Robert Hanson

I attended Robert's memorial service today. I did not know him personally, but I do know his brother Bill. The service was very nice and quite comforting. I appreciated hearing the comments about and memories of Robert's life made by his children and his friends. Robert was a musician and music teacher. I have always admired musicians. I believe that a musically talented artist is able to access parts of his brain that the non-musically inclined, such as myself, cannot, and oftentimes, the beauty he finds in his music and other talents does not transfer to the world at large. The major depression that Robert suffered certainly is not unknown among artistic people. To me, a couple of lines from the beginning of Ginsberg's poem, "Howl", starts to describe some of the separation and isolation felt by musically talented people, because they are like: " . . . angel-headed hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection to the starry dynamo in the machinery of night; who poverty and tatters and hollow-eyed and high stayed up smoking in the supernatural darkness of cold water flats floating across the tops of cities contemplating jazz . . ." I don't know if this mental picture of mine applies to Robert in whole or in part, but it is an image of an artistic mind that seems relevant to me. To Robert's family and friends, please accept my deepest sympathies. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Joe Bradley