A friend from high school happened to be my house guest during a week made amazing by the fact that during that week, a YouTube video about me went viral thanks to Pacific John's Daily Kos diary,
Baggers Shout Down the Opposition. With Video! about my inhospitable reception at Glenn Beck's "Tea Party."
In his thank-you note, he said it was one of the best experiences of his recent life.
It's a rare rare gift to get to be a part of one of the best experiences of any part of anybody's life, and it reminded me of the last time I was so honored.
A friend of mine from high school happened to be my house guest the week the "Teabaggers" video went viral. He was here from New Mexico to see a temporary exhibit on Gilbert & Sullivan at the Smithsonian. It was a week that took months to plan --- he wrote to the curator of the exhibit ahead of time to inquire about the holdings; he arranged a respite from family nursing duties that had fallen to him; he arranged the stay at my home.
But what he didn't plan, what he couldn't have planned, was that the week he picked happened to be the week that Daily Kos and YouTube and Glenn Beck conspired to turn my world upside down. On the Sunday before he arrived, I invaded Glenn Beck's "March on Washinton" Tea Party with a giant "Public Option Now" sign. Somebody who even today is completely anonymous to me made a video Teabaggers Can't Handle a Little Dissent, which became the subject of nearly a thousand blogs, beginning with one here by Pacific John (Baggers Shout Down the Opposition (w Video)) The Washington Post included my name and town under a picture they ran, so it wasn't very long at all before reporters were calling, admirers were calling, and it seemed as though I was everybody's "friend" on Facebook. He actually sat in on one of my interviews with a reporter.
Now, truth be told, we didn't spend all that much time together that week. His well informed inquiries to the curator of the Gilbert & Sullivan exhibits and devotion that would make someone travel across the country to see props, playbills and placards about "G&S" (as those in the know call the empresarios) earned him personally guided tour and a peek at unexibited items from the collection, and DC has many many things to fascinate a tourist. So my role, my notoriety, were hardly the keys to his week, but he wrote to tell me that his week in my town was "one of the best experiences of his recent life."
But the reminded me of the last time I had felt so honored as to have been a part of being in "one of the best experiences" of someone's life. I shared it with him; now I share it with you.
One of your best experiences of recent life. And I had a part of it. What an honor.
Wow.
Seriously. Wow. It reminds me of a time we took the kids to NYC and there was the very outrageously, androgynously dressed, fellow nearly dancing in his seat -- his voices? ear buds? who could tell. But he was enjoying himself so much it made me smile. He looked up and caught me smiling. I asked him what he was listening to. He said it was his audition/demo cd -- he described himself as a "psychedelic rapper.
I commented that it must be pretty good stuff to have him rocking out like that --- he blushed. I asked him if he had any of his cd's to sell.
Well, it just so happened he DID have some in his backpack. $10 if you please.
I pleased. "With $10, do I get an autographed copy?" I did.
It was as if a dozen puppies had just covered up a 3 year old. He didn't giggle uncontrollably, but he was clearly as happy as people get. His first sale? His first "cross-over" sale to the White 60ish market? Who knows why it pleased him so much.
My 13 yr old son asked me why I did that. I didn't know what the music sounded like; he didn't really appear to be my soul mate. Nothing in the music collection he had seen at the house could be described as "psychedelic rap." And who talks to strangers on the subway anyway?
I told him I didn't need to like the music. It was such great a feeling to make somebody THAT happy that I would have paid $100 for such a privilege.
Being a part of somebody's happiest moment of recent memory is a great honor indeed.
"Thank you.
"Ed