I dedicate this blog to the memory Benjamin Harris Root who passed away, unbeknownst to me until this evening, on January 29. No man was ever kinder to me.

Mr. Root conferred upon me a kind of Particular Faith as the Mathers called it by visiting me one day when I was in college, an act of gratuitous generosity, of love, that I recognized as such even as a young, and sleepy, for he had awakened me, man and which I remember in detail to this day, forty years later, as an old man.

From his obituary:

"He left an impression on everyone he met with his combination of deep intelligence, irrepressible charm, unfailing kindness, and youthful sense of humor."

That was Mr. Root. Each of those, and all of them.

I grieve tonight and have been near tears at times, unable to read the full obituary, for the loss of someone who "impressed" me so deeply with those qualities. And out of guilt. I told one of my brothers some years ago of the Particular Faith Mr. Root had given me. "Ben, you ought to go up to see him, tell him how you remember that and how much it meant to you." I did not. Yes, I should have, but I did not. And so guilt, and grief. But everlasting gratitude to a soul who showed love, to me.