“I Just Wish I Knew Where He Was!”

Picuris Peak in clouds

Picuris Peak at 7:30 a.m. from the driveway (300mm telephoto, Photoshop CC 2015.5)

An old friend died three days ago back in Maryland. It wasn’t all that unexpected, but still one feels the blow. His wife wrote, “I take great comfort in knowing his spirit is free. I just wish I knew where he was!” That made me me laugh. We’re at that age, I guess. It’s like you’re driving everyone you know to the greatest party in the world—visions of old trips across the Bay to hear the Grateful Dead are relevant—and you turn around and half of them are gone!

Sign up for email delivery of JHFARR.COM posts via Substack! Same content sooner with bigger photos! ⬇︎

John Hamilton Farr lives at 7,000 feet in Ranchos de Taos, New Mexico, U.S.A. As New York Times best-selling author James C. Moore tells it, John is “a man attuned to the world who sees it differently than you and I and writes about it with a language and a vision of life that is impossible to ignore.” This JHFARR.COM site is the master writing archive. To email John, please see CONTACT INFO on About page. For a complete list of all John’s writing, photography, NFTs, and social media links, please visit JHFARR.ART  

  • Fw September 4, 2016, 12:21 PM

    Good Morning John,
    I along with you have entered that age of what will be, will be. But what always gets to me the most is how many have passed well before their time and most unexpectedly. I remember getting the news while in the military of a close friend who had just completed basic training and had been in-country [Vietnam] for less than a week and was killed at 19 years old. Those are the passing’s that really get to me.
    Hell John…have a wonderful holiday weekend with your lovely and enjoy life to the fullest..!!
    Cheers, Fred

    • JHF September 4, 2016, 3:18 PM

      I hear you loud and clear. Many thanks and onward through the fog.

  • Marti Fenton September 4, 2016, 1:58 PM

    Maybe our generation was so identified with being a new rebellious view of a flawed social structure that it is especially difficult to realize we are old now. What about the revolution? What happened to it? We aren’t ready to be old.

    • JHF September 4, 2016, 3:15 PM

      It was fabulous! We won, in fact. Who cares if hardly anyone knows and the youngs are mostly clueless? They can mine the past and dig it up again the way we did! It’ll keep them off the streets. I don’t feel old at all, unless it comes to talking history. Everything that’s known will be forgotten. Every generation has to slay the king.

  • Joe September 4, 2016, 3:57 PM

    There were 48 in my senior class, 14 have passed on. About half of those that are gone died before they were 50. We never know when we’re going to suddenly be just a memory.

    • JHF September 4, 2016, 4:01 PM

      I think I’ve learned the lesson. Let’s see what happens next!

Previous post:

Next post:

Browse ARCHIVES

Browse CATEGORIES

Latest Posts

Discover more from JHFARR.COM

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading