he had special friendships.

 

He and I had a very special friendship,

which lasted nine years.

 

Our friendship was almost self-contained, in a way,

when we went places or did things together,

I never seemed to notice all the other people around us --

 

there was just as magnetic and direct a connection between us

as if we were the only two people in a piano room in

Tenafly High School or standing on the football field

during the Michigan-Michigan State game.

 

There's just one aspect of our friendship that I wanted to tell you about...

 

The other thing I want to describe briefly

are a few precious moments from the day I spent with Jack

this September...

 

Yetp, just a few weeks ago, I was in California

and finagled a way to spend a Sunday with him...

 

I was there to applaud when he did his first successful forward roll

on the highwire -- he was practicing for "The Circus of the Stars" --

and

 

I laughed when he pretended to be Dwight Stones jumping under the practice highwire that was just ten feet off the ground; and --

 

I taught him how to say Rosh Hashanah for the telethon he was doing that night for the Burbank Jewish Community Center;

 

And he lectured me on how terrible diet soda was for me and how I should drink papaya juice instead.

 

It was a fun day with my special friend, and it wasn't very long ago.