Dark night ends for Hester

What is it that makes people go the extra step? Last night I listened to Rachael Kohn talking to Thomas Moore (abc) about his new book Dark Night of the Soul and about the importance of all things grey and bleak. If only Paul Hester had listened to it. (Audio clip here).

How is it that some people opt for the ticket to nowhere. While others plod alone finding a sort of solace in the grim, a kind of way to rejoice in those long dark teatimes of the soul. I don't mean faking optimism or pretending things are sweet when they're bitter sour and juiceless as dry rotten limes, I just mean some people survive knowing it's ok to say "my life is bitter sour and juiceless as an old dry lime" and then take the dogs for a walk without winding up hanging from the branch of a tree. While others just don't seem to think it's worth sticking around to toy over grim realities and choose the tree.

Poor bugger. To think he imagined his life that worthless.

Hester hanged himself
March 28, 2005 - 10:29AM smh

Former Crowded House and Split Enz drummer Paul Hester hanged himself in a Melbourne park, authorities have confirmed.

Hester, 46, the father of two girls, was found dead at Elsternwick Park in Brighton on Saturday afternoon.

He was last seen walking his two dogs on Friday night.

Why? It's just odd, you know. Famous musician, taking his dogs for a walk - then phfut. Just like that. Victorian police are not treating the death as suspicious. My inner dark night mourns. My inner skeptic wonders why police aren't treating the death suspiciously. It's not very comforting, to think you can just be found hanging in a park without investigation.