Alan Rickman, romantic hero

This is not about cities.  But it is about a human being who inhabited one.  The news of Alan Rickman’s death was as shocking to me as if he were a close friend.  I cannot explain that except to say that I loved his work.  Even without knowing what a cosmically wonderful and generous friend and colleague the latest tributes say he was, the sensibility and passion of his art lifted me and made me feel that I knew something special about him, and as result, about myself.  I now know that I am not alone in feeling that way.  Megan Garber points out today in the Atlantic (http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2016/01/alan-rickman-even-better-as-a-romantic-lead/424140/) something that no one else has said about his special gift.  She ends her post with this: “It was the romantic roles that merged two things that, all these years after the true Romantic era has passed us by, still drive so much culture: sense, and sensibility.”  I would add to that list his humanity.  Particularly in his romantic roles, and I would include here his portrayal of Louis XIV in “A Little Chaos”, that his sense, and sensibility were enhanced by his deep understanding of the human condition and it was transformative.