"Happiness is the only good.
The place to be happy is here.
The time to be happy is now.
The way to be happy is to make others so."
- Robert Ingersoll
Thank you so much, Alan.
For your kind words.
For being one of the people I have always looked up to as someone who had the balls to do what he loved most for a living WITH CONFIDENCE, no matter how long the odds on the tote board displayed.
You were one of only a handful of people I have ever encountered who taught me WITH YOUR ACTIONS that all-important lesson.
It is the most important lesson I have ever learned in my life.
Thank you, Alan, for all of the countless memories and for all of the other-worldly experiences I would never have had with so many amazing people I would never have met but for your monumental generosity.
Thank you for this incredible community.
But more than anything, Alan, thank you, . . .
. . . for getting it.
"The purpose of life is a life of purpose."
- Robert Byrne
I didn't know Alan particularly well, but to the limited extent that I did, I can say with a reasonable degree of certainty that in lieu of flowers, all he would want or expect any of us to do is simply this:
For each of us to be inspired by his passion, by his love of life, and by his generosity, and that each of us simply do our respective personal best to pay it forward.
Congratulations, Alan, upon achieving immortality.
You don't achieve immortality, as Woody Allen joked, by not dying.
Rather, you, Alan, have achieved immortality through your works and through the positive impact you have made upon the lives of so many people who have never even had the honor of knowing you.
That tattoo is permanent.
Much Love, Much Respect, and Rest However The Fuck You Want To, Kind Sir,
LL
.