This is not a technological solution, but a more personal entry about my brother Conrad, who died May third 2010.
My Brother, Conrad OHO, made his living by modifying and repairing advanced bikes. His living space in an unheated garage exposed his values. The combination of his meticulously ordered tools and his political statements on practically every flat surface, along with the Spartan living space and lack of the "comforts of home," confirm the central driving force that guided my brother’s life.
I know that from childhood Conrad was always trying to live in a way that made the world better. We came from parents who had planned to spend their lives as missionaries in China, but WWII intervened. However, my parents did not give up on trying to fix the world, and Conrad got that passion, even though he rejected the religious part of the motivation for it.
There were times that Conrad tried to live in a commune of like minded people, but he was disappointed. He could never find one to live in with enough people who shared his values, his need for strict organization, his mechanical vision, and his way of doing things. And my brother was not good at compromise. Despite all of his efforts to join existing groups, or to start new ones, his attempts at living in a commune were unsuccessful.
But Conrad still longed for community, and he finally found a wonderful one in the people that he grew to love and trust among the bike lovers of the SF and the Marin County area. I only heard small bits of information about his community during my long phone talks with Conrad. Unfortunately, I did not know the depth of Conrad's engagement until after his death. I now see that he chose his friends well, and the mutual respect that was developed over the years is crystal clear. It makes me very happy to know that Conrad had such a wonderful group of people who shared his love of human powered transport, and who respected his mechanical elegance and his values. This community became his real family.
Conrad and I did not speak of family very much during our long phone conversations. We mostly spoke of alternative energy, politics, and nutrition. I fear that his intense interest in alternative nutrition and his avoidance of mainstream medicine did not serve him well, but there is now no way to be sure what really led to his death. I now have his autopsy report, and the doctor mentioned that, in addition to the ruptured aorta, he had hypertrophic cardiovascular disease. But, because he never got a conventional checkup, he did not know that his health was precarious. He had no insurance, and as a result, most all conventional medicine was priced at levels that he considered out of reach. As a result, he relied on his belief that if he got optimum nutrition, he would have optimum health.
Conrad did recognize that his hip was in terrible condition, but he did not want to get a hip replacement operation in this country because it would have bankrupted him. He investigated overseas operations, and he told me that he would eventually go that route if absolutely necessary. However, he first wanted to try restoring the structure and function of his hip with nutrition. He had told me that an x-ray showed very extensive damage, with no remaining cartilage and a seriously misshapen femur, so it seemed to me that the nutritional cure was hopeless. But the choice was Conrad’s and I will never know if his hip was improving because he died suddenly of a problem that he never knew he had.
After his death I met many of his close and valued community of friends and I have seen the qualities that Conrad grew to love. I understand the reasons that my brother trusted, and was trusted by this community. Even though I live far away from this community we share a love for Conrad and we share his passion for making the world a better place. I hope that we can grow close to each other over time and help to realize some of Conrad’s dreams.
Bill Isecke
There is a story of My and Conrad's growing up on a boat in the Harlem River in the Inwood section of NYC at http://gothamcenter.org/blotter/?p=96.
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