I just found out that Edward T. Hall, the cross-cultural anthropologist, whose work provided inspiration for my Master's thesis, died aged 95 in his home in Santa Fe, New Mexico on July 20, 2009. Just to think that I was in the area when he was still alive but I had no idea he lived there. I have very few regrets in my life but this is one of them.
Another one is that in all my visits to Paris it never occurred to me to pay respects (even if by lurking in front of his windows for a few minutes) to Claude Lévi-Strauss when he was still alive. I simply did not realise that. He died in October 2009 in the venerable age of 101.
I also remember passing by the door of Eric Hobsbawm's room in 30 Russell Square every week on my way to a Comparative Anthropology lecture. Oh, the awe the very sight of it inspired in me! In his 90s and retired, he probably never was inside anyway, yet now I think I should have at least tried to knock.
There is a lesson in everything and I think I have learnt mine..
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