I, like many have stumbled upon this wonderful podcast recently, and I, like many prefer to go through the archives before listening to current episodes so I know what they are talking about when they reference past episodes. This has provided an odd opportunity to analyze how modern technology can have a profound impact on how we perceive the world around us.
Over the past several months I have been listening to the archives at a MUCH faster rate than they were originally released, about 3 - 4 episodes a day. Over this time I have grown to know the Rogues like friends, like we are all in a restaurant talking for hours on end and I'm just the quiet friend who rarely speaks up to add anything to the conversation. I've agonized over the puns and arguments, felt for the losses and gains of each member, even Perry, who was to me the clown at the table who often took the joke just past the annoying point.
Even as I went back to school for a degree in sociology I felt like the Rogues were supporting me in my decision, in a strange esoteric way.
Now, as I arrive upon episode 108 and 109 I am personally facing the lose of a new friend that I have come to know over the past few months, despite his death five years previous. I find myself conflicted about expressing condolences so late after the fact. But as now is when I am going through the grieving process now is when I must speak of my feelings of lose and condolence to all the Rogues, their families, and all the listeners who also went through, and will go through this loss as well.
(Even as I write this from the university library my stifled tears and sniffles draw the attention of other students.)
At first I thought this a situation unique to our day and age with modern recording technology, but talking with my professors at school I realize that this possibility has existed since the invention of the written word and, to a lesser extent, even just the spoken word.
As we as a society progress further in our keeping of detailed records, journals, video and voice recordings these types of situations will increase in frequency. It strikes me as something that might need addressing in our emotional education.
For a long time I have felt similar experiences through fiction, as I emotionally invested in characters and then lost them either from death, the character 'growing' away from me, or because the series ended, but this time its so much more personal because its a real person. I was looking forward to eventually going to events and meeting all the Rogues, not just actors playing them, but the actual people, and now I will never be able to meet this annoyingly funny friend of mine.
Anyway, I hope this helps others in the future as they wrestle with losing Perry in years to come.
I'd give my best wishes to you all, but if your reading this you probably don't believe in wishful thinking either.
P.S.: I hope I put this up in the right category, being an analysis of reactions to death I felt it belonged in Philosophy.
