Posted by:
Tevai
(
)
Date: March 26, 2020 10:01AM
Human Wrote:
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> An intellectual project, yes!
This is the perfect time! We have all been granted an unexpected and extra "summer vacation"--and since it has been given to us as a freebie, we can do all the stuff we really always wanted to do, but were too busy or too obligated to do--and with a totally free conscience!
> I use to read history a lot, and tried to do it
> sequentially, Mesopotamia, Greeks and Romans, etc.
> I got as far as the Renaissance. I could pick that
> up where I left off. Or the set of works on the
> Byzantinian Empire I always meant to do.
Exactly!
> (Tevai, when you were younger, did you meet the
> Huxleys when they were in California?)
I never met either of his wives (his first wife died, and later he remarried), but he and I literally "ran into" each other on many occasions when we were both at the Vedanta Temple in Hollywood, either at the well attended Sunday services (on Sunday because this is the American "day off" and traditional "religious" day), and at the weekly lectures (Wednesday night, I think?), which were HUGE draws for those in the entertainment industry (for the intellectuals and creative types, and for the performers, or wannabe performers, as well).
The Vedanta Temple was a neutral place, open to everyone who wanted to come, where an agent or a p.r. person (etc.) could bring a client, who would then just "accidentally" meet, and be introduced to, the producer or director who was looking for JUST that "type" to appear in their current, or their next, production. On the literary front, there were plenty of book publication related people who came regularly, too--so it was a valuable resource for new writers especially, where they could informally meet people with clout who they likely never would have had access to otherwise.
The reason why I began going there is that, from the time I was about four, I would accompany my aunt --who was jaw-droppingly beautiful (think Vivian Leigh in her prime) to both Sunday services and to weekday evening lectures. I was, in effect, her duena (I can't do a tilde over the "n"). With me by her side, SHE was safe (and without any social awkwardness when she was getting hit on by this or that male stranger). So I was this little kid, often running up and down not only the sanctuary but the entire property....
....and Aldous Huxley, who was very close to blind, and I physically collided frequently. That's how we got to "know" each other--I was the kid who always seemed to be running into him.
Even at that age, I knew he was an extraordinary human being. I can still remember his eyes, which seemed to me to be deeper and wiser than any eyes I had ever encountered before. He was always incredibly nice and polite to me, and he always laughed when we would collide yet again.
He never knew my name....and I never knew his name until I was into my late teens.
We hardly had a "relationship" of any kind, but I will remember those encounters always, because even though there was this vast age discrepancy between us, somehow he "transmitted" to me what it meant to be not only enormously talented, but also deeply wise in an eternal kind of way.
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/26/2020 10:04AM by Tevai.