Jimmy Buffet: Eulogy For Friend

First of all I’m very sorry I’m not there with all of you.

I feel bereft of my lifelong, dear friend and I feel compelled to speak about this sweet, smart man who I fully expected to grow into some kind of Jimmy Buffet-style old age.

There are so many of us who loved Mike and who felt the joy of being friends with this kind man. We all have pictures of him that we’ve been reflecting on and smiling and crying. That’s normal. When Michael was with you it was always a fun or meaningful moment that warranted documentation so you could later recall and enjoy again the beauty of living in that moment.

Everyone considered Michael a special friend. He had the gift to make everyone feel like they were deeply important to him. And it is because-- they were.

For those of us who knew and

A wanderer who could convince you of—or sell you-- anything from a newspaper subscription to a toilet bowl—or a magical book to change how your children saw the world.

But the reason he could sell it to you, was because he was always the first to believe in the transformative powers to improve the world and ourselves.

When we were in Dr. Cline’s AP English class in senior year, Mike was so excited about archetypes. Oedipus, The Once and Future King, Moby Dick. He got into it. He loved the sense of powerful structures that ran across culture to link ideas and literature to the way we see life.

One of the main archetypes was the quest journey. He used it in his own books. But it was his own quest that most moved Mike. He looked to “keep it real” and find himself.

Somewhere in the past year, he lost his passion about his books. He said he felt uninspired and “rusted to the tracks”… He felt scared on his original path an unclear about what was his next step. He felt burdened by the promise that had spurred him on decades earlier. He called out for help—and so many people responded. He told me he was humbled by how people showered him with love and