Tony was an activist.
He sided with the natural world and people who were oppressed or
marginalized one way or another. He knew
the big picture but didn’t miss the details.
He was one of the most articulate Ithacans I’ve met and this includes
professors from many disciplines. I
would meet him at various protests and demonstrations. We would sometimes chat over coffee.
When I reconnected it was winter in Ithaca. I was writing from sunny, tropical Sri
Lanka. So I ‘wired’ him some sunlight
and warmth, knowing well how snow-laden Ithaca can be harsh on the bones and
how the short days hem people in with gloom.
Tony responded and although he didn’t/couldn’t write it in,
I couldn’t help reading ‘shrug’ in what he had to say: ‘In summer one enjoys
the sun and the warmth, in winter the cold, whiteness and short days’. It was like saying, ‘I know the grass is
greener over there brother, but hey, snow is beautiful too!’
Now there are times when friends from Ithaca post pictures
on facebook. Louise Silberling for
instance, my ‘big sis’ in the Development Sociology Department at Cornell. She clicks away through the seasons, the joys
and sorrows, fullness and vacancy as captures her fancy at the particular
moment. She posted ‘winter pics’
recently. Brought back memories. Nostalgia invaded. I longed for that Ithaca
of such a long time ago, and with it, everyone who made Ithaca what it was for
me although most of them have gone their ways to destinations planned and unplanned.
It is good to remember.
Longing, though, is something else.
Places change. What was is not
what is because what was was made of people, relationships, contexts and these don’t
remain consistent. I visited Ithaca in
2004, that’s 4 years after I ‘left for good’.
I met some professors and some Ithacans who are more resident than those
who come to Cornell. There were 2
friends from that other time, Aaron the Artist and Chad the Doctoral
Student. so we met, talked
old-times-talk. It was nice. Nice, but
different. In 2006, I revisited. That was yet another Ithaca. Chad had finished his PhD and left. The other
was about to. But there was another
friend from that earlier time who had come to Ithaca to sit and write her
doctoral dissertation. So we met, the
three of us; Aaron, Ayca and
myself. It was nice and differently
nice.
I will not visit these Ithacas again, but when I felt a
heart-tug seeing Louise’s pictures, I also remembered Tony Del Plato and his
thesis on seasons.
These are hot and humid days in Colombo. They are also bright days. Days of familiarity that are made for
thanksgiving. Here, I have all my
friends and they are all resident within me. Here I have my Ithacan friends as
well, for memory dies slow and life offers enough metaphors that prompt
revisitation.
I don’t know where Tony Del Plato is right now, but wherever
he is, I am pretty sure that’s where the grass is greenest for him. Or the snow
whitest.
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