I have to admit that I found myself tearing up several times today, especially when reading through the tributes to him on various messageboards. It was hard to stay seated at my desk and continue pounding out the product I'm currently working on, knowing that the man who made this possible is no more. Tonight I took a walk as I typically do a couple times a week. I like to go through the neighborhoods where I grew up, circle around the highschool and all the sports fields surrounding it, and then go back to my house. Tonight was a clear windless night with crisp cold air and bright stars above. As I went, it occurred to me how lucky I was to be alive to savor this walk. A human life is the blink of an eye to the universe, but if you add up all of the time from all of the lives Gary Gygax positively affected, it is no mere blink of an eye, but millions of years. The length of time it took for life to crawl up out of the oceans and transform into human beings. Maybe longer....
As I saw the familiar sites of my childhood, I was reminded how large a role D&D played in my young life and how that was all possible because of this one man who contributed so much and was always there for his fans, all the way until the end. On the way back around the highschool I saw something unusual. Deer! Two of them -- one of which was not fifty feet away. That had never happened before. I returned home, sat down, neared my daily wordcount goal, read some more memorials, and quietly thanked Gary for this wonderful living he made possible. And then I reminded myself again how lucky I am to be alive and wished that this great man could be the same.
Thank you Gary, for everything. Thank you. With luck we'll meet one day, but hopefully not for many, many years to come.
As I saw the familiar sites of my childhood, I was reminded how large a role D&D played in my young life and how that was all possible because of this one man who contributed so much and was always there for his fans, all the way until the end. On the way back around the highschool I saw something unusual. Deer! Two of them -- one of which was not fifty feet away. That had never happened before. I returned home, sat down, neared my daily wordcount goal, read some more memorials, and quietly thanked Gary for this wonderful living he made possible. And then I reminded myself again how lucky I am to be alive and wished that this great man could be the same.
Thank you Gary, for everything. Thank you. With luck we'll meet one day, but hopefully not for many, many years to come.
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