Chance = Change

Well...Life is so great, isn't it? SO filled with surprises and so filled with joy!

Sure, people disappoint, plans fall through, sad things happen, and mankind never seems to get a clue about how to treat each other with love and respect (or so it seems), but all in all, Life is filled with goodness....and, as I said: surprise.

I just received some photos from my old dear friend Richard Geer, and they are of him, standing in front of the Barter Theatre Company - that marvelous group of dedicated and gifted actors, administrators, designers, staff and crew- and he is talking to them about a huge project he is going to lead them all into, that he and his company will facilitate in Abingdon, with Barter's considerable help, all about the history of that community, its social profile and, basically, all about its true heart as a community. It 's the sort of brilliant work Richard has been interested in doing for years, and has made his company Community Performance International, I think it's called,  very successful all around our country. He will be doing what he is passionate about: telling peoples' stories! In and around and about Abingdon!

So there he is, standing tall and beautiful, as ever, in front of my dear Barter friends!
I saw my life flash in front of my eyes as I looked as these pictures.  Time stood still.  And I was back in graduate school at the University of Minnesota, sitting in the teacher assistants' office across from the dining hall, and I walked into get lunch and saw this tall, good lookin' guy across the crowded cafe and it was Richard Geer, looking like he had stepped out of a ski poster or something....it was romance at first sight.

And the years have passed, and we are colleagues in the best sense of the word, and I was able to introduce this man's considerable gifts to a place I love so well, by simply arranging for him to meet with another man I admire and respect so much: Rick Rose.  And , i knew it! I knew their chemicals would mix well together, and that something swell would happen...I just knew it!  And now it is.

Ironically, I left just as Geer's time at Barter was starting.  But, such is the peripatetic and intriguing nature of existence....timing is what makes us all dance the way we do.

I am deeply happy here in San Francisco with my dear and gorgeous husband, as you all know...and a part of my heart, as time and experience dictates, is back in Abingdon, with the two Richards. How could it not be?

So all who have the time and energies, find out about this idea of theirs, join in their project, all who read this from Abingdon. It will define a new experience in life for you. It will thrill and amaze you. And give the two Richards special hugs from me. Tell them you read about it on this blog. And that is how you can connect my energies to yours ...and to theirs.

With love.

Labels: Graduate School Memories