Writing Practice 26: One last thing, before we get to Adam

Richard's Ex-Friend. The dead guy.

He needs to represent something important to me, and that's one person's ability to help a loved one cope with their death. How do you help someone deal with you dying? Actively contribute to the evolution of their character as efficiently, selflessly and as frequently as possible. Then, hopefully, by the time you die they'll be at such peace with life that it won't hurt as much.
It'll hurt, not as much. They're wiser people than they used to be.
They'll see more beauty than pain, really.
They'll cry for all the right reasons. 

It's a grandios concept. But I think The Ex-Friend's biggest contribution to Richard needs to be that he helped Richard come to terms with himself and helped him discover parts of himself that he never knew about. By the time the ex-friend is dead, Richard is at such a peace with his character and has taken so much from the friendship that he is now "Ready" to take on someone like Dalia.
He is ready to do enlightening and wise things, like not dwelling on his ex-friends death, for example. 
Like realizing when it's time to grab onto something.

He'd never been comfortable with women because he, at his age and as a cosmology celebrity, had still not been able to be fully comfortable with who he was. And so, he was uncomfortable around anything else that was incredibly important. You know, like love.

He wasn't ready to be himself yet, so, how could he be himself FOR someone else?

His Ex-Friend would argue: Sometimes you need to accept the fact that we're social creatures and we're at our best when we're collaborating. Sometimes you can let someone else help you find yourself. You don't have to know everything about yourself before you let someone else in. There's things about yourself you can't know unless you collaborate, so obviously it's not a bad thing for two amateurs to collaborate and see how they evolve together.

Philosophy aside, in practice the Ex Friend gave Richard the kind of friendship that really only does come around once in a lifetime. This ex-friend had Richard comfortable with himself and with life by the time he died. What a gift!

Richard uses Dalia's analogy at the ex-friends funeral and, in a poetic way, Dalia and the Ex-Friend share a moment, or an environment, where it's understood that both essentially represent the same thing.

Richard, thanks to the ex friend, now recognizes the things that are good for him.
He also recognizes that it's up to him to acquire the things that are good for him.
To spend time with them, collaborate with them and encorporate them into his life.

Dalia is good for him.