A former Visual Artist named Max committed suicide last Saturday. The entire campus seems to have been temporarily swallowed by this loss. I didn’t know Max very well. I knew him mostly through my close friend Patrick who was in a very close relationship with Max up until the time of his death. Max was a great believer in Eternalism (or Block Theory of the Universe, 4th dimension theory placement) and those closest to him have said his death was his way of finding an answer to a philosophical question. I think Max was a genius and this is not a statement to glorify or glamorize his death.
“Max Thomas Lamar Glazier, 17, died Saturday, August 23, 2008.Max was born in Roanoke, Va. on April 28, 1991, a son of Michael Glazier and Laura Jean Mills Glazier. He was a member of Georgetown Presbyterian Church. Surviving are: his parents; a brother, Taylor Glazier; a sister, Mary Glazier; and maternal grandparents, George and Mary Mills, all of Pawley's Island. Funeral services will be Wednesday, August 27, 2008, at four o'clock in the Georgetown Presbyterian Church. Officiating will be the Rev. Stephen H. Wilkins. The family will receive friends at the Georgetown Chapel of Mayer Funeral Home Tuesday evening, August 26, 2008, from six until eight o'clock.”
Regardless of the reason for his suicide, it has brought an energy to the past week that both saturates and drifts by. When a young person dies, especially by suicide, there is a shock to the systems of ordinary life. People don’t know what to say, and they want to do something. We found out at a little after midnight on Saturday and the amount of grief within a matter of moments was outstanding. Max’s death has forced me to first look at the way we grieve, what does it say about our culture? People who had never met Max stood crying and handing tissues to those who knew Max very well and spent hours and hours a day with him trying to wrap their brains around his big ideas. Second, his death has reminded us of the hope that there is. The joy to the smallest parts of life and the aliveness around us, in everything. We, singular, are happy and sad all together at once. Happy to be alive.
“Max Thomas Lamar Glazier, 17, died Saturday, August 23, 2008.Max was born in Roanoke, Va. on April 28, 1991, a son of Michael Glazier and Laura Jean Mills Glazier. He was a member of Georgetown Presbyterian Church. Surviving are: his parents; a brother, Taylor Glazier; a sister, Mary Glazier; and maternal grandparents, George and Mary Mills, all of Pawley's Island. Funeral services will be Wednesday, August 27, 2008, at four o'clock in the Georgetown Presbyterian Church. Officiating will be the Rev. Stephen H. Wilkins. The family will receive friends at the Georgetown Chapel of Mayer Funeral Home Tuesday evening, August 26, 2008, from six until eight o'clock.”
Regardless of the reason for his suicide, it has brought an energy to the past week that both saturates and drifts by. When a young person dies, especially by suicide, there is a shock to the systems of ordinary life. People don’t know what to say, and they want to do something. We found out at a little after midnight on Saturday and the amount of grief within a matter of moments was outstanding. Max’s death has forced me to first look at the way we grieve, what does it say about our culture? People who had never met Max stood crying and handing tissues to those who knew Max very well and spent hours and hours a day with him trying to wrap their brains around his big ideas. Second, his death has reminded us of the hope that there is. The joy to the smallest parts of life and the aliveness around us, in everything. We, singular, are happy and sad all together at once. Happy to be alive.
We will write more soon.
love, jessieh
