Stories

Encounters with civility as told by Philip R. Einsohn

 

Brad Moore

11-11-24

It was the morning after Halloween. I was up early by most peoples standards , yet it was normal for me. My early morning was not due to an abundance of sugar from the night before… just a normal early morning for me. Got up did my usual morning routine before heading to Cooper for a walk. My walks always started at the chin up bars although my  feet always stay on the ground. I use the bar to s t r e t c h my body out before I begin to walk my first mile. With each mile I stop and s t r e t c h again, doing my best to pull my stomach in for a full minute before beginning my next mile. Same routine for each mile.

As I headed off on my first mile in the silence and the dark, my mind began to wander as it normally does, and that’s a good thing. Sometimes it may go to what’s ahead for the day, or I am noticing aches and pains in my body or trying to increase my pace to what it should be or could be for that day.

If I should encounter another person it would be rare, especially within the first half mile because I start away from the main building where many people are inside working out already. I enjoy the alone time.

As I turned a corner and headed towards the main building with the fence to the property on my right and the street just beyond it, I heard, “Phil?” I looked up to see Brad Moore heading in the opposite direction on the other side of the fence on the sidewalk. Very few people call me “Phil.” It is a dead giveaway that the person knew me way back when in high school when it was cool to have a nickname… Phil instead of Philip… Brad instead of Bradford. Some stuck, others returned to their given name.

Let’s take a pause in the story to think about what has already happened. If I had hung on the bar and extra few seconds, or had walked slower or slept later, or Brad had a faster jogging pace, our paths would not have crossed, but they did.

On top of that, this was the second time this happened.

Brad is one of the good guys from high school. The first early morning encounter we had begged the question, why did this happen? The balance of my walking time on that morning was dedicated to that question. As I racked my brain for all the possibilities from simply catching up with a good guy that I hadn’t seen in a year or so to, come on, there has to be “Moore” to it then that.

 My memories of Brad from high school were…nice guy, smiled and laughed a lot, and cared about other people. Our paths didn’t cross for many years after high school except for reunions, which we had every five years instead of the normal ten year cycle. We connected over work a few times and he was gracious to ask me to create some beautiful floor art at St. Michael's Chapel in Dallas as well as a few other projects.

I was astonished when I heard he had retired and began to teach and coach at Parrish Day School. Maybe astonished is the wrong word. Awe would probably be a better word. Awe in terms of doing more than earning a buck. He was doing something he was passionate about and not waiting until later in life.

Well, after several years at Parrish, he resigned and started another passion project. A not for profit drilling water wells in Africa. Our high school friend and his mentor,  Steve Rutenbar, who was the “Pastor of Disaster” for the Saddleback Church in California got Brad involved in the water well project. Brad is still drilling after _____ years. Imagine the number of people who Brad has helped. So, when I say he is a good guy, I mean it.

My intuition said, “Yes, there is more to this chance meeting.” The first encounter happened in June. I had recently finished my first draft (of many) of Circles of Civility Hope for the Children. As the book was being heavily edited, I began to think about , “what’s next?” People have a tendency to think that writing a book is the hard part, which I would agree with to a certain degree. The reality is, the rest of the story is much harder. Getting it published, getting people to read it, getting people to use it has been far more difficult than how I expected it to be. What did I know about any of this! Well, Brad knew a great deal about the not for profit world and was also a teacher for several years and bright as good be.

So we connected over lunch and I introduced my passion project to him. He was kind, helpful and compassionate in how he presented the realities of what was ahead without bursting my bubble. Raising money, paperwork, and social media were just a few of the topics. Maybe the bubble wasn’t burst, but it sure came close.

The book was finally published and Brad was kind to email the class of ‘71 letting them know that their fellow classmate had published a book that they should purchase and support. Brad also took the time after reading the book to write a review. What more could one ask?

The second encounter on the first of November humbled me even more. In the course of no more than ninety seconds, he told me about a class he was teaching at Richardson ISD and his encounter with the school counselor and his desire to present Circles of Civility Hope for the Children to her. And if that wasn’t enough, he suggested that I add the words giving and receiving to the list of words of civility. “ We need to use the words “thank you” and “you are welcome” moore.

It happened again yesterday morning.