...Well ok perhaps I haven't been doing any interstellar traveling but I was really busy shortly after the first post and then forgot I had this page...then I remembered I had it but couldn't remember what my login password was and now I've finally remembered where I wrote the damned thing down so I'm back on the air! (or net as it were) anyway one of the reasons that I created this page/decided to get back into it was that I needed an outlet to vent sometimes about things or wanted to share things that are perhaps too meaty for a V-Log or facebook post. Lately something weighing on my mind was the recent and unexpected death of one of my favorite professors in the Television & New Media classes I attended at Loyalist College. And so in one of the most blatant tonal shifts since 1983's Pod People jumping from horror flick to kid friendly E.T. Rip-off (if you don't know what I'm talking about type in "MST3K Pod People" in Google Video and watch the full 97 minute one); I'm going to talk about Kevin Sansom.
For the past three days since his death I've been reading tributes and eulogies about him on facebook (they don't use a capital 'F' so neither will I damn it!) I even shared a story of my own but the thing is after writing it I got thinking that what I wrote wasn't my favorite memory of Kevin. No my favorite memories, the moments I cherished the most were the small ones that don't really make a great story and don't mean much to other people but certainly mean a lot to me. Kevin Sansom taught computer classes and the like and so whenever a piece of editing equipment would break or act strange the catch phrase was "Quick go find Kevin!" You could usually hear this battle cry coming from the halls of the editing suites if you hung around long enough and I often found myself either saying it or following it. This was so common an event that in the facaulty offices of the television department there were signs with arrows leading to Kevin's office saying things like "KEVIN IS THIS WAY!!!" (someone was obviously a Loony Tunes fan!) anyway back to my point, my favorite memories of Kevin were the ones that took place during those moments. When I would eventually track him down (if he wasn't teaching a class) we would hurry back to wherever I was working and often times he would fix the problem in under two seconds. Occasionally though he would get a little stumped and have to try different things to get it to work. When that would happen we would both try to solve the problem together. Now maybe it's because I'm a guy but I actually love problem solving when a solution is eventually found. And so whenever something would go awry even though I'd want to get back to work quickly deep down I'd secretly hope it would take Kevin several minutes to figure it out and that his first couple guesses wouldn't work (plus not feeling like a complete idiot was nice too). I remember there were a couple occasions where it was the first time he'd encountered that specific problem before. Those were my favorites because we would just make small talk while we worked on the problem with the occasional "...ok try that..." thrown in and when we finally would find the solution he was one of those people who would make you feel like it was both of your accomplishment even though in truth he did the lion's share of the work (he'd say things like "See? Even I learned something new today!")
Last night as I walked home from work I was thinking about these times and was pretty sad when I thought I'd never experience them again. Then I thought that reaction was a bit odd considering that I was finished with the program since April and wouldn't have had these moments again anyway but then it occurred to me that no one will ever get to experience those brief moments of panic followed by Kevin's calm reassurances and random conversations about nothing in particular ever again and that made me really sad! You know often times, too often in fact, in life we are so focussed on the "big moments" that we forget about the little ones. Especially in times like these and that's really a shame because that's what 90% of our lives and our relationships with other people are made of; just small random otherwise insignificant moments of enjoying each-other's company. In my quest to think of a good story to be read at Kevin's memorial service I kept brushing aside all those small moments in my memory for that one good "story" I'm glad now that I went back later and realized just how important those small memories were and always will be.
And now we reach the end of this article where I sum everything up for you. I hope in reading this you found at least a little inspiration and laughed a little (heck I'd consider "almost laughter" as a victory!) because that was the kind of guy Kevin Sansom was all over, a confidant yet quiet individual who could both calm your nerves with laughter and wit or inspire you to do great work depending on what the situation called for and that is why so many will miss him, I doubt I will ever meet anyone quite like that again.
As always,
-I'm Adam Shaughnessy and Adam Dingman
Thanks for reading!
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