- was born to parents someplace on Earth at a time previous to now. He lived the intervening years taking in air, food and water in amounts sufficient to keep him going until just a little while ago.
His work was whatever he did on a day-to-day basis. If you think you're going to understand it through some four or five word description in the middle of this sentence right here, you're hallucinating. One hundred eggheads jabbering nonstop for ten years might explain it by accident, but who knows what anybody really "does" anyway? You can spend your whole life at something and never really get it. The stuff people are paid big money for is mostly nonsense and a job is just a job after all. Anyone who can put together enough of an income to keep from freezing in a snow bank should consider himself lucky.
J.D. S- had no final words that he was willing to share outside the room in which he died and he is survived by people who would rather not have to deal with you right now, so don't waste your time with cards, flowers or pretty words.
Take a nap. You look awful.
Of course I didn't know J.D. S- nor do I know any of the other Person's Anonymous members, but I still appreciate getting word of their passing. For every famous recluse who frustrates the public by living quietly and leaving the stage without fanfare, there are a million unknown recluses who do the same without getting any notice at all. I assume that's how they hoped it would go. Here's a salute to them, though they would no doubt find it troubling.
Have you ever taken evasive action to avoid the public spotlight?
Comments (36)
Snort... I can't recall the public spotlight ever being even a little bit interested in me!
Morning Heartlanders!
great obit, Dale - very evocative. (i really don't know what that means but i've heard smart people say it, so....)
no action to avoid required - no public spotlight ever came dangerously close. not even undangerously close. anyway, my brother is the designated sibling schmoozer and would (does) handle public spotlight issues very well.
minus 12 up here - we could use a warm spotlight.
happy morning, All. i get to go to Lou's for breakfast with my cousin - everyone gets "star" attention at Lou's. but don't ask him to poach an egg for you.
Warning-the stream seems frozen again. It works for me on Windows Media...Thank goodness!
I guess it is so cold the stream is frozen to Moorhead on my Mac.
Howard Zinn, writer of A People's History of the United States, also died on January 27th of this year. His passing seems to have gotten lost in the media interest resulting from Salinger's death.
Though I'm a bit reclusive by nature, I've never had to actively hide from the limelight, since it has never come calling.
Thanks for the Peggy Lee, Dale. Maybe it will help melt everybody's frozen stream! I remember seeing a comedian quite a few years ago who did "Fever" using two alligators on sticks... you know, the kind that when you squeeze the handle, the little mouths open and shut. It was hysterical and I always think of it now.
folks with frozen streams - i use the "MP3" option and some use Windows Media player and that works. i'm streaming on MP3 on the computer right now and is working great.
out to milk
later,
yes, Barb, do be cautious at Lou's...stay out of the spotlight, indeed! Hsve you told RH's they can buy a tshirt at Lou's that says "I survived Lou at Lou's Diner"
My moments in the spotlight have not been happy ones...good to stay in the shadows, indeed.
I'm considering which bees to order for the warm weather/summer, helps hold off the cold for a moment. Who'd a' thought there were so many choices/breeds of bees?
To answer the question is to draw attention to myself, albeit a tiny virutal spotlight. I'm going to take a nap, someone told me I look awful.
Hi All,
I've a recluse myself lately, lurking more than contributing to the discussion. Life has been keeping me busier than ususal lately.
I had to throw this into the "topic of the day" discussion. My one avoidance of the public spotlight is elopement rather than the full-blown "white dress wedding".
Everyone stay warm and have a wonderful weekend.
Greetings! Very funny piece, Dale. I had forgotten about those guys ... Although I'm generally a shy person, I definitely have my outgoing moments where I can be a bit of a ham. Put a microphone in front of me and I turn into a blabbermouth! Have a great day!
leave me alone. i am dead for crying out loud. i finally get it my way witheven less effort than just saying no.
jiminy doing paper moon is heaven to me
The opening paragraph of the memorial should have included, "Hooray for you. You win."
I guess you could say that in some respects, I'd like some spotlight. In other respects, not. Either way, I usually just try to be myself.
"J.D. S- expired recently of causes that will not be disclosed here." Reminds me of my Dad, definitely a Person's Anonymous member. When Mom died last year, he refused to put an obit in the local paper in Florida because the cause of death was required for the free obit, the cause of death and the occupation were prominent...to publish without the cause of death was unreasonably expensive. He put the obit in the hometown paper in Wisconsin where people are more respectful!!
Only if there was something I wasn't supposed to doing... I am almost always looking for more attention! Yikes, what a thing to realize.
hi
that was a small greeting because I am trying not to draw attention to myself. i have always thought of my self as shy, but some say i talk too much at times. i don't like award giving and that sort of thing which draws attention to people for what they did.
once you are dead i would think it wouldn't matter what was put in your obituary and i like reading obituaries. i think person's anonynomus really shouldn't worry about what is in an obituary because at that point the person is gone, but the sample of what a person from this group would write about another member is amusing..
jd had to be amused by the mccarthy commision mentality that banned reading thoughtful material he and tropic of cancer were pretty tame by a reasonable persons standards. we have taken this option today and buried it so deeply with gobbelyd gook on cable that any child wishing to stretch their mind would have to go to a secret place just to focus on the concept of thought vs video surfing with tripe on the networks and network wannabes. i have sworn off pta meetings jd just went one step further. he successfully eliminated conversations that make you cringe from media idiots and the like. i doubt he had the blog option in his life where you can find a group you like to converse with. i mentioned the other day i checked int a blog on salon.com and it was mean ugly terrible people who you want to run away from. i checked in with a blog on startribune and there were the same mean ugly people. maybe jd just decided to go through life without having to wonder when the next pain from the woodwork would emerge. he's done now. i am glad dylan got through his recluse period to become the disc jockey extraordinaire on xm. i love his stuff. limelight is nothing us mere mortals have to deal with, thank goodness. i am not sure i could handle being concerned about going to the grocery store or dinner without being recognized and perstered.
sorry i missed yesterdays veggie discussion. anonymous in mankato.. wow. i'm printing that one for the scrapbook
When I saw the blog headline this morning, my first thought was that Jim Ed Poole had finally retired for the golf courses in warmer climes. Then I realized you were referring to JDS.
BTW, RH wasn't coming through this morning, from either the MPR site or iTunes. So I'm back to Pandora (the online music service, not the planet).
Thanks for the baking songs just as I was thinking of shaping a loaf and setting it out to rise. Singing in our tiny choir is the closest I've ever come to the spotlight. I am the lead soprano of a two person soprano section, so when I sing i know people can hear me. it took getting used to to be so exposed. Once I sang in big choirs where I couldn't hear myself.
Meal for the Asian Carp Summit?
One word: Waffles
I usually describe myself as a cloistered monk rather than a recluse. A hermit would be more accurate as I would find a monastery too much community, but a monk is a more romantic term, possibly. People really don't get any of these distinctions - they're too busy listening to their iPods or watching TV in the background: probably listening to the radio like I am now.
Your comments about other people having little if any real understanding of the work we do is so spot on. My paid work is documenting other people's world view - usually experts at something (white color types). I remain in awe as I realize how little we know about anyone. To really understanding other people, their life view, the worries that shift their reality, how they perceive and measure time, what are the "continents" on their mind map...even these basic things are so rarely perceived or appreciated by others. Often they are in plain view, just not seen as the viewer lives inside our own world, as well.
Often I find my "monasticism" more connecting than the extraverts of the world seem to be.
It's pretty sparsely populated out here, and it's easy to run into people you would rather not. I have often taken evasive action in stores when I see people who are really mad at me from my work-usually people whose children have been removed from their homes for abuse and neglect and I, as the therapist, have had to testify against them in court. I have had people yell at me in public and tell me I am out to break up the family and have no morals, etc. My husband is also a psychologist and we can never go to local drinking establishments since there are lots of people we would rather not encounter when they have been drinking.
Some very neat stuff on here today--jim and tim your usual but better. MooGooGai--nice. I hope we all survive the Lous and the idiots and the sqeezers, and haters and limiters who crush souls. I wish all were like we protray ourselves on here, the best oif ourselves, as we all know, the part thta would go in Obits if Obits were written in truth and if they mattered.
Obituary Mine
When i do come to die,
which I am sure will not happen,
but in case it does.
let my obituary be:
“He was born, he died.
in between some knew him
some are sorry they did
A few, he hopes, are better for his time.
He joined no clubs or societies
founded no foundations
walled no one in or no one out,
at least he hopes that may be.
Children he had, but let them be
whatever is best of them
without reference to him
and carry no burdens but their own.
A wife he had, better than he
who forgave sooner and laughed quicker.
together sometimes they were one
sometimes they were more than just two.”
Build me no tomb, mar no stone
just because i passed through.
my trust is not here;
But may the Lord take me in, and take in all.
May i there remember things done right:
crest of Wolf Ridge on the hiking trail
feel of her skin and cant to her eyes
two generations looking up at me.
mystery of lessons well taught
excitement of a mind alive open before me
that Faith came through her love
That i never wrote any sermon on my own
birds in branches
clouds upside down
a few certain songs
the Tragic Overture
Monet’s haystacks
“To Margaret” who was grieving
And all that was made in joy by God or human
That enriched my walk and guided me home.
I don't know that I actively avoid the spotlight, but have been pleasantly surprised when it finds me (me? really? why on earth would you want to spotlight me?). This has only happened a couple of times, and it's often smallish and short-lived. I think if I had lived a life like J.D. S- I would hide in a cabin, too. (Oops - was I supposed to know that about a Persons Anonymous member?)
That's a lovely poem, Clyde. Thanks.
You certainly make it worthwhile to follow the conversation. Hats off to all the bloggeers on this frosty day!
There might be a little connection between the theme today and Howard Zinn. Howard Zinn was know for writing a people's history. He stressed that history is not just about famous people. Zinn reminded us that the good things that some of the famous people did could not have happened without the efforts of many other unknow people who tried to do the right thing.
"History is the story famous dead white man"
Anonymous yes... but I think there's more to it.
I would think we all want it to be realized that we do 'Good Work'-- whatever that is, but don't necessarily want the limelight thrown on us SHOWING that we do 'good work'.
So when you're self employed as myself, either it takes a strong sense of personal believe or getting others to notice if our work is good or not-- and there's where it gets tricky. So any good word that I receive makes my whole day and I'll live off that as long as I can.
I work in theater-- backstage. I've been onstage but I'm better behind... I've got more control that way. And can duck out when curtain call starts...
I know there's some other theater people on here... I've got a barn... perhaps when it warms up...?
Clyde - beautifully written poem. Thanks for that on this wintery day!
Ben - I'd be happy to build sets (I'm a "behind the scenes" type, too - it's more fun back there).
We can't all be behind the scenes. Who is going to put themselves out there walk on stage?
I'll play Mickey Rooney's father.
Good weekend all.
MooGooGai - very thoughtful and eloquent writing. Most of the time we interactat surface level in our daily "face to face" lives, wearing our personas and rarely taking the time to go deeper. I think it's part of why I blog here, there is no need to stay "on" in that way, and at times we get below the surface.
I'm sorry to see that Howard Zinn is no longer with us; I had hoped to see him speak in person some time.
Off topic: We had our computer in the shop this week because of "ransomware" - what appears to be antivirus software that takes over your computer. Everyone with a computer should read this: http://redtape.msnbc.com, article titled: Give me your money, or your computer gets it.
I'm reading this at 3:30 Friday afternoon and thinking the way the conversation thread was going, I'm surprised no one picked up on writing our own obits...another blog day, perhaps?
cynthia--i wrote mine above.
Clyde - I positively love yours. Will you write mine too?
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