Apple’s.Love.Story
"May Apple" by Honor Marks*
Excerpts from “A Sister’s Eulogy” (do read the whole thing) by Mona Simpson, for her brother, Steve Jobs. The man who almost gave my mom her voice back, via the iPad. Almost.
Novelty was not Steve’s highest value. Beauty was.
His philosophy of aesthetics reminds me of a quote that went something like this: “Fashion is what seems beautiful now but looks ugly later; art can be ugly at first but it becomes beautiful later.”
Steve always aspired to make beautiful later.
He was willing to be misunderstood.
Love was his supreme virtue, his god of gods.
He believed that love happened all the time, everywhere. In that most important way, Steve was never ironic, never cynical, never pessimistic.
Steve cultivated whimsy.
He had surprises tucked in all his pockets.
He treasured happiness.
He tried. He always, always tried, and always with love at the core of that effort.
This is what I learned: he was working at this, too. Death didn’t happen to Steve, he achieved it.
But with that will, that work ethic, that strength, there was also…capacity for wonderment, the artist’s belief in the ideal, the still more beautiful later.
His final words:
OH WOW. OH WOW. OH WOW.
*The May Apple can be distinguished by its forked stem terminating in two large umbrella-like leaves. A single nodding flower blooms in the fork of the stem. Also called American Mandrake, the May Apple is a source of podophyllotoxin, a chemical used in the development of chemotherapy drugs.
Susan
Stephanie
A Still Life...A Life Still 
It has been written that one was able to achieve death. It has also been written that there was One that death was unable to achieve.
Oh, wonderful, deeply wonderful. And Honor Mark’s painting of the cemotherapy producing May Apple is perfect. I will walk around with wow on my lips. thanks, Steph.