Letter to
Walter
August 7, 2005
Dear Walter,
Your assistant from
Lansdowne Road, John Brown, phoned saying you
died peacefully in your bed this morning at
Charing Cross Hospital. Something we all
expected...at 90 one is allowed to die. Still,
the sadness intrudes along side the joy of
knowing you. The last man standing is now gone.
At least the remembrances' of your long and
productive life can now be written
about...especially your masterful Alexander
teaching skills and your wonderful sense of
humor. You have always brought about a lightness
of heart, a lightness so often forgotten
by the 'serious' teachers of today. For me
though, it was your humanity that overrides all
and still lives.
In those happy years, in
the mid 1970's, when Lena and I and our very new
son John Michael lived in your top flat at
Lansdowne Road, I was a witness to your everyday
life. I can picture you getting up early to ride
your horse in those leather chaps...on the
weekends wearing an ink stained printers bib at
your Sheldrake Press (located in that little
cubby hole behind where your car was
parked)...and typing away in the office on a
Sunday afternoon, keeping on top of your
voluminous correspondence--for once not wearing
the ubiquitous 3-piece suit and tie! A man
ordinary to the point of being extraordinary. A
rare kind of extraordinary. The masterful
simplicity of living in the present moment--a
quality that today is so fashionable to talk
about, but unfortunately few achieve it.
Anicius Manlius Severinus
Boethius--what a name--was the last of the great
Roman philosophers and the first of the
scholastics of the Middle Ages. Fifteen hundred
years ago, Boethius wrote this sentence: "O
happy race of mortals, if your hearts are ruled
as is the universe by love." Walter, your
kind heart was truly ruled by love.
There you were in the peaks
and valleys of my life. You were so supportive
when Lena died and then a few years later when
John Michael took his own life. I still carry
with me the e-mail you and Dilys sent,
"Above all Michael, remember you are not to
blame...no one is to blame." This always
gives me solace. Walter, you taught us that guilt
in life is a wasted emotion and that teaching
which creates fear is ethically and morally
unacceptable.
The other night, I watched
in your honor the classic British movie about the
kindly public school headmaster titled "Good
Bye Mr. Chips". At one point Chips says,
"We must have hierarchies in life...we must
have points of reference!" In hearing
this I realized the importance of you, Walter, as
a true 'point of reference'...like the North
Star...belonging to no one, but to all.
Consistently simple, giving the rest of us a
focus as we walk through our overly complicated
lives. You were incredibly supportive of us all
as individuals...not only in our lives, but
especially in our Alexander teaching. You
believed in the power of the individual...you
believed in us, and our ability to think on our
own. Something Mr. Chips would agree with.