Tag Archives: Lakewood

My Main Soul Bro, Kenneth Warren 1953-2015

lower left, Kenneth Warren, my friend and colleague, at Wadsworth Public Library

lower left, Kenneth Warren, my friend and colleague, at Wadsworth Public Library

He can celebrate his very real strengths–for instance, strong religious feeling, or a great capacity for friendship, whch often, according to Jung, “creates astonishing tenderness between men and may even rescue friendship between the sexes from the limbo of the impossible.” Marion Woodman, The Pregnant Virgin (pg.157)

My closest male friend, and the closest friend I ever had, Ken Warren, passed away suddenly yesterday in NYC, at his parent’s house. Ken and I intentionally brought into detailed resolution over eleven years many highly developed senses of male friendship.

I spoke to him for three hours on Tuesday, and last saw him May 6th where we, as it turned out, for the last time, dove into our collaborative exploration for five hours, first at a tiny Mid-East restaurant, and then sitting on a bench at the public park off of Madison in Lakewood.

Ken and I in 2009 investigating. (Lakewood Observer photo)

Ken and Stephen in 2009 investigating. (Lakewood Observer photo)

Obviously, there is a lot I might say. Yet, today, I’m just wrestled to the ground. For now, it is simple: he and I succeeded at our deep embrace, and we loved putting the time in with each other over eleven years.

And, we proved you have to put the time in to honor the soul that must be freed. We both brought a lot of chops and vulnerability and honesty to the matter of our mutual inquiry and co-creative artistry, so to be together with Ken was to know each other, and to be known.

Love came and said
that I should only be with it,
that I should avoid being sensible, steady, intellectual.

So love and I kept visiting,
back and forth, until now,
I did not go home.

I live here now, inside
this new annihilation.

version of Rumi by Coleman Barks, from Soul Fury, Rumi and Shams Tabriz and Friendship

The last Cube-O-Probe shared with Ken on May 19.

The last Cube-O-Probe shared with Ken on May 19.

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Filed under adult learning, experiential learning, friends, Kenneth Warren, personal