One breathtaking episode remains indelible. He opened and gave two spontaneous embraces to two unscheduled guests. One was William Sloane Coffin, the activist college chaplain. The other was Martin Luther King, just released from prison after a protest march. Then he told a story about the fictitious citizens of Chelm and their debate about a particularly vexing problem.
People grow from the inside out.
He quoted the famous Exodus passage disclosing that Moses grew when he went out to seek his brethren. That memory links me to a blessing. Frankly, it always perplexes me. Veteran New Englanders insist on the glories of four seasons. One would think that includes the fortitude to revel in a hefty batch of snow in the winter and a healthy drip of perspiration in the summer and yet, we regard the ideal of cold and heat extremities to be the mild ones.