“I’ll tell you one thing for sure: once you get to the point where you’re actually doing things for truth’s sake, then nobody can ever touch you again because you’re harmonizing with a greater power.”
~ George Harrison
I’ve been thinking a lot about Ricky. He left this world yesterday afternoon. Many theater friends posted to his facebook page. Their most common thread was thanking him for giving them a chance to find their passion. Rick was a long-time theater director and actor. That was his passion. When we were kids we put on shows, made up commercials, and generally did lots of creative things. All of it was his idea as I recall. Seven years my senior, he never made me feel like I wasn’t old enough or cool enough to be part of whatever we were doing. When I read the gratitude pouring out for him, for treating those people the same way he treated me, without reservation, it warmed my heart beyond words. I was transported back to our silliest times. Like the time we made a commercial on an old cassette recorder about Ex-Lax, when we kept flushing the toilet over and over and over again until our mothers thought something bad had happened to one of us. Mom and I still laugh about that. No matter how much Ricky taught me about show business (theater was his thing, not mine, so in many ways I failed miserably), he taught me something much more important. He taught me how to laugh, and how to love people who don’t always fit in. These are but two gifts from him that I have carried every day. I have nothing but immeasurable gratitude. And who knows. Maybe one day I’ll take up theater.
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