So, yeah, that happened last night.
About two months ago I saw something on Twitter (I think)
about Neil Gaiman coming to Rowan University.
I remember the brief conversation that my wife and I had concerning the coming
event.
“NEIL GAIMAN IS COMING TO ROWAN!”
“WHERE?!”
“ROWAN!”
“NO – ROWAN!?”
“ROWAN!”
We looked deeply into each other’s eyes and emotions
& questions began to swirl – how could this be that Neil Gaiman, one of the
world’s lights in literature was going to be coming to, of all places in the
universe, South Jersey – our little
corner of the vineyard? The thoughts
continued. Well, the girls (our three
daughters 21, 17, & 13) would have to go – they would have to see him speak
about a topic that is near and dear to their hearts, creativity. Back during, “The Graveyard Book” tour I had
taken two of my girls to see Mr. Gaiman read a chapter and to enjoy a Q&A
(see: http://evilchickenscratch.blogspot.com/2008/10/neil-gaiman-in-philadelphia.html
for all the gory details). But that was
only two of my girls (my youngest and
my wife had not yet seen him live) and it was before he delivered the best commencement
speech ever at the, University of the Arts in Philadelphia (see: http://evilchickenscratch.blogspot.com/2012/05/neil-gaiman-on-making-good-art.html).
They would have to see him. I knew that the lecture would speak to the
creative, imaginative women that they truly are and that they would be bettered
for the experience. They are at an age
where consideration for one’s future is a big question. They are prone to the arts and I would much
rather see them move towards the mountain, so to speak, than to wander in the
desert. If there is one thing that Mr.
Gaiman does (besides writing) it is to inspire creativity. Case in point, I was in a library and found a
poem that someone wrote and stuck inside a book by Neil Gaiman. It was National
Poetry Writing Month at the time and it struck me as a wonderful little
thing to do (see: http://evilchickenscratch.blogspot.com/2013/04/things-found.html
for all those details). With all this considered the deeper
questions had to be probed & explored.
“Tickets.” We said out loud to each other, “How are we
going to get tickets?”
It was a good question.
After a brief search it was found that students and faculty were the
first to have access to the tickets, followed by alumni, and then the public at
large via a lottery. My wife, God bless
her, has some friends who work at Rowan and they were kind enough to procure three
tickets and bestow them upon us. I am an
alumni (when I was there the school was known as, Glassboro State College); however, I was too late and the alumni
tickets were gone. I entered the lottery
– so did my wife. We got email notification
from Rowan that we were not winners. (NOTE:
this is something I have suspected of myself for quite some time and while it
is pleasing to have my alma mater recognize this trait in me after so much time
has passed I would appreciate it if they left my wife out of such hasty judgments
thrown against her character in the future.)
So we had three
tickets. I thought that it was
important for the girls to be able to see the lecture and I developed a plan in
my mind. We would drop off the girls, my
wife & I would grab something to eat, rendezvous back with them after the
lecture, and listen to their tales of awesomeness & joy that had been imparted
upon them. This became the plan. I dropped them off with my wife (who was just
showing them where to go) but, just for fun, I parked our mode of
transportation and wandered in to meet up with them before going into the
theater. They were already inside. I saw my wife and the two of us met in what
appeared to be the “Stand By” zone. We
were the only people standing there against the ropes and a woman approached us
and asked, “Do you have tickets?”
“No.” My wife said, “We dropped off our daughters and we
are going to dinner.”
“You’re not fans?” she asked.
“OH YEAH, WE’RE FANS.” I said and this woman and I
started geeking out over the movie and story, “Stardust”. She was a fan of Robert De Niro’s
performance. Me too.
“We don’t have tickets.” My wife said.
She looked at us and said, “My family is already seated,”
and as she said this she reached into her pocket and produced two tickets and
handed them to me.
“God bless, you,” was all I could say. I should have thrown my arms around this wonderful
benefactor but I have a sneaky suspicion that security would have escorted me
out. We profusely thanked her and
stepped around the ropes to find our girls.
(Note: To our Dearest Benefactor, if by some strange chance, if the
right combination is struck between the tides and the planets in the heavens
and you read this, my humble blog, THANK YOU for your wonderful act of
kindness. Know that Robert Louis
Stevenson was speaking of you, Gentle Woman, when he wrote, “Every heart that has
beat strongly and cheerfully has left a hopeful impulse behind it in the world,
and bettered the tradition of mankind.”)
On our way to find the girls a charming young lady
standing at a table with two other charming young ladies with cards and pencils
asked us if we would like to submit a question for Neil to answer. My wife didn’t hear them and continued on to
find our kids. I, on the other hand,
said, “SURE,” and wrote down a question as my wife disappeared around the
corner and into the theater. I joined
them shortly thereafter.
What can I say? He
was great. He performed some of his short
stories & poems, he spoke about the creative process, and during the
Q&A among the questions that Mr. Gaiman answered, was mine. It was a wonderful evening. If you haven’t seen or read Neil Gaiman, do
so whenever you get the chance. I was
happy to be there with my family because it is vital to be able to identify
magic and wonder and joy in this world – in this life and by hearing encouraging
words from one of the true masters of making magic and wonder and joy is priceless. I’m thankful that my wife & I could share
that with our daughters who consistently bring those commodities, magic and
wonder and joy, to us.
So there it is.
Thank you to that professor from Rowan who spent the last
two years working on bringing Mr. Gaiman to South Jersey. I’m sorry I missed your name but know that
YOU too are a hero.
