Thread by @draiochta14

I keep ruminating about Bourdain and power of my response, and the responses I see everywhere.
I don’t need to write another eulogy, I have RT many good ones already.
I don’t want to minimize in any way, who he was, but I do want to talk about what he represented...

...and perhaps what is entwined in our response.
For 20 yrs this man celebrated diversity and world culture. He didn’t show us elite, expensive restaurants, frequented by the elire, wealthy class that so many look at with envy and aspire to live as they do...

...instead he pearched on plastic stools, sat on bamboo mats in small villages, people’s homes, tiny restaurants around the world. Areas of the world we rarely see and are almost never celebrated.
He celebrated world culture, diversity, open borders and open minds...

He didn’t celebrate walls between people, he broke them down. He humanized “the other”. He gave faces to fellow human beings in parts of the world that we too often exploit and demonize.

...he celebrated curiosity, intellect, education, tolerance.
As we are held in the thrall of those who would cast us back to the dark ages, where the world is flat, our neighbors are not allies, but enemies to be feared and hated, where education is scorned and curiosity spurned

...the loss of someone who represented our striving to reach further enlightenment, to continue our quest to be our better selves, to live in tolerance and justice, the loss of someone who represents those ideals is especially bitter.
I think we are mourning more than we know...