My father died tonight.

I will love him always and he will forever live on in me. He is everywhere. I hear him now in the wind and the rustling leaves and the chorus of frogs and crickets outside my window. In my world my father is in every living thing.

He was always an enigmatic man, larger than life, full of complexity and contradiction. Perhaps it was the depth and breadth of his knowledge. Or the bite of his cynicism. Or the sting of his humor. Or the power of his love...

The master of rhetoric, my father owned words, and all of language and self expression was under his command. He was the arbiter of taste with a keen and discerning eye for the best of everything. He had a flair for discovering the finest, the most beautiful and the most delicious. Short on patience for nonsense, idiocy or pretense, my father saw the world through a special lens that illuminated and cut through bullshit. 

He was fun. He was the curator of incredible experiences. He was the ring leader of laughter. He was an adventurer. He was erudite. He was a troublemaker. 

My father lived a life characterized by passion and audacity. He inspired my curiosity and he nurtured my intellectual development. Above all, he loved me and I him, with a love so tremendous it defies description. My father shaped my world view. And I will miss him for the rest of my days.

Elizabeth Schub Kamir

October 23, 2017