[lbo-talk] John Ross, 1938-2011

[Chuck Grimes]

I think it was easier to live on the margins 30-40 years ago. Things like 
housing and health care were a lot cheaper (in relative terms). The job 
market was tighter, so you could slip in & out of employment more easily. 
But then again, the fact that I'm older now means that my standards are 
higher. I like boletus mushrooms.

Doug

-----

It wasn't that complicated. You believed in your body and its ability to 
endure. Well, I could look at my flesh and believe it would endure the 
ravages of anything---once upon a time.

I didn't give a damn for housing, health care, a future career or anything 
like those bullshit ideals. I knew they were lies almost before I understood 
anything else.

I don't know how to communicate this. I could live and that was enough... 
That was why guys like John Ross were illuminaries. What was a dead left 
eye, a battered body, a ravaged flesh, in comparison to the art and 
politic---yes a much abused term---the romantic. You lived beyond. Except of 
course for the tabacco, the drugs, the alcohol, the books, the 
converstations into the starry night... Under the volcano never looked so 
good.

CG