My Traveling Companion

 

Will Thigpen,

Tybee Island

Will and I have shared a personal friendship for 15 years. Our friendship took root two years after his graduation in the spring of 2010 and after his experience at LaGrange College. He was the best philosophy student I taught on the High School level. Darryl and I attended his many musical performances in Atlanta: see some of the photos of these posted here. We have traveled together several times: Lookout Mountain and Cloudland Canyon, New Orleans, New York and Brooklyn, Miami Beach, Southwest Florida's Gulf Coast, Charlotte, Savannah repeatedly, as well as Asheville. Will has hiked with me in the Blue Ridge Mountains, including the Graveyard Fields and Waterfall where My Mom's and Darryl's ashes remain. 

Will observes Allen Ginsberg

High Museum of Art

Our friendship began when Will asked me if I thought he should read =On the Road= by Jack Kerouac. Telling him a little about the main characters and their story, seeing his reaction, the answer was clearly yes. It was not long before he was quoting the famous:

“The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars.”

Will even called himself Neal after Neal Cassady. There are many connections. 

Will comes often to Darryl's and my Townhouse. Here he is at Christmas, giving us a performance. He always struck me as a natural for the stage and for singing. He's a natural entertainer, writing his own songs and music. 

We three shared a love for Leonard Cohen, Radiohead, Kate Bush, Rufus Wainwright, Dead Can Dance, and many others.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7VYIVboWNA

One of our first trips together was to New Orleans. Not everything went as planned, but there were some fine moments. Will met and liked Katie that trip. She was always a great hostess. 

 

Katie and Will 

with Tiramisu 

Irene's

A Beignet at

Cafe Du Monde

Fabulous dinner

Galatoires

 The Nook Across from Piedmont Park 

At A La Folie

Miami Beach

with Wolfgang and Sebastian

After a swim at Tybee

Will and I took the train to NYC and Brooklyn to see dear friend Joseph Mydell perform Julius Caesar at BAM. We all had a great time together and Will loved the performance. 

On the train to NYC

Will entertained fellow travelers.

Joe and Will

Coco's Sunset Grill, Tybee

 

The West Brow,

Lookout Mountain

Will at Graveyard Fields,

Blue Ridge Parkway

Merry Pranksters at Crystal Beer Parlor

 Supper in Asheville. 

Jasper House

Will and Amber Taylor, Sexual Side Effects

Sold out performance, Charlotte, NC

Starr's Porch, Lookout Mt. 

Will at Stonewall Bar

Greenwich Village 

Will at the Summit

Blackrock Mountain

 State Park

Toast of Atlanta

Will performs in our room.

  Highlands, NC

Malaprops Bookstore, Asheville

Savannah Tongue

On the Train from New Orleans

December, 2025

Winter Solstice 2025

 

The day with the darkest night, the day winter begins with its cold grip, is still a day sublime, like a dream, or a vision of snow, a winter wonderland. This Solstice Will and I shall take the train to New Orleans for a balmier holiday of music, Creole cuisine, walks in Audubon Park next to our lovely, historic hotel, The Park View.  

https://parkviewguesthouse.com/

We shall nonetheless, recall the beauty of Winter in previous times, returning to Asheville for New Years. 

Winter scenes: 

Rabun Lake Hotel

 

On the Avenue, 5th Avenue

Our first stay together in NYC

The Dillard Pasture

Darryl enjoys the snow. 

Beethoven's Ninth

Beethoven's Ninth Symphony is Joy itself, a testament to belief in a God beyond the stars, transcendence through Joy, her embrace of the brotherhood of man. Make that the love among all people.

Last night's performance was not the best I've heard. At times muddled, lacking the joy one ought to feel on hearing the 4th movement, it managed nonetheless to rouse the audience to an ecstasy of adoration. The chorus was wonderful.

This morning I watched, heard, a few of the magnificent performances of the 4th movement by European orchestras that confirmed my impression from the Atlanta rendition.

The concept of God as Joy, as the love among friends and lovers on a universal scale, has always come close to helping me comprehend what God is to great artists.

--Jack

Day of the Dead, 2025

Darryl's death has left me feeling half a ghost myself. The idea of death as a release from a grim world of suffering is certainly appealing.  Nonetheless, the Day of the Dead is a time to celebrate the joys, the adventures, the achievements, the beauty of those we have loved who are no longer alive. 

Darryl, the Love of my Life, a kind, generous, thoughtful humanitarian, will always be remembered for his wit, his intelligence, his knowledge of history, culture, the arts, music, and the articles he published on medicine. President of the American Medical Writers Atlanta chapter, Darryl attended international conferences, gave lectures and papers on medicine, attended a Harvard Neurology session in New England, and won awards for articles such as the one he wrote on Alzheimer's. 

Darryl made our travels around the world all the more exciting because of his knowledge of the places, events, cultural achievements, and life of the cities and countries we visited.  Whether in Patagonia seeing the blue Moreno Glacier, or Prague with its history and literary heritage, where we saw Don Giovanni in the theater where Mozart himself directed, or the many plays on Broadway, including Angels in America, Darryl's familiarity always enhanced our experience. I shall always see him being carried through the streets of Amsterdam like the god he was to perform on stage. He waved at the people enjoying their outdoor cafes as his entourage attended to him and lifted his palanquin. His performance as Poseidon's lover was attended by over a thousand people and was great fun. 

Darryl's presence fills our house, his taste and artistic choices fill every room, from the Whirling Dervish he brought back from Egypt, to the jade dragon he found in San Francisco, to bark paintings from Mexico, to the Day of the Dead figure he bought in Guanajuato.    

 

This year two other friends of mine died: Lee Killian whom I have known my entire life, and Katie Nachod, whom I have known since Graduate School at Tulane in the 1970s

Add to them the Spirits of Jake, Jim, and Julian:

 Let us also celebrate the Spirits of my parents and grandparents. Here is a link to a celebration of the wonderful, now dead,  people in my life:

https://www.facebook.com/jack.miller/posts/pfbid02ajichb8M4vH2G81zDX6MT3rbdWnz3sjGWXJRPeS5sdgpQXcsi53GLmKccsigisHCl