Ajijic: God's green room
At the Oscars as in all of show business, the green room you hear about is an ordinary place where celebrities wait until it's time to go onstage. It's not really green.
Ajijic has been called God's green room, but not only isn't it green, it isn't even a room. It's the entire village. You don't want to ask where someone is that you haven't seen lately because sometimes the answer is, "Dead." I learned quickly not to ask. If someone wasn't around, I could then assume that person was in Canada or the U.S., visiting relatives.
In keeping with the Oscar's tradition of remembering those colleagues who have passed on, I'd like to remember here three late friends who, in Hemingway's description of bullfighters, lived all the way up: Pat, B. J. and Stan.
Pat had a great sense of humor and a mischievous smile, like he was thinking of the punchline to a great joke. He had been a Merchant Marine, and a forest ranger. He was playful, creative, and spiritually curious. When Pat learned he had advanced cancer, he fought to live and tried cutting-edge medical advancements, to no avail. Pat passed away surrounded by loved ones at his Ajijic home, still smiling.
B. J., another good friend, was a former actress and friend of Ronald Reagan when he was president of the Screen Actors Guild. B. J. had been unable to quit smoking, which resulted in a throaty, sultry voice, a speaking voice like Peggy Lee's, only somewhat more gravelly. When she wasn't onstage at the Little Theatre, B. J. was frequently being carted off to the Clinica, to be refreshed, reinvigorated, and returned home. I knew B. J. for almost ten years, and that's a long time to be hanging out in God's Green Room. She's up there with Pat now, doubtless sharing a funny story or two.
Stan, one of those memorable people so full of life, you couldn't imagine anything happening to him, was of Greek descent. Stan was Zorba, only without the dancing. He did enjoy the music of life though, and was a fabulous cook of Greek delicacies, specializing in the most divine meatballs imaginable. He was a computer whiz who railed publicly and privately against everything he believed unjust, filling cyberspace with complaints about world conditions. I'm pretty sure he's up there now telling God how bad things are and asking for Him to fix things.
It's important to listen when friends talk. Memories are made by paying attention. No matter where our green room is, we can occupy our wait with intelligence, sensitivity and generosity, before we go onstage.
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