We spent
Saturday morning at Boston’s historic Faneuil Hall where our friend Carolyn
Casey kicks off a service project there every January for Martin Luther King
Day. She brings in eighth grade students who have been selected as community
service ambassadors from Boston’s 351 towns. They provide a powerful idealistic
counterpoint to the cynicism and divisiveness that characterize our politics
today. We take Nate just to expose him to it.
http://www.project351.com/
Carolyn’s brother
Mike Casey was photographing the event from the balcony where we were seated
and where Nate was snapping some pics too. He came over to say hello.
While chatting with Mike we mentioned that a neighbor of ours knew the widow of
world famous photographer Yousuf Karsh and was hoping to introduce Nate to her.
“Well she’s been my mentor and I drove her here today,” Mike said. “She’s
sitting in the first row. Why don’t I introduce you all to her right
now.”
Estrellita
Karsh, at 88, is the charmer I suspect she’s always been. She began by asking
“You’re from the legendary Share Our Strength?” and of course she had me
forever. Rosemary had the presence of mind to invite her to our next
Share Our Strength dinner in Boston and she immediately accepted.
Even if you
don’t know or never heard of Yousuf Karsh, you are sure to recognize his iconic
photos, a few of which I’ve attached here, including the portrait of Dr. King
that explains Estrellita’s connection to Saturday’s event.
She's an elegant woman, with fashionable earrings under
hair pulled back tight. She has a clear strong voice and organized mind.
“Yousuf would have loved this crowd of young people out to change the world.
The secret of his success was accepting people for who they were and capturing
that. All this talk of tolerance today. Ugh. It’s not about tolerance. Think
about that what means. It’s not enough to tolerate someone. They’re tolerable?
It should be about acceptance.”
“Is the
Churchill anecdote true?” I had to ask, and she immediately knew I was
referring to the story of Karsh pulling Churchill’s cigar out of his mouth
accounting for the iconic image of Churchill all but growling at the camera.
“It certainly is,” she replied, going on to tell us the entire backstory of a
31 year old Karsh, hauling 200 lbs. of equipment to a room near Ottawa’s
Parliament in 1941 and taking that famous portrait which Churchill’s handlers
had not warned him about in advance.
“Yousuf made a career of taking pictures of people like these,” she said again
looking around the room at the hundreds of young people heading out to serve.
“People who were doing something positive in the world: Churchill, Martin
Luther King, Einstein, John Kennedy. They weren’t always great people, in
terms of being nice, but they were doing important things for the world. He
basically got to photograph the 20th century and I got to be along
for a piece of that.”
Several speakers at the event quoted Dr. King’s famous statement that “Everyone
can be great, because everyone can serve.” Estrellita Karsh was telling us the
same thing.
