A former classmate of mine who I’ve not seen for at least 11 or 12 years at this point has kicked it. The only information I have is that he died a week ago last Saturday.

I never really cared much for the kid… to tell the truth, he was a colossal asshole. I don’t have any feelings either way that he’s gone since it’s been years upon years since I last saw him.

It’s kind of funny, actually… earlier today or the day before, I was musing about death in general. It wasn’t morbid or anything, it was just a sense that the time we have on earth is both long and short. Even if it were a million years in duration, if my existence has an end, it is precious to me.

I have to admit that it was very surprising to read the comments on the obit for this guy. Now, this is a Christian community, so I don’t know if that has anything to do with anything. But I have to wonder… the comments that these people are leaving… they’re essentially without substance. They’re practically content-free (“I’ll always remember his smile.” Liar.). At first, I was thinking, “gee, did this guy change or something since I knew him last?” Upon reflection, my guess is that he probably didn’t, but there’s some sort of twisted death-worship that’s going on in which one is not supposed to speak ill of the dead.

Here’s the way I see it: the guy had absolutely no respect for me when we were in middle school and high school together. I am absolutely pleased to reciprocate insofar as he doesn’t deserve any of my respect, either. Furthermore, I’m not sure that I need to be guarding my words for the sake of those that might be grieving (not that any of those people will end up reading this). The reason for this is that this guy came out of a specific environment, one in which his acting out against me would have likely been infused in his personality from his parents and older siblings (if he had any). Am I supposed to have “respect” for the feelings of those people who turned out an individual so twisted that he predated on his peers? I tend to doubt that they’ll have any respect for my feelings regarding how he treated me.