OT: Why I shall be silent for a while

[Aberforth's Goat / Mike Gray]

Richard wrote,

> I've just had the wind completely blown out of my sails.
> 
> What are the chances? I've just discovered from browsing a couple 
of news 
> sites that I used to know one of the confirmed victims of the 
London 
> bombing. VERY well, over a period of about 10 years. I can't say we 
were 
> friends (at various points, quite the opposite), but Giles Hart was 
a great 
> bloke.
> 
> One of the ironies ("tragedies" would be a better word) is that one 
of the 
> contexts in we knew each other was activism against the Soviet 
occupation 
> of Afghanistan...
> 
> There's no way on earth I could possibly consider thinking about 
fictional 
> battles between good and evil for the foreseeable future.

Go in peace, Richard. 

Just one thought: reading about the kind of man he was and the kind 
of things he lived for; and comparing that with the kind of death he 
died - it all reminded me of a book I just read. In fact, it makes me 
think hard about the kind of lives and deaths *it* narrates, and 
about related things like politics and war and hatred and violence 
and love and forgiveness. And, somehow, I think if there were more 
people who would read books like that thoughtfully, there might be 
more lives, and fewer deaths, like his.

The Prophet Isaiah once said something I would like to wish to that 
kind of book: "So shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it 
shall not return to me empty."

Sincerely,

Mike