She would begin slowly working up to a foaming fit of anger. Suddenly, there was silence and it was time for the dialogue to begin. Conveniently, numerous commercials would blast across the airways allowing callers time to assemble their confutations. One by one, the callers would fall into formation. Finally, Lynn would emerge ready for the first strike. The aggression, the intellectual stamina, the sheer audacity she encompassed--bravely, she would hoist her opinions onto the open fields of the airways. The debate had begun.

One by one, listeners would attack her opinion and challenge her to debate. The banter lasted for hours. It was gut wrenching at times and I wondered what it was that held me captive. Soon, I discovered it was Chuck, an elderly gentleman, from Brookline that had captivated my intellect and my soul. On a regular basis, Chuck would cautiously approach the formation and patiently wait his turn. Finally, he was at the front of the line. Cheerfully, he greeted Lynn with a crackling hello--she returned the greeting and then began her transformation. Lynn's aggressive soul was quickly calmed and the dialogue began to develop slowly.

There was a chemistry that became evident when listening to their conversation--they truly enjoyed speaking with one another. Rarely they disagreed, but when they did disagree, they were able to respect each others opinions well enough to move beyond the disagreement itself. What seemed to matter most was that each person had a well developed opinion and was able to express that opinion in a polite way--allowing the opposing person to begin to consider their viewpoint and possibly modify their own.

I was fortunate to meet Chuck and develop a brief, but highly influential, friendship. Through this friendship, I discovered many things one of which was that appearances are meaningless. On a sunny afternoon, before me sat the man I had been listening to for years--a weathered old man whose wits were as sharp an ax--a man whom I'd imagined to be highly educated and well respected. While visiting with Chuck, I discovered his deepest secret--Chuck was a man of little intellectual self confidence. He doubted his every statement, his every word. How could this be? I'd heard him speak with Lynn, he was articulate, reasonable, logical--his statements were very thought provoking and poignant. How could this man doubt himself? Slowly, I realized Chuck's lack of intellectual self confidence came from an addiction to knowledge--an insatiable quest to know everything. While visiting him, we began to talk about love and relationships, then he said to his wife Sylvia, "Can you please hand me my book?", his wife of 40 years carefully handed him his book. I stared at it with great bemusement, I'd never seen such an artifact of intellectual pursuits.

It was an encyclopedia of everything Chuck had ever contemplated--encompassing torn pages from other publications, as well as, handwritten notes. It measured two inches at the spine and eight inches at the opening. A 24-hour reference manual, speckled with multicolored paper clips on every edge. This was it, the ultimate book of knowledge, a record of one man's journey for the pursuit of knowledge and truth. After slowly paging through his book, Chuck came upon an a hand written note which read . . . "Love is not eugenic; when a man is in love, he should not be permitted to make decisions affecting his entire life; it is not given to man to love and be wise. We should invalid the vows of lovers, and should make love a legal impediment to marriage. The best should marry only the best; love should be left to the rabble. The purpose of marriage is not merely reproduction, it should also be development."--Friedrich Nietzsche.

It's difficult to verbalize the numerous positive affects I gained from my relationship with Chuck. However, I can say that I began to contemplate life in a more meaningful way and I began to pursue knowledge as I never had before. My life was truly enriched by this man and diminished when he passed away.