10 Years Ago, On A Cold Dark Night..........

Football season came to an end for Hunter.  He'd had enough.  As I sit here, I can scarcely believe 10 yrs. have gone by, it just doesn't seem possible for our Great Gonzo Leader to have been gone that long.  Yet, there's also the fact that time doesn't exist in the 1st place, so it is irrelevant how "long" ago our Hunter left us.  The fact is, he has exited this realm.  Never more to roam here in our lifetime, except in Great Spirit, which abounds all around us.  He has become a part of the ether he so loved to snort, so to speak.......

I moved to Colorado on December 31, 1990.  My biggest regret in life will always be that in all the years I lived here, I never once made the 3 1/2 hr. drive up to Woody Creek to meet the great mentor and love of my life.  To have sat with him, shared a Chivas or two, gleaned some wisdom and laughter from that mad, insane, wonderful, gold-hearted Southern gentleman would have been the thrill of a lifetime.  I guess I was afraid of rejection, like we all are, but now I know he & I would have got on as thick as thieves.  Maybe that was another thing I was afraid of??  I'm sure.  There were never many who could buy the ticket and take the ride with Hunter.  So yes, I was afraid of dying so young too!

Always wanting to entertain and make us happy with him, to approve, to like and love him.......what was he fucking kidding us???  There was not a thing in the end I would have ever changed about that man.  He was a mixture of everything I believe a lot of us are but the difference between us and Hunter was that he was never afraid to show it, to let it out.

We live our lives in fear and why?  That's the question I think Hunter always dared to ask - "Why is this thing over here so corrupt and unjust that it has been allowed to exist this long?"  He pointed his finger and shined the light.  It wasn't going to go unnoticed (or unwritten about) on his watch.  So yes, so what that he was a crazy, ether-sniffing, psychedelic taking, insane Gonzo hunting journalist? He got the job done in a spectacular fashion and like someone once told me, "Be good or be good at it".  Hunter was the best.

The world will always need more HST's in the world, this is to be sure.  Not a day goes by that I don't think of him and wonder what Hell his soul resides in of his own making.  I'm sorry if that offends some, I don't mean that Hunter was evil or "deserved" hell in any way.  I just know that Heaven would have bored him to tears.  Wherever you are Hunter, have one on us poor souls still stuck here in this realm of "reality".

We all have this inherent need I believe to carry a torch, have a cause we believe in, try to change our own little corner of the world.  My torch will always be Hunter S. Thompson and I will do my best to live my life in honor of him and the issues and causes he believed in and carry on in his name.  He was a great American writer, idealist, rebel, hellion, spokesperson for the masses, and someone I loved very deeply.  What he passed on to me and so many others is a gift beyond measure.

So if you can live your life even just a little more Gonzo this year, please do it.  Follow your bliss, do what you love, life is short buy the shoes, eat the cake, sleep on the sheets, burn the candles, wear the lingerie, take that vacation, quit your soulless job, have that transgender surgery......do it.  NOW, today.

Thank you Hunter.  Those words don't even begin to touch what you did for the world, but they will have to do.  I miss you like crazy you old coot......