From my first visit to Esalen the institute became a subject of conversation of mine with Bob Herbert. The New York Times columnist and I have been friends since the early 1980s. I think it was 1981 when I walked into the New York City Hall pressroom covering a story for my Masters Degree at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism; he’s sure it was when he was covering a press conference my father held at the United Nations Church Center that I attended. “You were wearing yellow trousers,” he said. With that level of detail in his memory I’ll concede he must be correct.
“You must come to this place!” I invited him repeatedly over seafood pastas, broccoli rabe, salads, soups and cappuccino. As far as I am concerned, visiting Esalen is the right choice for anyone at any time he or she possibly can. It’s a place of exquisite beauty balanced with intellectual rigor and served with fabulous food, hot tubs, and massage. But Bob’s a busy man, with two columns per week to deliver to the nation’s leading newspaper, a book under contract, and his own creative writing projects. My priorities were not necessarily his. But we kept the subject of Esalen alive over New York lunches for four years straight.
As a trustee of the Esalen Institute I consider one of my roles to bring headliner talent to our annual donor weekend. It’s a time to show off Esalen’s big picture, our outreach, our impact, our capacity to stimulate and inspire our supporters and guests. I knew Bob Herbert would do all of that – and that he’d love it there. “Bring your wife!” I pictured him on the stage in the George Leonard Pavillion (formerly known as the Dance Dome), picking apart the American economy and unpacking the causes of some of our social ills with Robert Reich, who was secretary of labor in the Clinton Administration and a regular at Esalen’s donor weekend. The Bobs: one tall, one short; one black, one white; two great brains; one dazzling morning on the Pacific cliffs.
Finally he said yes. It was the winter of 2009 and the caveat was “I can’t come if there’s breaking news.” Of course. Even Robert Reich cancelled when president-elect Obama asked him to come to Chicago for counsel in November ’08. But there was no breaking news and Bob arranged to write about the financial crisis in the University of California system the week before his Esalen appearance. He arrived on Friday night, October 2 and joined Bob Reich on stage in the Leonard Pavillion the next morning.
“This is beautiful, Anisa,” he agreed as we looked out over the baths from the Fritz balcony, high above. “The conversation last night in the lodge was awesome!” Bob doesn’t use words like that lightly. We were up after midnight chatting with Bob Reich and a handful of others about our political awakenings. “I wish I’d listened to you and didn’t have to leave so soon.”
In a few years Esalen celebrates its 50th anniversary as a center for alternative education, an Olympic arena for the body, mind, and spirit. It will be here when Bob |