GENROZT: a gracious act that creates a joyful ache every time it is remembered
OPENING
William Shakespeare had a lot to do with getting me my greatest summer job ever - editor of the weekly Grand Bend Times, the summer of 1970, the summer before my third year in Honours (sic) English Language & Literature at St. Michael's College, and the 18th summer of Tom Patterson's great creation, Stratford's Shakespearean Festival, just 90 miles west of our Toronto home.
You really should know about the man who got me that job. About the generosities that influenced his life. And his second letter to me....
CLOSING
Director Tyrone Guthrie is quoted in Reknown in Stratford: "He had no great influence to back him, no great reputation, no great fortune. Most of us similarly placed abandon our Great Ideas, write them off as Daydreams, and settled for something less exciting and more practicable. Not so Mr. Patterson. His perseverance was indomitable."
Will's Troilus and Cressida described that virtue when he had Ulysses affirm to Achilles: "Perseverance, my lord, keeps honour bright."
I never recall my generous, tenacious friend without a joyful ache. Every time.
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