A man I knew died yesterday of complications from covid. He is the first person I've known personally to have died from it. But that's not what is bothering me today.

Today many of my friends are talking about what a good man he was. It's uncomfortable being in a conversation where this man is praised when I know what I do about him.

Years ago his wife was very sick. Doctors were not hopeful. A spiritual leader produced a revelation saying that she would die.

As this man waited for his wife to die, he began planning a marriage to another woman. However, the two of them got impatient and jumped the gun. The were secretly (and illegally) married behind the wife's back.

Somehow the situation continued to grow. The man began taking on more wives. One of them is the one who told me this about him. She had also married him behind her husband's back. They believed in group marriage but her husband "wasn't ready yet."

No one but the man is sure about how many wives he had. Two of his wives included an older woman and her young adult daughter.

Then came the punchline: his wife didn't die. She made a full recovery. In fact, she has now survived him.

I met the man years later when he was doing seminars during my spiritual exploration stage. I knew nothing about his exploration into group marriage at the time.

I got on his mailing list but eventually was turned off by the religious elitism I was seeing. He went on to create an exclusive religious group that sounded uncomfortably like a cult. I was not invited to it.

I've learned other things about him that have convinced me he is a full on con man. But today, there are so many lovely stories about what a wonderful person he was.