From our good friend Jonathan Auerbach, an inspirational note on the passing of Ray Bradbury:

“Bradbury left us the other day and remember not only his simple message not to miss life and to practice it with guts and determination or as one of my personal Shakespearean favorites, Henry V, put it…’if it is a sin to covet honor, I am the most offending soul alive.’ Sure, Ray treated us to magical and mythical futuristic visions but I am here to remind you that we all embrace these visions on a reality of daily material and secular events that are our version of Bradbury’s ‘STARS’. 25 years ago I spent time in the USSR and came away absolutely convinced that this immense portion of the world’s land mass operated as a fraud and those that lived there got it and yet returning to western Europe I found everyone there still believed that the commies imminently planned overtly or covertly to take us quivering socialists in capitalist guise.

“But…it is not 25 years ago, and it is not yet Fahrenheit 451, it is 2012 so take a Bradburian moment… remind yourself not to be distracted or deceived by the various complacent and orchestrated rolling fogs of politically and economically motivated obfuscation delivered by your handy hand held, the blogosphere, or the nearest surround screen…and do remind yourself that our reality is an inevitable leveling of the global playing field with hundreds of millions of new and enthusiastic players. Take a last bit of Bradbury advice…’I’ll hold on the world tight some day. I’ve got one finger on it now, that’s a beginning.”