I just received word that a dear dear close friend, Robert "Bob" Christensen passed away.  He was found collapsed in his new Taipei apartment.

Bob was my friend.  My first friend in Taiwan . . . way back when I came to this country, he befriended me and took me under his wing and got me through some very rough times . . . actually, he befriended me before I even came here back in 1989 as a mutual friend gave him my name and number and told him I was coming . . . without hesitation, he would give me his good bed when I travelled up from Huwei during that first year.

He was studying for his MA while I was in the PhD program at National Taiwan University . . . we took a lot of the same classes together . . . often, it was clear that he and I were the only ones "getting" the material . . . Jungian Alchemical Psychology, reading Mysterium Coniunctionis, freediving in Derrida without a safety net . . . he was brilliant . . . I really mean that . . . brilliant.  He knew more as a student than most full professors know after a lifetime of teaching . . . which often threw off some of the professors . . . he was a lifetime student . . . and a brilliant scholar.

While many consider someone like myself who has only lived in Taiwan for a bit over a decade and a half an old timer, Bob came in the 1960s, and stayed.  He studied at Yale at the same time as the current American president and met him in that capacity a number of times (albeit, his impressions of a youthful GWB were not those one might expect of someone destined to wield supreme executive power).  He was with Stanford and National Taiwan University and Oregon . . . his academic ability was without peer . . . albeit, he did tend to think a bit over much about papers instead of cranking them out and finishing the beasties.  Still, his ability within the books, delving within the cracks for hidden meanings neverbefore unearthed was wonderful.

Bob was an incredibly caring, sensitive, and loving man.  I’ve seen him help someone just to help ’em . . . on more than one occassion, he gave his last dime to someone who seemed to need it more . . . sometimes he was taken advantage of for his kindness . . . but most of the time it just made people treasure that they had known him.

I have seen him react in emergency situations with clear head, clear thought, and clarity of purpose.  A woman pregnant woman began complaining of pain as a bus careened through traffic and he moved people around to give her the best seat, literally picking people up and moving them around . . . he offerred to give them money for a cab as well.  I have seen a kitchen fire start and while others stood there panicking not knowing what to do, Bob moved like a wind to grab the fire extinguisher and put it out quickly and effortlessly.  I know . . . those who have known Bob in the past couple years may have trouble with the image of him moving so surely and commanding a sense of purpose within his soul . . . but that’s how he has always been.  Even with the health problems that caught up to him, he was a deeply caring and purposeful individual.

As long as I remember knowing him, his mother and family were often on his mind.  He sometimes seemed torn between his desire to be with family and his love of Taiwan.  I know they will miss him as well.

Like most of us, Bob lived a life complicated . . . yes, a bit more complicated than most as his experience in this life was entirely his own and particularly unique . . . complicated, confounded, confused, delightful, juxtaposed, joyful, complicated . . . complicated by who and what he was as well as by when and where he lived . . . while he often appeared to keep things clear and simple, his was not a simple straightfoward existence.  An academic at heart, a critical observer of the world around him, he found many doors closed to him and others open.  He lived a life of seeming contradictions . . . . contradictions that were at the root of his identity.  He was a Mormon, through and through.  His faith was important to him.  Very important.  He was a homosexual, his orientation was who he was.  The two sometimes had difficulty reconciling one another but as they were both part of the same loving system, within him, they did.  Regardless of how others might have colored his experience, his life was profound and meaningful.  I know he had been hoping to start work on a blog and journal to collect and publish his various essays . . . many of which are extremely powerful and valuable works with insights that go far beyond their specific subject . . . it is my hope that they not now be lost to us.

I will miss him . . . we will all miss him . . . but I know that my life is richer . . . so very very much richer . . . for having known him . . . I just wish it had been for longer . . . much longer.

Bob, we love you . . . fare ye well as you take on the next step in the journey.  You will be missed but you will always be remembered and you will always be right . . . here . . . in our hearts.

Blessed be.