Lee Has Left the Building
My original plan for Wednesday was to post my most recent article for my parallel writing endeavour. However, as I write this, I've just learned of the untimely death of Lee, the founder of Right Thinking from the Left Coast, Moorewatch, and Lee in China. According to Harley and Manda, both of whom used to post comments on this blog (and both of whom I met through Right Thinking), Lee didn't show up for work on Monday, and his remains were later found in his apartment. Lee was working in China, where he had been for the better part of the last year. Manda says that Lee's brother is on his way to China to identify the remains. The linked post has a few more pieces of information, though information is spotty and second- and third-hand at this point.
I have to be up front and honest and say that although I initially liked Lee due to what were then our similarities on political and philosophical issues, I eventually grew to strongly dislike him. Preceding and directly following the 2004 election, I was tuned into Lee's blog on a daily basis, and spent hours upon hours posting comments and participating in discussions there. Eventually, though, Lee sort of snapped and seemed to take on a much different persona. He seemed to grow to loathe President Bush, he went on a wild big "L" Libertarian crusade, and became exceptionally hostile to the very idea of religious faith. Many speculated that this was emotional backlash caused by the death of Lee's father, but Lee claimed that the shift had more to do with outrage over what he saw as a brainless religious/superstitious miscarriage of justice during the Terri Schiavo incident. Whatever the cause, I felt that Lee and his closest allies had turned into a bunch of bigoted snobs, and I no longer saw Right Thinking as a venue for enlightened and cordial discussion of substantive issues. As I remember, I either sent Lee an E-mail or posted a comment in either 2005 or 2006 saying that I was leaving and wouldn't be back, and he insisted that I would be back, and that even if I didn't come back, his traffic was increasing on a regular basis, so I wouldn't be missed.
Full disclosure having been accomplished, I have to admit that if it weren't for Lee, I probably wouldn't have gotten into blogging myself. I was always opposed to blogs of all shapes and sizes until I started reading Lee's blog, not realizing what it was. Having used early bulletin board systems during their last days before they were swept away by the rise of the Internet, and having eventually found Internet forums, Right Thinking represented a logical progression for me. At a time when I was still working to finalize a sort of Grand Unified Fly Philosophy, I learned a great deal from Lee and the other folks who commented on his posts. I initially patterned my own posts and blogging style after him, before I began to develop my own style. It was this entire experience that turned me into the news junkie that I am today, and given how big a part that plays both my life and my plans for the future, that's a contribution that I take very seriously.
What would my life have been like during the last four and a half years without this blog? I might have kept one or more gilfriends for much longer than I did. I certainly wouldn't have gotten the parallel writing gig that I have now, which will likely pay big dividends in the long run. I wouldn't have met my adopted big sister, or gotten to know folks like Manda, Harley, or Sneaky Pete as well as I have. Right Thinking was a huge part of my life for several years, and Thus Saith the Fly has been an even bigger part of my life since my first post in December of 2004. As much as I'd grown to dislike him for various reasons, and despite the fact that I probably only looked at his blog once or twice a year over the last three years or so, Lee was the catalyst for a lot of good in my life.
As I finish writing this on Tuesday night for posting Wednesday morning, I'm drinking a bottle of Samuel Adams Cherry Wheat. This one's for you, Lee. Thanks for the memories, and even though you were a bit of a bastard, I appreciate the snowball effect that you started in my life.
I have to be up front and honest and say that although I initially liked Lee due to what were then our similarities on political and philosophical issues, I eventually grew to strongly dislike him. Preceding and directly following the 2004 election, I was tuned into Lee's blog on a daily basis, and spent hours upon hours posting comments and participating in discussions there. Eventually, though, Lee sort of snapped and seemed to take on a much different persona. He seemed to grow to loathe President Bush, he went on a wild big "L" Libertarian crusade, and became exceptionally hostile to the very idea of religious faith. Many speculated that this was emotional backlash caused by the death of Lee's father, but Lee claimed that the shift had more to do with outrage over what he saw as a brainless religious/superstitious miscarriage of justice during the Terri Schiavo incident. Whatever the cause, I felt that Lee and his closest allies had turned into a bunch of bigoted snobs, and I no longer saw Right Thinking as a venue for enlightened and cordial discussion of substantive issues. As I remember, I either sent Lee an E-mail or posted a comment in either 2005 or 2006 saying that I was leaving and wouldn't be back, and he insisted that I would be back, and that even if I didn't come back, his traffic was increasing on a regular basis, so I wouldn't be missed.
Full disclosure having been accomplished, I have to admit that if it weren't for Lee, I probably wouldn't have gotten into blogging myself. I was always opposed to blogs of all shapes and sizes until I started reading Lee's blog, not realizing what it was. Having used early bulletin board systems during their last days before they were swept away by the rise of the Internet, and having eventually found Internet forums, Right Thinking represented a logical progression for me. At a time when I was still working to finalize a sort of Grand Unified Fly Philosophy, I learned a great deal from Lee and the other folks who commented on his posts. I initially patterned my own posts and blogging style after him, before I began to develop my own style. It was this entire experience that turned me into the news junkie that I am today, and given how big a part that plays both my life and my plans for the future, that's a contribution that I take very seriously.
What would my life have been like during the last four and a half years without this blog? I might have kept one or more gilfriends for much longer than I did. I certainly wouldn't have gotten the parallel writing gig that I have now, which will likely pay big dividends in the long run. I wouldn't have met my adopted big sister, or gotten to know folks like Manda, Harley, or Sneaky Pete as well as I have. Right Thinking was a huge part of my life for several years, and Thus Saith the Fly has been an even bigger part of my life since my first post in December of 2004. As much as I'd grown to dislike him for various reasons, and despite the fact that I probably only looked at his blog once or twice a year over the last three years or so, Lee was the catalyst for a lot of good in my life.
As I finish writing this on Tuesday night for posting Wednesday morning, I'm drinking a bottle of Samuel Adams Cherry Wheat. This one's for you, Lee. Thanks for the memories, and even though you were a bit of a bastard, I appreciate the snowball effect that you started in my life.
1 Comments:
Well said. Love him or hate him, no one can deny that Lee was the kind of person who had an effect on everyone he met.
Post a Comment
<< Home