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On Wednesday writer Dennis Watlington gave a presentation at Curry College for the Blue Hills Writing Institute, based on his memoir Chasing America. Dennis is perhaps better known for his documentary film and tv work and as a playwright. He’s got an Emmy and a Cine Golden Eagle award and he wrote for General Hospital amongst other things. But his memoir of growing up on the meanest of meanstreets in Harlem, of his two heroin addictions - one when only 13 - has smashed through to claim a different kind of attention.

Now, before you groan and say, not another story of how hard it was to grow up black and how unfair the world is, I have to say that Dennis is not inviting us to any kind of pity party. He doesn’t want to bring us into a place of outrage and sadness.  He says quite straightforwardly that of course things were bad, yet we’d be much better served looking at how far we’ve come in the last two and a half centuries so we can focus on moving things further in the right direction now.  It’s about how we dissolve racism day by day, everyday, by refusing to go into a place of woundedness.

Two things caught my attention above all.  Dennis is a magnificent speaker and he is that way because he describes himself as ‘a Warrior for Peace’.  When he said that I almost fell of my chair, because it was so true.  He is living the Warrior-Lover archetype I’ve written about in Stories We Need To Know.  He doesn’t just talk about this stuff, he lives it every day, and he inspires others to see things differently as a result.  Now that’s about the finest example I can think of to describe the way the Warrior-Lover moves into true, full, Monarch phase.  The Monarch doesn’t  fight all the battles himself.  The Monarch inspires others to join the fray so that peace and progress can grow.

Most of us don’t get to meet a real Monarch every day.  We’re lucky if we see one or two in a lifetime.  I was lucky enough to have dinner with one on Wednesday; we laughed uproariously about important things over the salad and asparagus, and I’ve never had a better time.  And I’ll never be quite the same.

Dennis is a truly Great Soul.  Catch his readings whenever and wherever you can and if that means being rude to your mother-in-law to get there, do it.  Better still, bring the old lady along.