It is vexingly rare that one encounters someone with the potent combination of compassion, open-mindedness, critical insight, raw analytical prowess, intellectual curiosity (let's be real: Bardo clearly vied for most brilliant mind here), and genuine warmth, empathy, and kindness that Bardo graced us with here...it's rather telling that even 'enemies' of his (for his disposition precluded truly making any) are here mourning his loss...the world at large is truly at a loss of his benevolently transformative perspective.
Though I am still nigh in disbelief, this demonstrates clearly that no one can 'outsmart' addiction, let alone outthink it on a routine basis....and the key importance that we creatively reconnect, especially across lines of stigmatization (and other forms of difference), in this world structured to convince us that this type of isolation and mental unease is either normal or due to personal failings; without vigilance for each other's well-being, without active, directed exercise of empathy, we all suffer in isolation, culminating in such devastating loss...this too is but one example of the humanistically reconstructive struggles that Bardo incited us to undertake (though he most often did so politically, his unique ability to illuminate warmly was beyond any narrow domain). . .
ebola
a practical note: no matter how knowledgeable one is, one cannot curtail the near weapons-grade danger posed by fentanyl analogues, particularly in combination with potent GABAnergics.... the only barrier to their lethality, absolutely rigorous, regimented precision, far too easily falters before the cognitive distortions that come with depression, anxiety, and the experience of addiction...it is only by reaching out to the distressed when it is most difficult that we can protect ourselves from tragedy like this.