The last article I wrote on here was about how the death of Anthony Bourdain should mean nothing to you. In a sense I was wrong.
The article was written as a (perhaps knee-jerk) reaction to all the posts I was reading about how the death of the TV Chef would leave a hole in their life. This, experience tells us, is probably going to be untrue. For a moment you may worry that there will be no new shows of Bourdain’s. Maybe you will binge watch old ones. But someone else will come along to fill your time, if that was what you are worried about.
At the time of his death, I had literally never heard of Bourdain. I don’t live in America. I am not American. I do not watch a lot of American reality TV. But in the weeks and months since his
Bourdain (it seems) was a restless traveler. A troubled person with an immense appetite for life. If his death – and life – are to mean anything it should be not that all of a sudden there is one less TV show in the world but that all of a sudden there is one less explorer. One less person looking to understand the peoples of this earth. One less person not driven to isolate himself but – even against his shy nature – to embrace the world.
I ask of you – what are you doing to honour the death of this man you mourn? Are you getting out of your comfort zone? Seeing more of the world – and not from the deck of a cruise ship? Talking to more peoples of the world – even the ones who you can only communicate to in gestures?
Recently I spent 6 weeks living in a remote Maori village in New Zealand. It was an exchange, of sorts. I was there to spark ideas about using the internet for autonomy and they were there – perhaps unbeknownst to them – to spark my heart and soul back into reality. Away from the myopic focus on my business to a more holistic – and whole – view of what this world can offer me and what little I can to give back to it.
I’d like to think that a small, shot-glass, sized amount of the spirit of Anthony Bourdain has crept into me.
I am grateful he was in the world, not as a maker of TV shows but as an example of living. That he couldn’t take it any more should not be a