I do tend to be an anxious fellow and I do tend to see the world as a little darker than perhaps it genuinely is, but I also do appreciate much more than a rosy scenario, I appreciate straight news. I appreciate honesty. I appreciate confronting something head on and being given all the details first — and then responding to them in whatever way I might. At best, it simply confirmed who I am to myself. It helps me. For me, it works.

David Rakoff, November 27, 1964 – August 9, 2012, in a Fresh Air interview in 2010. 

I feel very lucky to have gotten to see, hear, and feel his brilliance recently at the This American Life live show.