The other day I was going through a box of stuff looking for a particular letter about Seth, and came across this charming doodle.
My own doodling is more self-conscious than this, and has pretensions to beauty. He had no such pretensions. He loved beauty, but he could draw just to amuse himself.
Probably he had pretensions, but from this distance I can't think of them. He was willing to be wrong. He was willing to look foolish. He was willing to laugh at himself.
One of my favorite incidents with Seth happened one day when I was visiting him and Hisako in Japan. I am very awkward in Japan. I am always knocking down something, and making people wait, and generally doing stupid things. So one morning, having already done more than my share of bumbling for the day, I was in a bad mood, and said something grumpy to Seth. Then I felt bad and apologized, "I'm sorry; I guess I am a little testy today." Seth answered, "Yeah. I'm a little testy too. I guess we are just a pair of testes."
Which made it all right again.
Happy birthday Seth!
2 comments:
Hi Vicki! Happy Flowering Nose Day!
Cute litle sketch and a fun story. Life should always be so rich.
Hope all is well.
Yes, rich. In the course of going through Seth's photos and papers the past couple of days, I came across a letter written to me after Seth died by a high school friend of his. She said, "I'm a bit cautious by nature. When I spent time with Seth, I was in awe of how he embraced every activity with his whole being. His love of life was contagious and everything seemed 'supercharged' when experienced with him."
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