“Well, it's certainly true in life that the greatest hell one can know is to be separated from the one you love.” — Joseph Campbell The Power of Myth *** Friday, June 14, 2019 My Dearest Matthew, In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I’ve been turning over in my mind ever since. “If you want people to like you,” he instructed me on countless occasions over the course of years, “be very interested in everything they have to say. Act like you really care about their lives.” He also advised me to pay close attention to the casual words folks utter when first you meet them. “If you pay close attention,” the old man assured me with a twinkle in his blue eye, “ people will tell you who they are and what they’re going to do. It’s subtle but they’ll tell ya. Listen.” What seemed more abstract than obvious when first I heard it grew explicit as time wore on. Turns out, Pops was on to something. Ornery old bastard made everything about ...