Family-related issue took my time away so there was no disrespect intended!
I read
every response and I am extremely thankful
! What I gained from the compliments (some overwhelming and touching in their own right) was an assurance that I made the right choice to focus on capping and leave the contentiousness I was part of here. That has changed me for the better.
I don't want to clog up the thread with 100 handshakes and beer-clinking icons, even though I usually love to respond to everyone personally. So I'll leave it here and simply say this: Even though this was an impromptu internet eulogy, we all shared in it and all recognized that a member of this community, a community we spend way to much time in
, lived a life that mattered and experienced a death that should now be recognized.
Your participation here, your additional words, and your own thoughts about the loved ones who have passed in your life, almost certainly through a very similar experience like Apache and his son, were vital to respectfully recognizing someone who has passed and hopefully, will help us engage more meaningfully with those who we are currently blessed to have.
We need to stop worrying too much about who offends us, as I once did on this site (imagine how much I got offended beyond the PC screen!) We should give a simple hug or kind word to our loved ones on a daily basis. Among friends, and even enemies, we can be more civil. You will be amazed at how even the most brutish of men or the most distasteful family members starts to show you a side that is akin to that of a gentle child because of it.
Why? We thrive off such relations. We cannot live without them.
Prisoners who are jailed in maximum-security prisons, jailed with the absolute worst that humanity has to offer, have taken part in lawsuits and, even hunger strikes, to attempt to strike down solitary confinement practices.
Imagine this! These hardened criminals do not do anything and everything to develop a case to get them freed from prison, but rather take part in an unified effort to allow them to be among other prisoners, prisoners who could easily kill them, more.
Murderers, rapists, ruthless gang and mafia members who will kill with zero remorse? Yes, they will fight, even to the steps of the Supreme Court, to gain the company of those people. Could they be killed by them? Yes. Could they be violated by them? Yes. Could they be habitually harassed by them? Yes. And the probability of this is exponentially greater among the prison population, most with nothing to lose. But prisoners still want out of solitary and to be among them.
Why? They will go insane if they can only face the four walls of chipped paint and scrawled lines to represent the days passed, a mattress, a sink, and a food tray pushed to their feet. Essentially they will be a walking dead if confined long enough and they want to prevent that death sentence of insanity by being among others, no matter how dangerous to their well-being.
The company of others is so important, if we do not get it, we will create it. In the movie Castaway, Tom Hanks creates what is essentially a loved one, from a bloodstain on a volleyball. He actually mourns the 'life' of a ball when Wilson is swept out to sea. Is this just Hollywood? No. While most movies are ridiculous outrageous fiction, this scene was quite true to life. If you were shipwrecked alone on an island with no human companionship, even a shrew would become a brother. Yes, even a bloodstain which represents a face.
How much more do the simple interactions in your life matter to those who you love and spend your time amongst? Infinitely more.
So I will respectfully deflect the accolades shown here back to Apache, and from us all to his family, hope that even a simple thread in a gambling forum has done his life a bit a justice and shown it some necessary recognition.
......the only way to communicate with such types is to stoop to their level,if only for a moment.
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