Brian Bluhm

My good friend and fellow contributor to this blog, Brian Bluhm, was among the 32 students killed in the massacre at Virginia Tech on Monday. I knew Brian exclusively through the Internet — I never met him in person or spoke to him on the phone. Still, I considered him an important person in my life and I am deeply saddened by his death.

It feels solipsistic to indulge my own feelings when so many people who knew him in “real life” are more devestated than I can imagine. But this great tragedy serves to remind me how people who otherwise wouldn’t know each other are able to forge meaningful bonds through the most unlikely of ways — like a shared passion for baseball or Uncle Tupelo.

Brian was an incredible person; I knew that much without the benefit of shaking his hand. He was kind and honorable and intelligent. He will be missed.