A very moving tribute from Dahr Jamail to William Rivers Pitt.

[7wo7rees]

https://truthout.org/articles/the-wind-knows-your-name-dahr-jamail-on-william-rivers-pitt/



OP-ED CULTURE & MEDIA
“The Wind Knows Your Name”: Dahr Jamail on William Rivers Pitt
WIlliam Rivers Pitt
JARED RODRIGUEZ / TRUTHOUT
BY
Dahr Jamail, Truthout
PUBLISHED
September 30, 2022


William Rivers Pitt was Truthout’s lead columnist and senior editor. He died on September 26, 2022, at the age of 50. If you’re grieving for Will, as so many of us are, you can support a fund for his 9-year-old daughter Lola here.
The title of William Rivers Pitt’s unpublished book about the pandemic is: Please Take This, Because I Love You and I Might Die. A COVID Diary. He sent me the manuscript not too long ago so I could read it, and give him input on where it might make the most sense to have it published.

Snip to near end.......

Truly one of the most important public intellectuals, writers and commentators of our time, in losing Will, we’ve lost a voice that is irreplaceable, and I’ve lost one of my heroes.

Roads
Late this August, Will and I were exchanging emails about his unpublished book. I wrote him this:

I’m only part way through your book. Two months ago I lost my long-time climbing partner of 25 years in a rock fall accident…we were roped up…his body was literally hanging off me…so I’ve been in a deep grieving process this summer, otherwise I’d have already torn through your book.

Thanks for being out there carrying the torch brother.
Love,
Dahr

To which Will replied:

WHAT THE FUCK

Oh Jesus Dahr, I am so sorry.

I believe the inchoate universe puts its stamp on some people now and again, and it is woe to that person. The stamp means you are to suffer: To suffer from outside forces, and to suffer from an internal need to put that suffering into some context, to explain it, or to make some use of it if nothing else. It is a wailing of the soul, that stamp. The Buddhists call them Bodhisattvas, those who cross the precipice of enlightenment but come back for others, to guide them rather than pass over themselves. It is an altogether agonizing fate, for it brings wisdom, and wisdom is the most terrible thing of all.

Fuck my book. Stay on the mountain. The wind knows your name.

While I thought he’d gone too far with the Bodhisattva bit, I wrote him back and thanked him, from my heart, for his gracious words of comfort. These words of his, like everything he wrote, came from his heart, his soul, his own experience. Will was, by his own definition, a Bodhisattva, here to guide all of us with his wisdom, and his seeing.

“We stand today upon the fulcrum of history, a crossroads at midnight with a blood moon rising,” Will wrote in February 2019. “Down one road lies fire, flood, famine, failure and the final triumph of greed. What awaits down the other road is unknown, terra incognita, a mystery to be solved one gentle step at a time…. The road we have been on is littered with bones and sorrow. The road we must take is strange, and new, and dangerous, and difficult. There are no promises, other than it will be — by dint of our collective will — better than the way that is failing before our eyes. This crossroads is freedom distilled, and the time to choose is now.”

Will is now on the road each of us inevitably shall take. He showed us how to live a noble life. He made a living speaking truth to power. He did these things for all of us, and he did them because they were his to do. He did them because he could.

Most importantly, he did them because he knew with all his heart they were the right things to do.


Ms7wo7rees

[Hekate]

1. Honored to be the first rec

[7wo7rees]

3. I knew Dahr would write a tribute. Dahr's tribute to Will was published on September 30th.

I was stunned on Wednesday when I read the news.

So many poignant memories. I had a picture of him with Scott in the ditch at Camp Casey.

It was actually me that called him and told him he had to come. I'm responsible for not telling him to beware of fire ants and to not wear sandals.

My 65th BD was September 30th. I'm still crying.

Ms7wo7rees


Thanks Hekate.

[calimary]

2. Gotta say - he's certainly inspired a lot of eloquence.

That’s a genuinely loving and comforting “parting gift.”

[captain queeg]

4. So did he die from covid? What a bummer and only 50 yrs old?

I recently got covid, probably 5-6 weeks. I got the anti viral prescription (I’m 65) and I wasn’t sure if it made me feel
Worse or better we’ll after testing negative I ended up in the hospital for 8 days. The sickest I ever remember feeling I’d had all the shots and boosters. Most people I know shrugged off off in a week. Don’t know why it hits some people so hard.

[7wo7rees]

5. No, a heart attack while taking his daughter to school last Monday, the 26th.

Will was only 50.

Ms7wo7rees

[burrowowl]

6. Pitt will be sorely missed.

[Skittles]

7. the fundraiser for William's daughter Lola is at $57,000

I think it is great that she will know how many people cared (her grandmother is compiling memories of Will from all the tributes too).

https://www.gofundme.com/f/william-rivers-pitt-memorial-fundraiser-for-lola

[hlthe2b]

8. I really liked the graphic image they created as well

It captures a lot: thoughtfulness, curiosity, skepticism, challenge, and concern-- armed with a bit of cynical analysis. You are and will be missed, Will.