Is death like an LSD trip in India, Steve?

Aww, I'm sorry Steve. I just can't bring myself to weep over your demise (see my recent post on sentimentality). I'm mildly curious as to where you went, as most of us who have even a vague belief in the afterlife might be. Atheists who are none too fond of you might say you made a spectacular waste of this life, consumed as it was in pure arrogance and competitiveness. You tinkered with monkey gadgets and sneered at people, is the way I would sum it up. Kinda like Dick Cheney, except he tinkered with a puppet and lamentably, is still very much alive, albeit without a pulse.

Whatever anyone believes, why can't we see every death as being a loss?! I happen to think that every life has value. Yes, even that of an executive, unfortunately. We're such a creepy society, really. We mourn the deaths of celebrities and CEOs, but only rarely note the passing of philanthropists, nurses, teachers or scientists. Perhaps those who devote their lives in service to others make us feel a bit shitty about ourselves. That would be my guess. It's easier to be blinded by glitz and flash, and to make that your aspiration, than to sweat it out in very unglamorous fashion and do something truly worthwhile for the greater good.

It was my impression that Steve thought he was pretty fucking fantastic. So his mega-galactic ego really did not, and still does not, require massaging. But of course the press got on it right away, waxing poetic about him having been a brilliant visionary, a genius, leaps and bounds ahead of the rest of us and just generally a god. Ho hum. If he was a visionary, then I'm Mother Teresa. I hope that somewhere out there in the hereafter, she's kicking the crap out of his viciously selfish butt, and he "will be in the corner shitting in his forceful, dynamic pants," as Valerie Solanas put it. Well, maybe he'll be given a shot in another life, if the powers that be even deem granting such a privilege appropriate or worth the bother... or perhaps they will administer the Voight-Kampff test of Blade Runner fame, which he will of course fail miserably.