ADHDean on Nostr: Weird thing: a student at one of the schools where I regularly interpret was killed ...

Weird thing: a student at one of the schools where I regularly interpret was killed in a terrible accident this past weekend, a tragedy by any measure. But here’s the thing: this kid was a PILL. Full of mischief, teller of tall, tall tales (read: a near-pathological liar), constantly inappropriate, and even had some white supremacist leanings (due to family influence, of course). Staff at the school are busy canonizing this kid, and I can’t understand it. He was a little shit. He was entertaining and endearing to be sure, and definitely funny and clever, but he was, nevertheless, a little shit.

Why can’t we embrace all facets someone when they die? Why can’t they have been lovable, but also an asshole when we eulogize them? If a beloved parent or friend was an irascible bastard, why can’t we remind the world that they were an irascible bastard while still acknowledging that they were also valued and deserving of love?

I tell the world all the time that my father was an asshole, and people flinch because, why, we “shouldn’t speak ill of the dead?” How is accurately describing someone speaking ill? I’d rather tell the truth than lie about him. To lie about his nature is to besmirch who he was. He was an asshole, and I don’t really miss him, but I loved him, so I kinda do miss him.

Let’s let people be as complicated in our memories as they were in life. We honor them better that way.