[meteorite-list] To My Dear Friend Richard

[Kevin Kichinka]

List Members:

I just returned from a week camped in the rain forest here in Costa
Rica with nine other people and a pack of soggy matches. This outing
was in support of the preparation of a TV show to begin airing Monday
on NBC in the USA called "I´m a Celebrity - Get Me Out of Here". Great
adventure for me, I helicoptered around CR  and dodged lethal Eyelash
Vipers while sleeping in the rain and observing how three-hundred
people can build sound studios and create a reality program like the
"Survivor" series in the deepest of remote jungles.

Just this moment, I was able for the first time in a week-and-a-half
to get an Internet connection (and more than river water to drink and
4 ounces of rice and beans per day to eat). I wanted to catch up on my
email, stock market accounts, the Cleveland Cavaliers NBA playoff news
and of course, the meteorite buzz.

I´m a lucky man. I live in two places at once, one is a dream world, a
parallel universe of adventure colored by intense, arbitrary
circumstance, the other, a grounded place that passes for what most
would call "normal". There´s electricity and cars and convenience
there. And while this is not an existance everyone would want, this
type of life suits me well. And life is good.

Then I saw the notice of Richard´s passing.

I was aware of his illness. I know a few days have gone by, but I must
take a second to share my thoughts in respect to this monument of a
man.

There´s a little book floating around called "The Art of Collecting
Meteorites" that begins with comments of a deep personal nature from
Richard. I wrote that book and Richard was one of the editors along
with Joel Schiff.

Richard told me it was THE book he had really wanted to write, a more
contemporary look at the persons, influences and nuts-and-bolts of
collecting meteorites. He had tried to move in that direction with
"Rocks from Space 1" but Mountain Press didn´t like those types of
chapters and they were eliminated. Publishers can do that. I was
self-published and wrote want I wanted. Over the last couple of years
in our phone calls and correspondence, Richard never failed to tell me
how proud he was that I had fulfilled a wish he had always had.

I won´t review the interesting life he led, the achievements, the deep
love he gave Dorothy who I hope can find a way to bear the loss of his
companionship. I will only add a personal note.

For a few years, I have had an open invitation from Richard and
Dorothy that should I ever leave this place, I should move into the
guest house on their property. They like me, I guess they feel we are
kindred spirits. I´ve won awards playing classical piano, and Richard
looked forward to he and I playing four-handed Chopin together, to
giving concerts to their friends at their equinox celebrations.

God, this moment I am so very sad this will not come to pass and
little tears are in my eyes as I write this.

My heart feels your loss Dorothy. Some day I will come and play sweet
music for you and we will drink wine and remember Richard together.

>From Nine Degrees North.

Kevin
Marsrox at gmail.com