2011 was a not a bad year around here. Matter of fact, if I could overlook friends getting sick, friends getting financially desperate and friends achieving both, I could say it was a pretty good year. Trouble is, I can't overlook that stuff. About all I can do is hope we've seen the worst of it.
A pretty bad bit of news for many of us came with the sad, sad loss of Earl Kress, my friend of 27+ years and one of the nicest, brightest people I've ever met. That's Earl in the picture (like you couldn't have figured that out) with the magnificent June Foray at a Comic-Con panel a few years back. Earl was an animation writer, voice actor, historian and devout fan, and the two of us helped June assemble her autobiography.
As I've said before here – prompting some thankful mail and some angry – I'm not a big believer in grief. I don't think you have to be in pain for weeks or months or years because you lost a loved one. My feeling is on the order of: "You're going to get past this sooner or later. Why not sooner?" When I go, I don't want anyone who knows me to be depressed for more than fifteen minutes unless there's some reason to think that being miserable will bring me back.
That said, I'm also big on remembering the departed. To that end, the evening of his passing, I seized control of a web address Earl wasn't using anyway – www.earlkress.com – and put up a quick tribute site. I have since had the time to redesign it into something more appropriate…and easier on the upkeep. If you haven't visited, drop by and read up on my pal Earl. You might get some idea why so many of us miss him.
