All my heroes are dead. They went and have gone forever as though they had meant to all along, leaving small little hints to their demise. It is easy to look back and pick apart these hints and derive from them some meaning of significance, but ultimately they are just gone. Gone, Gone, Gone.

There is a man whom I have never met. I have never been in his presence, or shared the rarefied air he breathed and was breathing not long ago. However, he has had a profound impact on my life. It is sad, really. I cannot proclaim to be his first acolyte, or someone who saw the brilliance in his ways so early on. Instead, I came to him randomly and as a skeptic. In a few short years I was transformed as I listened to more and more of what he had to say. In fact, in three short years I exhausted all there was to absorb and I spent time going over my favourites. I would replay the best parts and re-watch to surmise the sheer exquisiteness of his words, or perhaps his cadence.

I am so sad. My heart has been broken in a way that I have never felt before and it cuts down to my very core. It has been like I have spent my life building and positioning emotional armour to deflect such a blow, but this man lived and breathed in a way that his death found a way to split me in half and let all of the guts of my sadness flow out of the wound I now suffer.

A prayer:

A great man has left the ranks of us mortals. His soul must be conveyed in the way that he wished it to be because the alternative to that is too morose to bear. He was hilarious in a way that struck each person genuinely, even in their distaste. He was a soldier of sorts not bearing a rifle, but bearing the truth of reality and armed with that telling us things that would make us laugh despite his own pain and suffering. I pray, you gods, that you handle his transit from the mortal coil gently and with reverence. I pray you do this and if you do not then damn you for you are not gods at all, but monsters and I swear upon all things that I will exact revenge should his transit be marred in any way.

This man has a family. He has loved ones. He is loved and he shall forever be. He is my favourite person and someone whom from I have learned so much. I emulate him and pretend to be him and now my heart breaks because I wish I could have known more. Thanks, Norm. I am just some guy, but you really changed my life and your passing has wrecked me in a way I have never felt before. It is so stupid and I know you would have a laugh at someone like me, but you were great and I will keep you in my heart wherever I go.

These are just some ramblings, please forgive me. I have never cried so hard in my life.