I am just a regular person that has always appreciate your work. My mother in law passed away just a couple weeks ago from cancer. We rode out her final weeks with her. I can say from her experience that you are approaching the end with courage. You leave a wonderful legacy and exit with a revitalized socialist movement brewing. Who knows where that will go but you most certainly contributed to this re-engagement with Marxism. Solidarity and Safe journeys!
Dear Erik,
Your mindful way of respecting the amazing experience of Life, and sharing with us, are true gifts. If your molecules are just stardust, your soul is a brilliant sun with a huge heart in the middle. Your consciousness is a a flawless carefully cut diamond radiating the many colours of the rainbow. Love to you and thank you so much.
Dear Erik,
I still wish this were not true... but your amazing attitude is - as everything about you - so inspirational for all of us who have had the fortune to know you! Thank you so much for being you!
There is an old Chinese aphorism that says: "All people must die, but some deaths are lighter than a feature, while others heavier than the mountain." Yours is definitely the last type. It will leave a hole bigger than a mountain in my heart. You, and everything you've ever said and done, everything you represent, will always be with me. You will always be my role model as a sociologist and as a human being. I will always hold my self to your standards. Until we meet again eventually.
With all the love I have,
Siying
Over the past few days, I have been thinking a lot about your wonderful reflections on kindness and generosity; on both of these virtues you are one of a kind. You are genuinely inspirational as a teacher: everyone who has ever studied with you experiences first hand your commitment to your students, when we get comments from you on our papers that sometime exceed the length of the paper itself; all typed out on the margins in a relentlessly constructive and cheerful manner. As a critic, you have an exceptionally vigorous analytical mind and students can send you any paper and discover every flaw in a argument. As an interlocutor, you have always been the kindest and most generous, graciously extending your hand to be a source of unstinting support and encouragement.
I cannot thank you enough for what you have given me, and I will spend a lifetime aspiring to your combination of moral commitment and scholarly vigor. You have lived beautifully, and I am only one of countless lives you have forever touched. I cannot adequately stress that how much I treasure being your student and how much I love you -
Thank you. My brother passed away last year in similar circumstances. Your words have been very soothing for me. The night he passed Mars was very bright in the sky and that planet shone over my car as I left the hospital for the last time. I remember him now whenever I see the stars and I understand that this is the fate of us all. He was peaceful and with the people he loved. May you be too.
I will always remember attending your lecture on class at the Rosa Luxemburg Center in Berlin. Your explanation of the concepts were so clear and concise and it was a treat to hang out with you and the other attendees afterwards. Best wishes to you and your family.
Dear Erik, I found these wonderful photos of you in Full Utopian Modality on my phone. You're as inspirational as always...
https://photos.app.goo.gl/tK1tYnvtVrdeEgat5