"I met Sean and Uyen in Japan in August of 2022, and they were seemingly best friends with almost all they met at first meeting. I do not think I can recall other people attracting friends so effortlessly. To know Sean and Uyen is to understand why. Both showed an interest in all and accepted others as they were. These practices sound simple enough to us all in theory, but are—as we all know—so difficult to put into practice. The truly special ones with whom we come into contact are those who can put those behaviors into practice with consistency, cordiality, sincerity, and seemliness.
Sean was, of course, one of those people. An interest belonging to another was concomitantly an interest belonging to Sean; this was because Sean was so very interested in others. Sean could listen with attentiveness to whatever one would say and show a knack for responding in a manner tailored to his friend's personality. Sean understood as few people do the elements of the art of conversation: the patience to listen, the willingness to share, and the generosity to care. Whatever your level, Sean could meet you there and showed every sign that he was happy to do so. A festival in the Japanese streets or a hike along a river, a conversation about football or a consideration of matters historical, a dialogue about culture or a cold beer in a rustic village pub - all of these things and pretty much all other things were better when they involved Sean.
Sean's profession, as we all know, was that of a teacher. Though it has perhaps become cliche to describe one's career as a calling, one could absolutely describe Sean's profession as a calling with nary a sense of hyperbole. Those of us who saw how students and colleagues reacted to him would know this. He was born for what he did, and the influence that he had on so many will reverberate on for decades to come.
A Canadian religion writer of some note described his being struck by a line by T. S. Eliot about the intersection of time with the timeless, and that observation seems most germane when we consider the passing of particularly special people. Though Sean is now lost to us in this moment in time, his fitting of the template of a life well and meaningfully lived, of a life lived in hearty consideration of the lives of others, and of a life that benefited so many others has given those of us who knew him a better acquaintance with the sense of the timeless. For that, we are particularly fortunate."
