Dreams really do come true. In the winter of 2010, I sat down and began writing
a coming-of-age story. I’d been reflecting on my adolescence following the death
of Farrah Fawcett in the summer of 2009. Funny what inspires a person to write,
but Farrah’s buoyance and beauty spoke to me as a young man wrestling with his
sexuality. Maybe it was her unabashed embrace of being both sexy and wholesome,
the girl next door. I bought her poster in the summer of 1976, before her iconic
tv show
Charlie’s Angels debuted that fall and plastered it on the back of my
bedroom door. I was 13 years old.
Around the same time, I had begun attending theatre classes at The Beck Center
for the Arts (formerly Lakewood Little Theatre) in suburban Cleveland where I
grew up. I met the boy who would become my lifelong friend there in the fall of
that year. We discovered we both had an obsession for that same pinup girl. We’d
rush to the Rexall Drug store every week to buy the next magazine on which she
graced the cover. We bought a lot of magazines since Farrah was the “it girl” of
the late 1970’s. So many magazines that we decided to create scrapbooks, which
we still have to this day.
Fast forward 35 years and the idea for a book came
alive. Her death led to a meditation on friendship and how my Beck Center
friend, RJ, changed my life, perhaps even saved my life. When you are young and
questioning your identity, feeling misunderstood, alone, it just takes one
friend to make a difference. I luckily grew my friendship base as I entered my
teen years but it was RJ who liberated me to start dreaming about possibilities
and the future. We both came from Catholic families, but he went to public
school and then on to New York to study art, fashion and design. I attended an
all-boy’s Jesuit high school and remained in Cleveland to attend college before
my escape to Seattle once I graduated. I say on the dedication page of my book that my
Mom taught me to fly, my Dad grounded me and my best friend gave me my wings.
This is our story in all its humor, poignancy and raw humanity. I hope you’ll
buy a copy and allow yourself to dream about your own passions and obsessions
growing up in whatever era you came of age. I was inspired by Deirdre O’Connell
who won her first Tony Award for Best Actress in a Broadway Play last weekend.
She said in her acceptance speech: “I am the face of a very large beast that
made
Dana H.” O’Connell said. “I would love this little prize to be a token for
every person who is wondering, ‘Should I be trying to make something that could
work on Broadway or that could win me a Tony Award? Or should I be making the
weird art that is haunting me, that frightens me, that I don’t know how to make,
that I don’t know if anyone in the whole world will understand?’ Please let me
standing here be a little sign to you from the universe to make the weird art.”
Weird, gay, whatever. This is a happy day. My weird inspiration resulted in
something beautiful that I take great Pride in.
Thanks for all your love and support!
Jack
