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HE WAS GONE
The Illegal Rhodendron

The Mask and the Drool

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The first day of class we met in the basement of Greylock Dining Hall. There were 14 of us, I believe. He reached into his briefcase on the first day of the course and he put this grotesque Halloween mask on his face. Everybody was embarrassed to silence, what to make of this. This wasn’t […]
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I remember one time he said he never wanted to admit that he is sick because once you admit you are sick to other people you lose your rights as a person — you are a sick person and everybody treats you differently and talks to you differently. People assume that it affects your mind […]
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I remember feeling, “OK, c’mon, now we can talk about you.” But no, he still wanted to talk about me. I came back from the India experience and then I dropped out of school. I thought that who I was had to do with being in the West. Then I decided to come back. After […]
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Since he had always been having students in his home, he was very used to that, you know, “Well, you go get the drinks,” and so on. I mean he wouldn’t just wait on them hand and foot. They all participated. So when it came time where he couldn’t really get to the classroom, it […]
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I wouldn’t be cynical and say his condition increased the mystique, but his willingness to continue teaching through it preserved the mystique. He was hard to understand, no question. It was hard to pick up the words he used. But he was easier to understand than to read. I know I kept a couple of […]
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My first wife and I went back and visited him. We knew he was having problems so we went back and stayed with him at his little house back there on campus. And Jenny said, “Look at your brother. He’s drooling all over his papers.” And she said, “Bob, you’re ruining those papers. What are […]
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