Wednesday, December 10, 2003
When Someone You Care About Gets Mugged
Jim P, the heart and mind that has given us The Rittenhouse Review, as well as TRR, "the lighter side of Rittenhouse," which together, over the years, has put out as much copy as a lot of weekly magazines, and of much higher quality, got mugged Monday night. Maybe you've heard. I hadn't. I just realized this morning that I hadn't checked in on The Review this week, and one click brought me face to face with Jim's quiet, steely description of what happened.
No, he wasn't mugged by "reality," as Jim is careful to point out, he was mugged by a mugger.
Jim downplays the loss; thankfully, he didn't sustain any bad physical injuries. But all muggings are injurious. To be subject to the physical force of another who has undoubtedly had to dehumanize you in order to assert that force is an awful experience. One of the worst things about it is the sense of isolation it can leave one with; irony of ironies, as if the mugger has, for a moment, discharged his own isolation onto his victim. Nor are bright assurances that we all know and understand "what you're going through," necessarily either true, or helpful.
So, I'm not sure what to do to let Jim know he's not alone, or that we don't want him to feel that he is, even if he is...except perhaps to say that a bad thing happened to a very good man, who is also a damn fine writer and a wonderful wit, and whose moral compass is always worth consulting.
The Rittenhouse Review is a wonderful enterprise; an example of personal journalism that would have brought a smile to IF Stone's sly puss. But one paid for IF Stone's Weekly, so I'm glad to see that Jim has finally installed a PayPal button, to allow devoted readers to help defray costs whenever they can. A better bargain than that doesn't exist.
No, he wasn't mugged by "reality," as Jim is careful to point out, he was mugged by a mugger.
Jim downplays the loss; thankfully, he didn't sustain any bad physical injuries. But all muggings are injurious. To be subject to the physical force of another who has undoubtedly had to dehumanize you in order to assert that force is an awful experience. One of the worst things about it is the sense of isolation it can leave one with; irony of ironies, as if the mugger has, for a moment, discharged his own isolation onto his victim. Nor are bright assurances that we all know and understand "what you're going through," necessarily either true, or helpful.
So, I'm not sure what to do to let Jim know he's not alone, or that we don't want him to feel that he is, even if he is...except perhaps to say that a bad thing happened to a very good man, who is also a damn fine writer and a wonderful wit, and whose moral compass is always worth consulting.
The Rittenhouse Review is a wonderful enterprise; an example of personal journalism that would have brought a smile to IF Stone's sly puss. But one paid for IF Stone's Weekly, so I'm glad to see that Jim has finally installed a PayPal button, to allow devoted readers to help defray costs whenever they can. A better bargain than that doesn't exist.
