It’s a beautiful Sunday afternoon. I’m wishing I had another day like this before the reality of going back to work sets in. Let me have another day with my oldest friend back home for a weekend. Another night with a pretty girl in my bed. Just one more sunny afternoon under the umbrella with condensation running down my plastic coffee cup. Let me day dream about things I want to experience again and for the first time.
Writing this makes me grateful for the life I live. I have the smallest of problems. I look back and know not too long ago I didn’t want this life. I can’t help grieve for Anthony Bourdane who took his life this week. It’s been a few days but I was so angry when I read the news. Angry because I loved the person I saw on Parts Unknown, but more upset because suicide is such a waste. I’ve been there. We are worthy of finding happiness. I’ll probably never know what was going on with him but it sure as hell wasn’t worth it. He was loved and he will be missed.
His legacy will impact his loved ones more than anyone. For me he showed me places I never thought of visiting. He inspired me to travel. I don’t care how cliché that sounds. I’ve had good fortune seeing some wonderful places early in my life but once I hit my teens those experiences stopped for a while. I didn’t have any ambition to travel. Bourdane’s show feed that dormant desire in me. It wasn’t just the food but how he romanticized the places.
There wasn’t anything phony about his admiration. His genuinism influenced me to travel on my own dime and find solace in these new places. To find the space and air to find peace within myself.
Bourdane did that for me. He was one of the few people in recent years that gave us ideas about what’s beyond just working and going home every day. That the world isn’t just bigger in size but in its meaning. Sharing a plate of rice in Thailand means more than meal. It’s asking “how are you doing?” He introduced me to people who fought a revolution so they could eat Kentucky Fried Chicken. I could go on but you should just watch for yourself at this point. Bourdane might have left us physically but for those who watched a little piece of him will always live on.
RIP Tony
Disaesthetic 