Soar-Dream-France: The Fall of Freddie the Leaf-By Leo Buscaglia, Ph.D.

The fourth book on my beam is The Fall of Freddie the Leaf-A Story of Life for All Ages, by Leo Buscaglia, Ph.D. During my tenure as the Counseling Coordinator at the Children's Bureau in New Orleans, we had a special program called Project L.A.S.T.-Loss and Survival Team that helped children who had been victims of violence themselves or who had observed violence. Many of the children served in the program had watched parents and/or loved ones murdered. Freddie was one of the books the Project used with the children in our program, but frankly-Freddie helped me!

In addition to my work at the Children's Bureau during the early '90's, I also volunteered as a Buddy with our local NO/AIDS Task Force. There is a strenuous volunteer training program and each buddy has a seasoned program volunteer to supervise them and offer moral support. I became friends with many of the people I went through training with. I went into the program as mentally and emotionally prepared as I could be to lose those who I was assigned to work with. What I wasn't ready for was to begin losing my friends too. One summer it seemed that everyone I knew was disclosing their positive status to me. I asked myself if I could bear so much loss? I went on vacation and three of my friends died during the ten days I was gone, but by then I decided I loved my friends so much that I wouldn't give up one minute of having known them while they were with me. I learned to celebrate their lives, and in the end love mine even more.

Celebrating life is a wonderful thing. We got very good at it. I was often asked to read something for a friend or a buddy at a memorial service and I always chose this passage from Freddie where his sage friend Daniel tries to answer Freddie's questions before Daniel is about to die:

"Then what has been the reason for all of this?" Freddie continued to question. "Why were we here at all if we only have to fall and die?"

Daniel answered in his matter-of-fact way, "It's been about the sun and the moon. It's been about happy times together. It's been about the shade and the old people and the children. It's been about colors in Fall. It's been about seasons. Isn't that enough?"

That afternoon, in the golden light of dusk, Daniel let go. He fell effortlessly. He seemed to smile peacefully as he fell. "Goodbye for now, Freddie," he said.

I tended to read a little more than that. There is a wonderful passage about being different and Dr. Buscaglia's story is sweet, profound and complete. There is a wonderful habit in the shops in France, of asking you whether what you are buying is a gift. If it is, they wrap it up particularly pretty for you with lots of twirly, squiggly ribbons. I am often asked if the flowers I'm buying are a gift for someone and I say: "Oui, c'est un cadeau pour moi!" We laugh. It's fun. And, Freddie was a gift for me!