The Shenandoah and Alabama were anchored just south of Harthaven one recent muggy, overcast morning and it struck me how innocent these famously-named schooners looked.

A thin smile, a bright smile or beamish grin. From infancy we learn that widening our mouths wins approval from the universe of strangers inhabiting the earth.

Before his words haunted me, his eyes did. Maybe it was because I couldn’t really see them. They were shaded in mystery behind tinted glasses.

Be Here Now was the little tome that I read in 1977 that completely changed my life. And the author became my teacher forever after.

Today I can’t write about having a second cup of coffee or how I interrupted my wife’s dreams to retrieve the covers.