[AUDIENCE CLAPPING]
Barbara Allen
First, thank you Gail and Cozi for sharing Steve with us
for so many years.
I don't know how you managed to be so generous,
but thank you from the bottom of my heart.
I'm going to tell a couple non-sequitur stories.
And the first one, Steve wouldn't approve of,
which I think is why I should say it
because it has a spiritual bit.
But I was so sad as we all are about his death.
And I had a conversation with a Buddhist friend.
And he explained to me a little bit about his views,
and the importance in Buddhism of having what Gail has
called a good death.
And he explained that when you're
surrounded in death by those who love you,
and by those who you have taught,
it is a symbol of how close you are to--
oh well, it's a symbol of all the good karma
that you've gathered.
And if you can have a good death,
it means that you had a good life.
And that helped me quite a bit.
And he also said that being surrounded by so much love,
gives you a bounce into the next life--
this Steve would find crazy but so that--
and he explained it to me.
He said, so your friend Steve he was surrounded
by all those friends that last weekend,
and in all these people help him enter into his next realm.
So he's going to get to let's say
be born into Dante's fourth circle instead
of Dante's fifth circle.
So that has helped me.
And I wanted to take a moment to thank everyone,
and especially those that were with him the last weekend.
That really-- you were all there to send Steve off.
And it's a great honor that you did that,
not only to yourselves but to Steve as well.
OK, so the other thing I wanted to say,
I'm going to tell you all about the last conversation I
had with Steve, which probably took place
in the end of October.
I ran into him in front of the library.
We went over to the no smoking section
and he pulled out a cigarette.
And we began the conversation.
And these conversations, I think they'll
be familiar to all of you.
But they always begin in the same way,
and they begin with an update of Cozi.
And how Cozi's he's doing.
And he's worried about Cozi because Cozi's
driving the freeways.
But on the other hand, Cozi made this really great joke,
and he wanted to repeat the joke.
So we did that part of the conversation.
Then he asked me about my children,
and I gave him an update on my children.
And he asked me about how my husband was,
and I said, "well, we kind of had this argument."
And he said, "well, what was the argument about?"
And I told him, and he said, "yeah that was your fault.
Apologise."
And then we began, and then he did
this thing which he always did, and I'm sure he did all of you.
He did the rundown of all the people we have in common.
So he said, "How is George?"
And I said, "Well, you know, George is George."
And he shook his head like he understood.
And then he asked how Gibb was, and I said, "Well, Gibb, I'm
sure it's very literary and funny as always."
And he shook his head.
And then he said, "How's Tony Hoagland?"
And I said, "Well I haven't spoke to Tony Hoagland
in 35 years.
I'm sure he's fine."
And then he said, "How Deb Jane?"
And I said, "well Deb Jane in Kentucky,
and she's reading poetry that's really depressing.
And it's foggy, and I really worried about her
because she's climbing mountains."
And he said, "well, don't worry about her."
And I said, "OK, I won't."
And then he said, "How's David Rivard?"
And I said, "I've never even met David Rivard.
So you have officially violated every rule
of how is so and so game, so we can't play it anymore."
and he said, "OK."
Then there was a moment silence, and I
said, "Have you been to any good restaurants lately?"
And he said, "Well, Nancy Pitt just took us to Feast."
And he said, "It was really great."
And I said, "well, why was it so great?"
And he says, "Well, there are these paintings there
by this painter, Gail Marcus-Orlen.
It was just phenomenal."
And he goes, "have you ever heard of her?"
And I said, "I think I have."
And he goes, "I want to sleep with her."
And I said, "Steve, I think you should go for it.
You might have a chance there."
And so he said, "OK."
And then, that was the end of the conversation.
We got up and hugged.
And I repeat this story because it's very mundane and very
sweet all at the same time.
And that is what has brought us here
and has put us on the Steve chain.
Then, Steve, it's his sweetness that has
brought us all here together.
And I want to say, it's a great honor
to be in the presence of everyone
here because we have Steve in common.
Thank you.