In fact, he said that he used to call him “Jimmy.” And whether or not he was telling the truth, I’ll never know. For the record, I strongly felt that he was.
He was surprised to learn that I was only 25 years old. I was even more shocked when he told me that he was 83. His name is Omar, by the way. He mentioned the many places that he’d visited, lived and studied, including Switzerland, Paris, and London, and the many people who he’d met while doing so.
I was so very entranced by this…intellectual who was so very well-spoken and cultured. I couldn’t wait to go home and visit his website to see the products of his creative trades: silver/goldsmith, painter, and writer.
In addition to our backgrounds, we discussed books and “isms,” including feminism, sexism, racism, capitalism, socialism, communism, Catholicism, and so on. And as good of a talker as he was, he was even better at listening.
To think: the exchange was triggered by my compliment of his Lhasa Apso.
Omar invited me to have lunch with him in the near future, and you know what? I think I’ll go; I wanna hear some more about this documentary that’s being made about him. Plus, I have some questions about James Baldwin aka Jimmy 😉