Just wanted to add that I was fortunate enough to be given a copy of this issue of The Advocate by a gay friend of mine who knew I would love reading the tributes and who thought of me, he said, when he received the issue.
And I love, really, that people, gay and straight, think of me when anything happens that concerns Jake or Heath or Dianna or Larry or Annie or Ang or Anne or Michelle or anyone or anything else tied to this movie. I love that they associate me with it.
I used to worry that they thought I was a complete nut for being so obsessed with a film that, in most of their minds, didn't have anything to do with my life. But now, I think there's a respect there - at the very least, a respect for my capacity to be passionate about something - anything. Us 40-somethings tend to lose that capacity along the way, or so it seems.
Most of them don't know the true reason I connect so deeply with Ennis Del Mar, yet the respect is still there. That said, it was one of the ones who does know who called me the second she heard of Heath's passing, and it was another one who knows who gave me this copy of his magazine.
This is a movie that has irrevocably changed me, and all in good ways. It has enriched my life like nothing but a true work of art can do. It's a movie that rekindled my passion for movies. And the reason for that is all of those people. And the core and center of those people is Heath.