Never met Cameron, but enjoyed his posts here on Scubaboard. They were always well thought out and informative.
To Cameron's mom Bonnie, and his close family and friends I send my sincere condolences.
To "Ray from Texas" - Bravo Zulu - you spearheaded the efforts to find Cameron, and kept fellow Scubaboard members informed as best you could. Well done under very difficult circumstances.
R.I.P. Cameron - you will be missed, but you will live on in your contributions to the dive community, and your contributions to the Cree youth of the James Bay region.
Divegoose
I only had one exchange with Cameron in a scuba group on fb about six weeks ago (& read a few of his posts in another fb scuba group). We disagreed on a topic I posted. I deleted the post (other group members started mansplaining) & I left that fb group. I wanted to forget about that discussion.
A week or two later, Cameron’s smiling-wild-man-with-sun-kissed-hair profile picture started appearing under "people you may know" on fb. Actually, his pic appeared every time I was on fb from then on. Whether on my fb account page or scrolling, there he was (his pic) - that guy from that post I deleted. Seeing “that guy's" pic on fb all the time kinda bothered me at first. Seeing his pic reminded me about the discussion I wanted to forget. But, that also made me think about the topic - over & over again. I kept pondering Cameron’s comments and a question he had asked in the post I deleted. To the point where I may change my opinion on a certain aspect of the topic.
For the past six weeks or so, Cameron's profile pic continued to appear under "people you may know” every time I was on fb. Until this morning. Today his pic was missing from its usual place - first in the “people you may know” line up.
I didn't know anything about Cameron until reading what has been shared about him here on ScubaBoard. It's clear that he was a kind & thoughtful person - a very special person to those who knew him. My heart goes out to his family (including his ScubaBoard family), friends & all who loved/love him.
Thank you all so much. Divegoose- I may have appeared as the face of the effort here, I was really just one of many and many of them spent every waking hour. I was still living some semblance of a normal life and just doing what I could. My fellow mods, oh my God they are good people, worked very hard. Wow
@Pedro Burrito and others! Our members helped the many threads and discussions stay respectful.
I want more than anything to get across to all of us that the people here all have wonderful qualities mixed with pain and fears. When I overlook the things I know are expressions of the pain and fears in peoples' life, I get to later see the wonderful parts. People that insult, demean, attack or bicker with me may act in ways that would justify a counter response where I might work to find their flaws but that would be a mistake.
I can make a long list of people that have given me the opportunity to use my wit and intellect to put them in their place. In almost every case given enough time those people later post something that makes me respect them. There are few irredeemable people in this world. There are countless hurting and misunderstood people that want to do good and are tired of being picked on by life and by petty tyrants.
We are in this together. We are stronger together. We must accept what we don't understand about someone's attitude or position long enough to get the magic of finding out that they are special too. It literally happens here every week or every day.
Take that angry response and make a copy to send later. I like to send it to a friend instead. It's not painful to delete a full page of scathing response. You won't want to send it a week later. Some people that have helped me the most are people I wanted to give a piece of my mind and didn't. We never have the full picture and we shouldn't be quick to act on the bit of the picture we have when it is negative. It is probably based in our own fears and preconceptions. Thinking like this is what getting old can do.
That's the good part of getting old. The bad part is burying your friends, sometimes way too soon.
