Acquiring a Teacher

Vijay Gupta, from his website 

When we were in Chicago in June at the national conference of the League of American Orchestras, the keynote opening speaker was Vijay Gupta, an extraordinary individual by any measurement. His topic was social justice in the music world, and he spoke at length about his ideas of what that means and what it looks like and about Street Symphony, an organization he helped found that works alongside and with the Los Angeles Skid Row community.

I was blown away by Gupta. (So were  a lot of others in attendance, judging by the faces around me and the comments afterwards, including those from Warren.) I was so rapt that I didn't take notes, just listened. I was so impressed that I jettisoned one interesting sounding breakout session the next day to attend one with him. (And was blown away again.) And I was so moved by what he had to say that, when walking to a session following the opening keynote address, I saw Gupta and League CEO Jesse Rosen exit a side room, I cut Rosen off mid-sentence, saying "I'm sorry, but this is more important," and thanked Gupta for what he said. (He was wonderfully gracious, thanked me for my kind words, and, the next day, when I walked into the breakout session, smiled broadly and said "Hello again!")

In short, Gupta's vision and philosophy and engagement in the world outside the concert hall made a huge impression on me. Warren and I have talked about it at length in relationship to the Symphony and the community engagement work he does with and through the orchestra. I have thought about Gupta's comments in relationship to the Legal Clinic and our community of clients.

Gupta's vision has caused me to reflect on the population we serve at Legal Clinic: not only who we serve but also how we serve them. When we come together each month, we are engaging in what Gupta calls "radical mutuality" and "radical intimacy." I think of not only the clients we serve, but other members of our community who come not for legal advice but for a warm meal and some social contact. We strive to treat everyone who comes through our door with dignity and respect, knowing that for many clients just opening that door is a huge and often intimidating leap of trust. Gupta understands—deeply and passionately—that those "others," those denizens of Skid Row in his case, those clients we work with in ours, are us. They. Are. Us. It is not about Gupta "dissipating" his considerable musical talent on the "musical equivalent of a soup kitchen or legal clinic," as someone said to me. It is not about our volunteers squandering their time and talent on "those people." It is about creating safe space—a sanctuary—and all coming together in that space.

The Talmud directs me to acquire a teacher, and if at age 62, I have acquired a 30-year-old wunderkind as my teacher, well, isn't that great?