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On Grief and Decisions



I'm a long-time reader of the list, but not much of a contributor. But
all these conversations about whether they should or should not play 
are complex. 

First and foremost, I think we should all realize that Townshend and Daltrey 
are fully human, and they don't know what to do either.  They are filled with 
grief - and, as all of us have experienced, grief and shock makes you want 
to push forward as a way of holding on, part out of the understandable human 
fear of facing the emptiness, and part out of desire to "go on as normal" - 
just to feel one or two anchors in the world.

Second, while one can think about money and obligations and all the rest, 
remember that they are no doubt under incredible pressure to keep it going. 
Insurance policies nonewithstanding, there are people and lives and 
worlds around them all whispering in their ears (okay, in Townshend's case, 
probably not whispering), expectantly looking at them for guidance, to
"make it alright". That's hard to ignore, harder still to resist.

Third, this is one of those things, like much of life, that is not
predetermined. Within three shows, this will be revealed to be either
a good idea or a bad one. In a large sense, that's up to us, the audience
and Who friends. More than ever, they need us now to be there, to 
carry that odd and unique Who balance of complete dedication, ranting
anger, skepticism, affinity with the underdog, and sense of the 
absurd. More than ever, they need us. 

They made their decision. Whether it turns out as best as it can or not
is far more up to us than them. 

As Pete said "it's sympathy not tears people need when they're the 
front page sad news".


I'll be at Shoreline. See all of you somewhere. 


                ---  Jamie 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

                          James Sethian

                          Professor of Mathematics
                          Dept. of Mathematics
                          University of California, Berkeley
                          Berkeley, California 94720

                          Head, Mathematics Department
                          Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
                          sethian@math.berkeley.edu