Ahh, yes, Harlan... Pure evidence of what can happen if you live your life with absolutely no care about anyone but yourself - all you end up with at the end is just living with the one person hardly anyone else can stand to be with.
There’s a saying: Acquaintances help you move, friends help you move the body. To add to that, Harlan at one time would have been that body. My boss was utterly enchanted from spending one evening having dinner with Harlan - who can be quite the charmer so long as someone else is footing the bill.
But for me, having observed him and encounters with him for far too much of my childhood, he serves as an absolute object lesson of how to drive anyone and everyone out of their life.
His frequent reminding of others what he wants his tombstone to say (and Harlan, really, you should just pay for it now) “For a while I was here and for a while I mattered.” It is a solo testament to his life: I care about me, and how impressed I am with me.
Hopefully in these twilight years Harlan will finally learn that there is more to humanity than the letter I.
Pretty much the impression his writing has always given me.
Sad that he lives up to it.