Bumping Into Greatness

We often feel like we have had Forrest Gump-type experiences. In our lives, we have met and have known many famous people and had weird experiences like being invited to a surprise birthday party for baseball legion Reggie Jackson. A friend of Michael's was a manager at his auto dealership. He invited us to the party at a fancy restaurant in Oakland, we thought it was a fundraiser-type thing so I brought along our checkbook. I was excited to recognize the mayor, Bobbie McFerrin and several huge men who were obviously professional athletes.

It was only then that we realized that this was a private party. No fundraiser. We really should not have been there.

Suddenly, the doors opened and in walked Reggie with his mom and sister. As the crowd moved in his direction, we moved to the opposite side of the room. We kept expecting him to point at us and say, "You! I don't know you!" Finally, after a while of doing this dance of trying to dodge the great man, we fled. We drove back over the bridge to SF, arrived hungry around midnight to a cool restaurant along the Embarcadero, which was in an old railroad car. The waiter looked at us and said, "Where have you been?" We replied, "We were at a private birthday party for Reggie Jackson." He looked at us, blinked and asked, "How did you ever get invited to that?" Our reply? "Exactly!"

We have had dozens of these types of experience and often don't realize the implications until many years later. In the 1970s after we were married but before William was born, we were doing the music for the Mass when we met a man. He was a short, black man with a lovely accent and with such an unusual name that I would remember it years later. He was on a speaking tour of the US to fund raise. At our church, a few times a year, missionaries spoke and a special collection box was passed. We talked with him before the Mass and had an interesting conversation. He spoke about his homeland in Africa. Afterwards, we said our goodbyes and hugged. I remember commenting that we clearly were in the presence a holy man. Little did we know. The following year, he was back. It was shocking to us that he remembered us. We again had an interesting and lively conversation and again, we wished him our best and hugged goodbye.

This little man was at that moment was beginning his fight against apartheid. He was Desmond Tutu. What makes this story more stunning is that over thirty years later, Bishop Tutu was on a US tour with the Dali Lama and appearing in Seattle. William's group was invited to perform. Yes, the circle was completed.