My friend, lef, the Writer

I love this smile...

I met my friend lef (that's Lawrence Everett Forbes, but I've always simply refered to him as "lef", a name I believe he only went by in art school) during my first semester at The San Francisco Art Institute. We had a crazy class called "New Genres" together - one of the wackiest classes I've ever taken. lef and I became fast friends. I sometimes think we were the only two sane people in the entire class. (I'm sure other people would be quick to argue that!)

The class that we had together was twice a week, and was held in the evenings - from 7:00-11:00pm, if memory serves. I lived about a mile away from school, and I walked back and forth on the many steep each day. lef lived somewhere beyond my apartment, and would always walk me back to my place after our late night class together. Once in a while, when we weren't too tired, he would come into my place to share a cup of tea and a whole lotta laughter with me.

Funny, we only spent one semester at school together (he graduated), and he moved away from SF soon afterwards to pursue a Masters Degree, but we managed to remain close friends over the next 12 years.

lef is a writer. One of the best that I know. He has such a way with words. He always has. He's been working on his first novel, but in the meantime, has recently had 3 pieces published - one in Newsweek.com, another in Gay City News, and one that will be published in this Sunday's New York Times!

I just read the three essays, and they blew my mind. I especially loved the NY Times piece.

I'm taking the liberty of posting the links here to share with all of you:

A Brother as Significant as Any Other (New York Times)

Realignment (Newsweek.com)

Making My Own Safety A Priority (Gay City News)

Congratulations, dear lef! Kudos to you, my friend!