It was not all that long ago, maybe a dozen years, that I saw this photo for the first time. My first reaction was that it looked like my older sister in man-drag. Had I not been told who it was I might still believe it was her.

This, however, is one of the most influential people in my life. That sounds so stupid to say about a person that you never met, and whom you have no reliable knowledge of. It’s the truth though. Absence creates, or can create, larger than life characters. It creates a hole larger than any hundred men could fill. When you can’t ask questions, let alone get an honest answer if you could, a giant mystery is born. It’s a mystery greater than any explanation can satisfy. Add time, a few decades, and there is no factual biography that can erase the myth.

I come across this photo every so often when I’m sifting the archives. The impulse to create a story is long gone but the impact of growing up in that vacuum is still there.