Arin Miskal, RIP

I went to college at a small Evangelical Christian school (1979-1984) in the central Kentucky hamlet of Wilmore.  Asbury College was named for the first Bishop of the Methodist Church in America and was founded in 1890.  At the time of my attendance, it was true to its mission, a hotbed of evangelical Christianity, and I have no complaints about the quality of the education that I received there or the quality of the few friends who have remained my friends from that time over the years.  (My homosexuality has proven off-putting to many from back then, but not all.)

Therefore, like college graduates from all over the world, I do receive the occasional alumni magazine and in the back are class notes and obits.  This past issue listed one, Arin Miskal (class of 1979).  I wish to offer for public testimony a few thoughts.

Arin had no family that I was every aware of.  He lived in Wilmore and was always around campus--I didn't even know that he had graduated from the college.  An odd fellow in the best sense of the word.  Very pedantic, aware of many things, many ideas--and always ready to participate in a conversation.  Amateur historian, theologian, psychologist...  Socially awkward, probably somewhere on someone's spectrum (LD, Autism....) but very self-reliant.  A sweet man, a gentle man.  On some level a lonely man, but not one to impose.

He had the gift of perfect pitch.  He is the only person who ever tuned my piano.

He was devoted to everyone without consideration, while he was at times dismissed by those in authority as an inferior annoyance.  He was denied admittance by the seminary associated with the college, but found a friend in the Catholic Church.  He joined the military and between the two became a chaplain with the title Monsignor... I seem to remember that he pursued formal theological study in Louisville.

He was gay.  He shared that with me during a visit after I had begun my journey toward the light of day in my reality.  The last time I saw him was probably 1993?  A web search of his name turned up absolutely nothing....

He was not nothing.  He was good person.  And someone needs to say that in a place and a way that others can know this truth, too.