Saying Goodbye To Bill Fannin

A Remarkable Story
May `80

When it was time to leave, Bill offered to drive me to the bus station
where he assured me it wouldn't cost much to get back to where I could
catch the BART. On the way to the bus station, he told me how he had
become involved in Tibetan Buddhism. Originally, he was like everybody
else, an aspiring student who wanted the "good life." He got to a
point where he became a successful Washington D.C. lawyer, but even
with all that prestige and money he still was not satisfied. He
decided to go back to Tucson, Arizona (his home town) and start his
own law practice.

Even though he had it all, it wasn't enough, and he didn't know what
to do about it. Before returning to Tucson, though, he went on a trip,
an around the world trip. He visited a Hong Kong monastery, and in
Tibet he even trained under a Buddhist monk. After all that, he
returned to Tucson and opened his law practice, but he still wasn't
happy. Depressed, he closed up shop one afternoon and ended up at his
neighbor's house for some afternoon tea. This elderly female neighbor
just happened to be having tea with a Tibetan high lama at the time.
He had no idea she was even interested in Buddhism, let alone that she
had a friend who was the Tibetan monk, Tarthang Tulku.

Well the rest, as they say, is history. Bill quit his law practice
and took up helping kids get a "step up" in an unsympathetic world. He
did, however, continue to do some legal work for the institute. I knew
I was in the presence of a very special man, but instead of
volunteering to work on his ranch, I chose to go back to my custodian
job in Mt. Pleasant. Maybe some day I will council disadvantaged kids,
but then again maybe I won't. I was okay with that decision. I was
glad I had come up to Petaluma to meet Bill Fannin. I wished everybody
in the world could be like him, but right now I had a bicycle trip to
attend to and that's what I set my mind to do. After I got back to
JFKU, I set up my tent behind the baseball field and sat down to enjoy
the beer that I had brought back with me.