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December 14, 2004
Remembering George Linares
Never have we felt such a comforting embrace of friendship as the one with George and everyone we hung out with on fourth floor Schilling. We specifically remember going outside to smoke a cigarette and George, Cookie, Paul, Cam and Ben, who would always say “hello” even if they didn’t know our names. We have some fond memories that we would like to share from our all-too-short of a time knowing George.
Fourth floor Schilling was a relaxed atmosphere where everyone felt comfortable to visit and talk to anyone even without an invitation. Some memories we have of the Quad are endless nights and marathons of Family Guy. They were always down for playing hacky sack, even without much lighting.
You would always walk into their room and they would be blasting some sort of different music and playing ongoing tournaments of Tekken Tag, Shanobi and Amplitude. There are endless memories if you take a second to think. They were always happy ones.
George was always very happy to get out and meet people, especially “pale chicks.” He was always accepting of everyone he met. He was always the life of the party no matter where he went. Everyone loved and cared for him, and he cared about them back. The most important person in his life was his brother Jon, whom we were all happy to meet due to George’s praises.
We both regret not being able to spend every minute we could with him. The last time Jackie saw him was when she had no place to stay and she asked George if she could stay at his house. Being George, he was more than happy to help her out. We remember how happy he was and the hugs that he gave us and the way he always had same comfortable greeting. The last night that Suzanne hung out with him was the night of Dec. 5. We ate Wendy’s together and prepared for the party with a game of Amplitude. I remember that he told me I smelled like cabbage. I didn’t quite understand it, but it still made me laugh.
Dear George, we will miss and remember you forever. We wish your family peace and happiness through this tough time of sorrow.
With much love to you, George,
-Jackie Stefanson and Suzanne Chowen
For our George,
What can be said? Never anything bad, because there never was anything bad. George was ... the best. His smile, I swear to God, could cure cancer. One quote from him that jumps out at he that I will never forget. It was his 21st birthday when he said, “You guys, I’m so glad ... I’m just glad!” By saying that, he sums up his whole persona. God, I’m going to miss him. One thing that always made me laugh, and he did it all the time, was when he would try to sit down in a chair and he would either miss it or fall over. He never got mad, he just started laughing with the rest of us. I have evidence that it was hard for him to take a serious picture. He was always squinting with his crooked smile, mid-laugh. He loved to wrestle, and he had a thing for “pale girls.”
I won’t ever forget George. I’m going to miss him so much. R.I.P., my friend.
- Chelsea Holm
Querido Jorge,
Racionalizar lo que te ocurriŚ es imposible. Quiero pensar que hay una razŚn mćs grande por la que ya no estas aquÆ y que tu alma llenarć de luz cualquier espacio donde te encuentres. Mi corazŚn estć con tu familia y todos tus seres queridos, ojalć encuentren consuelo en el recuerdo de tu sonrisa.
No te olvidaremos,
-Marcela Sanchez
If the purpose of a liberal arts education is to foster habits of mind toward making critical and independent judgments, then our George Linares was becoming very educated. Already he was making his judgments independently - and he was well on his way to making them critically. He was catalytic in the classroom. He was beguiling in the salon. He was everyone’s best interlocutor. And friendly critic.
He had a look --- and a smile - that were bemused, quizzical, and both engaged and askance.
Sometimes I thought his smile was like that of the Buddha. I do think it was a philosopher’s smile. Indeed, it was a smile of an examined - and examining - life. And it was a cross-cultural smile. It came from an acute knowledge of Difference - of knowing that things could be utterly Other.
And it was beginning to be a trans-historical smile. Already George knew the histories of history well, but he was beginning to smile as do statues from ancient worlds. Or from the anthropological museums in
Chiapas and Ciudad, Mexico. His view of things was a very long view.
If we ever forget George, it won’t be any time soon. His generosity and spirit of inquiry meant that he illuminated and encouraged every aspect of our lives - as do only the most galvanic and incandescent of our fellow-travelers.
From his death, we should take increased devotion to George’s spirit of inquiry, to the examined life, to long views of things and to those cross-cultural, trans-historical perspectives which George so very much embodied.
And to the prescription of the final couplet of one of Shakespeare’s sonnets:
“This thou perceivist which makes thy love more strong:
To love that well which thou must leave ere long.”
- Russ Christensen
Posted by msveum at December 14, 2004 11:09 AM