Living Small

Tonight I left a memorial for our dear friend and colleague Richard Harden.

This was a memorial offered at the school where he taught for many years and powered by the lives he touched as a mentor and human. The out pouring of love from the young people touched by his wisdom was truly awe inspiring. This was not a sweetheart of a man. He was not followed by dogs and children down the street. He was noted more for his directness and gruff, off putting sense of humor. He did not suffer fools gladly, could easily be mistaken for arrogant when he was confident.

When I arrived home I was greeted with the news that another dear colleague, a playwright not yet 50 was suffering from a sever condition in a nearby hospital. His condition was stable but his circumstance was certainly very serious , as another colleague related the news.

As these emergencies awakened in my life I was also reminded of our brothers occupying wall street everyday right endeavoring to make a difference.

And in the midst of trying to coordinate a rehearsal for a children's show and a new translation of Chekov's "The Seagull", the continuation of an important workshop begun over a year ago at our theatre and promising to birth a new translation, amidst e-mails of a New York premiere of a play about breast cancer, a play about the Occupy Wall Street movement, a play about violence in prisons in Philadelphia,

I received an e-mail from a colleague in charge of a building we occupy with our theatre urging us to get our costumes and set material out of the unused stairwell in back of the building because they would be thrown away otherwise.

We had done it again with our theatre. We had taken up too much space.

Live smaller, don't think so big.

This poor man invested with the job of hounding us to clear this stairwell has been doing so faithfully for almost three years. He has a personal dream to see this staircase empty.

He feel his job is done when there is nothingness.

I felt so sad for him for he had no students to inspire or audiences to please , ther was no one gathering to salute him for the work of getting people to move their belongings from this meaningless staircase and our endeavors to make his nitpicking seem small minded were typical of artist types

Today was a sharp reminder to not live small.