In February of my first year of law school, I recall standing on Mass Ave near Trowbridge Street in Cambridge and praying that while I was in school I would meet the person who would be my lifelong companion. Someone who was intellectually gifted, physically gorgeous, emotionally compatible with me. And for those of you who know me, you are probably thinking brother you should have just asked for two out of three, because once you added that last one you were really pushing the outer limits. Well, at the end of my first year I was drafted, went into the National Guard, went on active duty, got out too late to begin second year of law school in February and worked in Roxbury Legal Service until September. But the day I got out of the Army, I did something I had never done before. I went over to the Law School, walked through Harkness Commons, and just as I was going out the door, looked to my left, and there she was. This beautiful woman, whose laughter was like twinkling stars with sound, sitting there with Noah Griffin. Just my luck, I thought, a gorgeous woman comes to the law school while I am away and Noah’s got her. I started to go out the door, heard her laugh again, and came back in. I looked, and said, Noah’s a friend, but not that good a friend. I went over and said hi to Noah and he introduced me to Geri. (When you get out of the Army, you have incredibly short hair, and by all accounts are remarkable underwhelming for a variety of reasons, one of which is your old clothes don’t fit because you lost weight. Geri would later confirm this but being a sensitive person she hid her initial disappointment in meeting a person about which she had heard so much, mainly from men at the law school who had been the beneficiaries of several small parties held in my off campus apartment. These small parties had been transformed over time and telling and can only be compared to catching a very small fish that becomes known as The Leviathan! In any event, Noah and Geri had both graduated from Fisk and were only friends. Geri was telling Noah about the surprise birthday party that had been thrown for her a few weeks earlier. Noah is still a friend, was the first person we called when Geri and I got engaged , and was best man in our wedding. A few days later I later asked Geri out on a date. (I called her at 8 am on a Saturday morning because during my first year we had class at 9 am on Saturday. Though Geri accepted my invitation to go out to hear Hugh Masakela at Lennies on the Turnpike, she told me never to call her again that early on a Saturday morning as the school had abolished Saturday morning classes!) She was reluctant to go out with me because of the stories she heard about parties I threw during my first year of law school. (I did not throw these by myself. My roommate Bob Holmes was my accomplice!) Those stories were total, bald face lies told by people trying to discredit me. Ok, not total lies, but highly exaggerated. But as we look back to those Days, Geri and I both realize that when we met was a special time, and under circumstances that permitted us first to just be friends. And finding someone with whom you can be a best friend, is truly a treasure. During our time in Cambridge, I was the first pre-law advisor at Currier House, Radcliffe, and Geri had a corporate appointment at Jordan W, also on the Radcliffe campus. We had some great times, and met lifelong friends like Ilona Henderson, Ken Olden, and Peter and Marlene MacLeish. After Law school, Geri and I went to B-school and were house parents at Simmons College. Then we moved to NYC and Geri started working at the law firm of White & Case and I started working in ITT’s World Headquarters Legal Department. And that led to meeting more lifelong friends like Lorna Millife and Brian and Ann Barker in the UK, and later when I was with the Motion Picture Association of America, meeting Brian Wilkerson in New Zealand. Thinking back to our graduate school days, I think Geri and I are one of the few couples still together. (Hear! Hear! To Peter and Marlene and to Brian and Anne.) Some would say that just shows Geri is either a Saint or a glutton for punishment. People who are a bit wiser, would recognize that commitment entails dealing with change. Geri’s mom and dad and my mom and dad are now among that great crowd of witnesses mentioned in Hebrews 11, and we were blessed that they were all present when Geri and I got married. (A year later, my dad passed). Geri and I wrote our own wedding ceremony. I also have a sound tape of our wedding ceremony. It takes a lot of self knowledge to make a commitment to yourself and keep it. It takes even more to make a commitment to someone else, and work through what that commitment entails. When you commit yourself to the Lord, and also to being someone else’s brother or sister in Christ, you are embracing a lot. And we don’t always have the emotional, mental, or physical equivalent of a GPS to guide us. But I believe that God answers prayers and responds to commitment. It is my prayer that His perfect will is done in all things, at all times, in all circumstances.
Posted on: Sat, 17 Aug 2013 23:55:46 +0000
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