"Farewell to Aldo"

This is "a good-bye letter" to my friend Aldo. It perhaps borderlines on an eulogy that has been defined as "praise that is too much and too late." Perhaps so, but now is not the time, nor do I feel like it, to be clever. Also, it is a letter to remaining friends to serve as a reminder and admonishment to keep our friendships in repair. Too, this letter is to apprise the general public and especially thank those Koreans who were concerned with Aldo's demise.

Through a call from my friend Greg Blue on a Saturday morning I learned of Aldo's tragic end. We gathered at Halla Hospital awaiting the post mortem examination report and the police investigative report. Finally, we learned that the police determined the death was due to suicide and closed the case. Further, we learned that there was no drugs or alcohol prompting the action. Yet, we were far from ameliorated for we could not fathom the "Why?" of it all.

We were hurt. We felt that we had missed something. When Aldo had brought forward his interests and concerns, we shared and we did have sympathy for him as he was experiencing some hard knocks. My compunction is that I lacked insightful awareness; I was not cognizant of the meaning and significance of his feelings, emotions, and behavior.

Thus, we surmised and conjectured as to what had gone wrong. But, there is no putting two and two together for resolution. Humans and society are much too involved and complicated for that. It always eases our minds a bit to rationalize and come up with some sort of soothing answer. Whatever conflicts and unbearables led to the despair and hopelessness that caused the action is now beside the point. Nevertheless, I feel there was a major affective disorder lurking that none of us could have discerned. That diagnosis lies within the realm of perceptional psychiatric experts.

"According to an old Cherokee tale, within each of us there is a battle raging between two wolves. One wolf is evil. He's angry, jealous, unforgiving, proud, and lazy. The other wolf is good. He's filled with love, kindness, humility, and self-control. These two wolves are constantly fighting. The one that is going to win is the one that we feed."

Every thinking man is under constant pressure. For this cause, we must be careful not to confront people with bogus spectacles, we must not force them to come to terms with broken promises and tantalizing offers that never materialize, and we must not assail them by language from which all sentiment has been thoroughly drained. We must be genuine, generous, and loving. We must be concerned about others' situations as we are about our own. This may not be an anodyne for their happiness, but it's a good start.

Aldo Omar Martinez Sanchez has left us bereft and our lives are diminished by his absence. We remember well his fellowship. He was sociable and amicable. My first invitation to his place, he spoke to me, "Mi casa, su casa, amigo." I saw him more than once on the high school soccer field playing the game with the students. Aldo was a Spanish language teacher par excellence. The students loved him and innumerous times they would shout to him after school hours as he stood on his balcony at the teachers' dormitory on the campus. His co-falculty and faithful students appeared at the memorial service with profuse tears.

Aldo's English language ability was exceptional. He and I had keenly discoursed about whether "a fly on the wall" meant the same thing as "a fly against the wall." We decided to post our conclusion in the forum at this web site. Aldo was conversant and I shall always think fondly of our exchanges.

Finally, "Everything that happens to us helps our learning. And nothing helps us to learn more than death." Aldo, you are sorely missed. Vaya con Dios, mi amigo.