A Tribute to Paul on his 80th birthday

In the early 1990's, before the advent of the World Wide Web and the popularity of the Internet, some of us had already begun to experiment with communicating by computer with complete strangers by posting messages to our local Echo Bulletin Board Systems. The conversations weren't yet as instantaneous as they have since come to be, but they gave a foretaste of what lay ahead. We'd write a message and upload it (in my case at 1200 baud), and then in a day or two, through the magic of the relaying system those bulletin board systems used, a reply would find its way back to our computer screen when we downloaded a new packet of messages from our chosen forum. What a thrill it was to discover that someone had read and responded to the message we had posted, and a new kind of laborious conversation would have been initiated. After weeks of such exchanges, we began to experience a phenomenon that most people have now come to take for granted; we began to feel that we had established a friendship with someone we had never laid eyes on. Gradually we would flesh out a perception of the personalities of these "voices from the darkness" with whom we had been exchanging messages.

I first experienced this phenomenon in a group called ILink Writers in 1991. I didn't start posting messages in that forum immediately, preferring to "lurk" instead and read the ongoing conversations of others. I was attracted to the Writers group because of the quality of the writing that I read there. These people were exceptionally intelligent and quite witty, and above all they wrote really well. In fact, their skill at writing was at first an inhibiting factor in my getting up the nerve to post a message. I lacked confidence that what I wrote would ever be accepted in such a talented group of writers. But as time passed and the desire to be a part of such a group gradually overcame my reticence to risk contributing, I joined in and posted a timid first message in which I closed with something like "as Paul Moor would say, you could look it up." To my delight, when I got the next packet of messages, there was a message from Paul Moor himself in which he commented on what I had written. I forget what he said exactly in his response, but that exchange began what has become one of the most rewarding friendships of my life.

I had noticed Paul's messages because he wrote with such extraordinary skill and emotion. His contributions were exceptional even in a group where everyone seemed to be exceptionally talented. I was attracted to his facility with words and to his sense of humor. In particular I remember one message in which someone had posed some question about a gnat but the person had misspelled gnat as "knat". Paul's comeback was that "I wouldn't tell you even if I gnew." When I read that message I roared with almost uncontrollable laughter, and even today I still think its funny.

On Christmas eve in 1992, I decided to phone Paul at his San Francisco home just to give myself the Christmas present of being able to actually speak with the person I had come to admire and had enjoyed in that Writers conference so much during the preceding year. We spoke for about 20 minutes that evening, and it was one of the nicest and most lasting gifts I've ever given myself.

In the ensuing dozen years, Paul and I have continued to exchange messages almost daily, and I've gotten to know him much more personally and to admire him even more. We've met on two occasions. Once in the summer of 1995 he invited me to come to San Francisco and attend an opera with him because he had an extra ticket to Madame Butterfly, being performed that week at Berkeley. I had the time and the frequent flyer points that permitted me to make the trip without undue expense, so I took him up on his offer. There I got to meet not only him but his dog, Skeezix. And then more recently at his invitation in October of last year, I visited him and his current dog, Maxe, for two weeks at his home in Berlin, about which I have written earlier in this blog.

So today I am moved to write this tribute to Paul because today is his 80th birthday. I celebrate it in the only way I can, by writing about him. I feel truly blessed to have had the privilege of getting to know him through the years and to count him as my friend.

Paul, I hope you have a wonderful birthday today. I wish you the very best of everything -- happiness, health, continued success and the recognition that you so richly deserve. I am honored to have you as my friend, and I look forward to our continued correspondence and to the growth of our relationship as the years go on. You have become and will remain an integral part of my life.
- posted by Perry @ 6:24 AM