The three Furies

I saw a one-man show last night at the Intiman called Love and Taxes. It's by Josh Kornbluth. It's the story of him doing his comedy act, getting in tax debt, falling in love, and his taxes spiraling into scary heights with penalties and interest. I won't give away the ending except to say it ends well, the journey is fascinating, and he walks away philosophically changed, now a believer in how citizens' taxes uphold our society.

A good ride.

After the show, they had a 3-person talk-panel. Josh, who had just done the show; Bart, artistic director of the theatre; And Bill Gates, Sr., himself a wealthy man and retired lawyer, who has recently written a book on why wealthy people SHOULD pay estate taxes; apparently their rate has currently been cut, or drastically reduced. Whatever, the bent of the conversation was, "Taxes keep our government working, our society functioning, and we should pay them. We have a good life, and that comes from how we govern ourselves." It was spiced with thoughts like, "The US government is the biggest venture capitalist in the world; they fund the universities, research, the internet, the human genome project -- things too big for any one entity to fund."

Bill Sr. got the first question. He began answering, then said, "I'm talking too long." "Personally, I don't think it's possible to talk too long," said the performer, joking but serious, who had just talked to us for two straight hours.

It was mostly a Q and A period. The 450-seat theatre still had about 300 people in it, as it became essentially a town hall. I love that Bart does this with the Intiman. I have been in that same theatre when it was hosting a memorial service for Anthony Lee, a murdered actor. I have not seen this before in America -- where the theatre is a house of the community for things other than story.

Anyway -- it was fascinating to watch and hear these three men on stage. Young, middle-aged, old. Performer, director, lawyer. Jewish, Jewish/Catholic, Christian. Hawaiian shirt & black jeans, well-fitting black suit, expensive silk blazer & slacks. Round wide eyes, deep-set dark eyes, milk-blue patient smart eyes in a web of wrinkles. All three are white, male, married, fathers, smart, thoughtful, active.

I kept having the hit of looking at the three Furies -- Clotho, who spins and dyes the threads of men's lives; Atropos who weaves it; Lachesis who cuts it.

By trying to feel them as the Furies, I could feel how different male energy is from female. It gave me an appreciation of maleness. Men DO things -- they build and make and achieve, they work hard, and they are beautiful.

These were three very different men trying to make sense of our civilization and our government, all actively working to improve it. Seeing statesmanlike effort and thought, in live humans on a stage, melted a little of my fear and wariness about all things political. Plus I could see -- there's nothing special about any of these men. One just had horrendous tax problems and is trying to keep his comedy shows going. One has a baby and is trying to keep his theatre alive. One is old, and only has enough energy to write his books and keep his Foundation going.

It's not easy for anyone, that's what I saw. You just do your work, and keep at it.

Most of the questions went to Bill Sr., of course. The silence for him was thicker than the silence had been during most of the performance.

One of the questions was, "How do we change people? Most are so cynical about our government. How do we make them see what our taxes uphold?" Josh said, "I do this show." Bart said, "As a storyteller, I believe in the power of story and of human interaction. Tell each person you meet." Bill Sr. said, "Keep having meetings like these. And work to change the laws."

"How do you define wealthy?" someone asked. "I define it very precisely," said Bill Sr. "It's right where the tax laws start shifting to not pay the same rate (or perhaps it was the same estate tax rate) as everyone else. It's at 7 million dollars per household."

When he was talking about the way of life our government makes possible, he said, "Warren Buffett would not be where he is today if he had been born in Bangladesh. Nor would my son, for that matter."

What struck me about Bill Sr. was how directly he took and answered each question. This was a strong quality in all three men, actually.

I don't want to recap the whole talk. I was just struck with the power of a theatre as a town hall. And with the force of three men who each, as Katagiri Roshi would say, are making positive effort for the good.