Red Thread

Millionaire Gene Lang gave college educations to a class of kids from Harlem, creating the “I Have a Dream” program that has supported many young people of Harlem. He was a friend of my father. When I called him to tell him that my father was dying, Mr. Lang wrote a beautiful letter to him. Here is part of that letter:

Dear Dick,

…It has been about 25 years since our lives were first touched by your caring consideration and kindness. How vividly we have recalled our son David’s nearly fatal accident in Bloomsburg when you befriended us at a time of deep anxiety, giving us comfort and making the Magee Hotel our home away from home. Regrettably, there have been few opportunities to get together over the years. Nevertheless, like the finest champagne, warm thoughts of you have repeatedly bubbled up in our memory, especially when we see David, now a robust active businessman happily married with two lovely children.

When I was a kid, I used to visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art on occasional Saturday morning to earn a star that the teacher would post alongside my name on the blackboard. On one occasion, I was standing in the museum’s lobby, looking at a magnificent tapestry hanging on the wall. An elderly lady, perhaps reacting to a kid who would spend a bright Saturday morning in the museum, came over and asked whether I liked the tapestry. I wasn’t sure, but I said that I did. She then asked me which color woven into the tapestry was most striking to me. I answered, “red.” She nodded, and said, “Now look at the tapestry carefully and you’ll see that there is really very little red.” I looked and readily recognized that other colors took up much more extensive areas. In fact, the weavers had been quite stingy in their use of red, working in small doses in various parts of the tapestry. “You see,” the lady said, “that’s really the work of an artist. See how little color he used to create so important an effect.”

Dick, as we examine the tapestry of our lives, Terry and I see you woven in, limited in proportions but with a prominent glowing impact. I am sure that many people who have come into your life would, with their personal parables, bear similar testimony to the delight and meaningfulness of knowing you…”

I hope someone feels that way about you and me some day.