On Friday I had lunch with an old friend who is now a HPP-- Hollywood Power Player. He is one of the good guys in Hollywood.
I think he really did want to see me once I moved to Los Angeles, but his office had canceled three or four times. Finally the day came, and it was my turn to want to cancel-- it was inconvenient for several reasons. I called up my own junior HPP (one of my kids) to ask for advice, and received a hissed, "Don't you dare cancel!" So I showed up at the restaurant for lunch, not having seen the old friend since a long-ago wedding in New York City.
We had a really pleasant lunch, laughing and reminiscing and talking about poetry and our families. He had visited my family while driving across country, years ago, and said he still remembers how stunned he was at the number of toothbrushes in the one shared bathroom we had back then.
The food was delicious. He introduced me to someone from our college who walked in, and pointed out the head of one of the biggest television networks, across the room. He knew just about everyone there. They were all dressed in jeans.
Then he said goodbye, and in spite of all the good will, I have a feeling that that was it, unless we meet by accident again some day. He is in the upper atmosphere now, and I breathe the air of ordinary mortals.
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