My thoughts have continued to be on my friend Adam over the past few days. The grief comes and goes. I had met his sister years ago when she was visiting Adam in San Francisco, and I spoke with her over the phone on Friday. She forwarded my blog post to their uncle, who posted a comment and reached out to me over text. It meant a lot to be able to connect with them. Adam was living in Portland, but his family is from New Jersey, and I think they are planning a memorial service for him there. For my part, I’m going through my many photos of Adam over the years to share some with them. One resource that is helping me comes to terms with the loss of my friend is Viktor Frankl’s book “Man’s Search for Meaning” and his philosophy of “tragic optimism” — the search for meaning during the inevitable tragedies of human existence. In other words, it’s about how to say “yes” to life despite everything.
A heavy rain drenched Dublin on Saturday afternoon. Usually when it rains here it’s only a light mist or drizzle, but I think I even heard thunder for the first time since being in Ireland. I stayed in for most of the day, getting stuff done around the apartment. My friend CJ stopped by to help me re-orient the bed in the second bedroom, which had become much more cramped after I had set up my work-from-home desk. It makes a big difference.
The rain abated later in the evening, leaving behind puffy clouds that glowed colourfully as dusk descended. I had made plans to meet up with some new friends (a gay couple) at a French-style pizza place in Dublin 8, on the edge of the Portobello neighbourhood to the southwest of Temple Bar. The restaurant had a quaint garden seating area in the back, and my friends brought their small dog along with them. The pizza I ordered was very tasty — topped with French Bayonne ham and rocket (arugula) — and unlike many Italian-style wood fired pies that can turn out rather dry, it had more than just a brushing of tomato sauce. Only now as I’m writing about it do I realise my subconscious may have picked the pizza for a reason — my friend Adam’s hometown was Bayonne, New Jersey.
Until next time….
