I still can't figure out what it is I want to say about AJ. I didn't know him personally. What I did know about him came from snippets of conversation with Qwadsworth, online interviews, and reading his blog. So it's a little difficult to know what to write about a person who - though you share a community of like-minded, unique, awesome people - you've never actually met.
I went back this morning and read some more of his blog, and watched his interviews on dirtwire, and generally felt terrible about the loss of a guy who, though I never got the chance to meet, I have some sense of his person that is, admittedly, impossible for me to actually have. So there it is: despite having no actual bond with the guy, I feel one anyway.
I believe today in a generation of relentless, connected people that this is one measure of a great person: that you will be remembered and cherished by people who you didn't even know long after you're gone.
Words can do that. And AJ is more than capable of speaking for himself, so I guess I'll trail off now, go ride my singlespeed for a couple of hours, and let him:
http://ajplayingwithgravity.blogspot.com/2015/03/each-day-new-adventure.html
Up, up, up.
AJ left the world a better place than he found it, he loved the wild places of the earth and made it his life's work to share those places with any who were willing. He is and will be missed.
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