Friends

Yesterday I got a wonderful card from a wonderful woman. The front of the card shows a picture of two cups of hot coffee and some chocolates (and I LOVE both of those!) with the words "Thinking of you today..." Inside it reads "...feeling fortunate that life brought us together and made us friends." Wow! That's awesome. Life certainly does do that sometimes.

I met Evelyn when I joined Central Maryland Chorale. She then joined my Mishkan Torah choir. This allowed us to get to know each other over the last two and a half years. She is a delightful person, and I feel fortunate that life brought us together. She is also an excellent tenor, and my choir was improved by her voice. Coincidentally she shares the first name of my favorite aunt and my daughter.

Little did I know that she also knew one of my high school friends, Mary Jane Cross, known professionally as Murphy Cross. Last June when we were in NYC with CMC to sing in Carnegie Hall, Evelyn and I joined some other CMC singers for dinner one night. During dinner, Evelyn happened to mention that she was going to meet her friend Murphy Cross the next morning in the hotel lobby. I did a little double-take because it's an unusual name. It didn't take long before we realized we were talking about the same person! Evelyn had been good friends with Murphy's mother and watched Murphy grow up. I went to school with Murphy and was in virtually all her classes from 7th grade through 12th grade. After high school, Murphy went to NY to study musical theater and has had a successful career as an actress, choreographer, and director. She won a Tony Award in 2007 for a show called Jay Johnson: The Two and Only. I ran into her only once since high school and that was back when we were both still in college.

So I met with Evelyn and Murphy in the lobby of the hotel. Although Evelyn and Murphy have kept in touch and meet up with each other frequently, I had not seen Murphy in decades. We had a wonderful "catch up on thirty years of life" conversation for about an hour or so before Evelyn and I had to go to a rehearsal. It was really a great time.

So I would like to paraphrase a recent commercial and say:
Cost of joining CMC, $65
Cost of trip to sing at Carnegie Hall, $2,000
Cost of getting to know Evelyn, PRICELESS!!