I thought he was already dead

Some people seem to fade away but then when they are truly gone, it’s like they didn’t fade away at all. It is Bob Dylan writing this in Chronicles: 1. He is writing about the passing away of the famous basketball player Pete Maravich (Pistol Pete) in 1988.

We, no doubt, all know the situation. One day the front page has the news of the death of one of the heroes of our younger days. “I thought he was already dead” we sometimes say to yourself.

There was a time when they were part of your life. Heroes you identified yourself by. Heroes who made the headlines. Heroes who you talked about with your friends. Heroes whose works or deeds were discussed in depth while the number of empty bottles around you grew rapidly.

And then they faded away. The sports stars, because they got too old to practise their sports at the highest level.  The artists because you can’t invent yourself over and over again. Because someone else came up with a new and interesting angle or style. Because celebrity keeps you away from real people and real life. Because… the times they are a-changin.

And then someday they are there, back on the front page again. They come alive again – for at short time - because they have died.

The media runs features on their lives. You browse your record collection (for the young: a primitive forerunner of iTunes, where the number of scratches tells you just how good the music is, and the number of beer stains on the sleeve, if it is party music or not). You look at your bookshelves. You takes down a book, hold it in your hand and look at it.

And then they are back with you. They didn’t fade away at all. They were always somewhere within you - and will always be

NB! Bob Dylan is not dead