I wish that his life had gone differently, but more than that that he wouldn't
have tagged along with me, following me first to alt.punk, then here. At some
points in the past, I was kind of a dominant personality in the little subculture
we existed in, and because of that, John blames me for his situation, how his
life turned out. Because of that, he engaged in a sustained attack on my
personal integrity, which I feel is irreconcilable. Folks here have fun bringing up
the fact that I was once friends with him, even suggesting that we had sexual
relations, which is factually false. This is something that I wrote as a reply to
another thread, but never posted, so it might seem a bit disjointed from this
thread, but it is as true as when I wrote it.
*********
I get annoyed with him like most here do, but there's nothing special.
I even correct anyone who writes something about him that is
factually false. I don't like it at all when he gets sentimental. What
you folks here don't get is that from the mid-1980s on, we were never
close friends. For a few years we hung out more because we were
both into kayaking. We went to a few Rock'n Roll shows over the
years because we grew up on the same music. He saw my band a
few times, but not most times we played, and those were public
shows. Since we were in our twenties, we were never more than
minor players in each other's lives, and most of our communication
has been on Usenet.
I know that's boring. Folks also trip on us having practiced a very
limited number of hours being nude in the outdoors. *Most* of my
time out in the sticks included communal nudity. It was never
sexual. The time when John and I kayaked a small creek, and
stripped to swim? If I were kayaking an area that had a swimming
hole, and the person were a complete stranger, and that person had
no objections, I'd have no issue with skinny-dipping. In my culture,
that was the norm. There were camping trips where a niece would
bring a boyfriend, or a nephew would bring a girlfriend, or a cousin
or friend would bring along a BF/GF, and we'd all be nude much of
the time, so suggesting that it was a big deal that John and I
skinny-dipped on a kayak trip is absurd.
In my subculture of family/friends, no one ever hung around together
nude at dinner parties. We're not really nudists, but in isolated places
in the great outdoors, in warm weather, with a creek and lovely forest
surrounding us, and no one to be offended, we interacted exactly the
same way as we would have if we had if we weren't nude.
I'm not suggesting that any of you should try outdoor social nudity
with anyone other than your significant other, but if it is just you and
your wife/husband, you should try being nude in nature. Even if you
don't have a significant other, and just go into the forest alone, being
nude in the outdoors is a thing in itself.
*********
>
> He is not currently functioning well enough to hold a nursing - or any - job...
>
I disagree, Greg. While I think he's questionably fit for a job in nursing,
if he swallowed his pride, he could be a productive worker in a job that didn't
involve much personal interaction.
>
> --
> Best
> Greg
--Bryan