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Recommended listening: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrCJt686CAM
On Monday 1:15 AM, Melbourne time, I started getting aftershocks of the most horrendous earthquake. The carpet was pulled beneath my feet and my head hit the ground hard hearing the news of my closest friend Ari’s passing. Like being sucked into a supermassive, time and space warped as we started getting messages of confusion. All of us who loved Ari so much reached out to one another hoping that the bad news was, as one friend jokingly remarked, another one of Ari’s elaborate hoaxes. That, with his latest gear in tow, his boyish smile would emerge from around the wall and we could laugh with Ari again.
Ari was a man of such sensitivity. He felt the vibrations of people around him and took on the burden of so many people’s angst. He shouldered the experience of the modern man with difficulty but also with grace. Ari had just begun a new step in his adulthood. Having launched his own brand The Scruple, worked with his band Boxer on a new album and recently moved out of home we were all super proud of his tirelessness, creativity and bravery.
Ari created so much good. His art was cutting edge and his charming nature made us all walk a little bit taller. He also believed so strongly in the creativity of others. Ari encouraged me to pursue my passion for writing and ideas in a blog. No matter the medium, Ari believed I had something that would resonate. Indeed, he knew this about all his friends and about everyone he met. It is for this reason that I am writing; to honour the memory of Ari and what he pushed us to achieve. In this moment of heartbreak we all feel empty. Alas, I try and find solace in what Ari taught me was most important; expression, connection and fun.
Some of us have not been able to mourn alongside the family and friends in Johannesburg. But rest assured we are alongside you, there were toasts and solitary goodbyes to Ari all over the world, from San Diego to London & Jerusalem as well as from Germany to Australia. A true testament of Ari’s impact on the world.
Ari had the most amazing sense of humour; the day we became friends I remember as one of tremendous laughter. Ari had the ability to make us all laugh. In honour of Ari, please feel free to send stories, funny memories or pictures of Ari to his brand page The Scruple’s inbox or to email them to the scrupleza@gmail.com. Ari touched so many of us. From his time on the sports field to the classroom, through his art, his music his insight and his love. We will take your contributions and compile them for his family, friends and for all of us. Please share and contribute for Ari and for us.
Ari spread so much love and light which is precisely why this is equally as painful. See you soon my friend I love you.