From Dapon Barry Boyce
I'm in New York visiting family, and I was just hanging out with my nephew Eddie. We were reminiscing about exploits with Pogie. The Halperns and the Boyces are interconnected kasung families and Eddie has very fond memories of being at MPE with Sol and having many encounters with Uncle Paul. Paul had his ways about every little thing---always finding the best equipment ("here Boyce, why don't I order you one of these Swedish Sam Brownes; they're the right color and they're better than that other shit people are getting stuck with these days." I still have that Sam Browne, and he was right.
At MPE at skirmish, Paul carried two canteens, as Eddie remembers. One time Eddie and Sol had been running around and were really parched and they asked Pogie for a drink. He said, "Um, sure," and they reached for one of the canteens, and he mumbled "Whoa, that's the dark water. I have dark water and light water. Do you want the dark water?" he asked with a raised eyebrow. They drank the dark water. A little initiation into one of Paul's many rituals.
I first met Paul in 1979 when I moved to DC. I walked into a kasung meeting he was leading. At one point, for some reason, Paul said, "This is a somewhat historic occasion," and I thought, "Wow." I came to learn over time that this was one of Paul's many verbal mannerisms. We would share many "somewhat historic occasions" during those Washington days.
He had taken the time to consult my previous rusung, Bruce Banks, in Boston, and ascertained that I had some promise. He decided to take me under his wing and before long I was his khenchung. He was very mothering in a way, downloading to me what the kasung was about and how things were done. Honestly, his understanding wasn't always apparent to everyone, but those who knew, knew Paul, whose heritage and eccentric proclivities would make him stand out and hence cause him to seek the margins and the edges, found his final home in the kasung. Finalmente. The greek and roman classics, film, and many other oddments that made up his lifestream to date would go into the background. Paul would pour all that he had into the kasung and into service and camaraderie, particularly after he came back from his attending his first rusung conference with the Makkyi Rabjam. It was a watershed time for him. He fell very deeply in love with his teacher and commander.
In training me, he let me know about any behavior he regarded as "chickenshit," but he would also stand up for you when it counted. He knew I could never pull off the impeccable uniform thing, and once during a visit someone said to him, "What about Boyce, he looks like he's been sleeping in his uniform?," and Paul said, "That's probably because he has been."
A few more tidbits before I sign off. Paul and I had terrible livelihood issues in the DC days, so in addition to being Rusung and Khenchung, we were also compatriots in doing low-level editorial jobs. I was sort of Paul's sidekick at times, a kind of Laurel and Hardy thing. We used to laugh no end about things we would find in the arcane government crap we were proofing. Even in Halifax we would recall the time we were proofing legal decisions back in the DC days and came across one for "public lewdness," where the perpetrator was caught with dozens of issues of Spankers' Monthly.
We both liked to watch the Rockford Files back in those days, and Rockford was known for having a series of not-so-bright sidekicks, one of whom was named Beamer, who fancied himself an intellectual. One time Beamer commented to Rockford about how sophisticated something was, and Rockford sneered back, "How would you know Beamer?" Whenever I would wax philosophical and prophetic, Paul would shoot back, or really mumble back. "How would you know Beamer?" We never laughed so hard.
Finally, Paul did something that completely blew my mind, when he wrote his manual on bodyguarding, Keep 'Em Alive, as if he had been a top professional in the field for years. It was daringly deceptive. It was a roman a clef that drew on his kasung experiences (and it even included a Beamer-like sidekick). He wrote it under the nom de guerre Paul Elhanan, his middle name. It is Paul's great American novel.
....He will be greatly missed.
-Barry Boyce
At MPE at skirmish, Paul carried two canteens, as Eddie remembers. One time Eddie and Sol had been running around and were really parched and they asked Pogie for a drink. He said, "Um, sure," and they reached for one of the canteens, and he mumbled "Whoa, that's the dark water. I have dark water and light water. Do you want the dark water?" he asked with a raised eyebrow. They drank the dark water. A little initiation into one of Paul's many rituals.
I first met Paul in 1979 when I moved to DC. I walked into a kasung meeting he was leading. At one point, for some reason, Paul said, "This is a somewhat historic occasion," and I thought, "Wow." I came to learn over time that this was one of Paul's many verbal mannerisms. We would share many "somewhat historic occasions" during those Washington days.
He had taken the time to consult my previous rusung, Bruce Banks, in Boston, and ascertained that I had some promise. He decided to take me under his wing and before long I was his khenchung. He was very mothering in a way, downloading to me what the kasung was about and how things were done. Honestly, his understanding wasn't always apparent to everyone, but those who knew, knew Paul, whose heritage and eccentric proclivities would make him stand out and hence cause him to seek the margins and the edges, found his final home in the kasung. Finalmente. The greek and roman classics, film, and many other oddments that made up his lifestream to date would go into the background. Paul would pour all that he had into the kasung and into service and camaraderie, particularly after he came back from his attending his first rusung conference with the Makkyi Rabjam. It was a watershed time for him. He fell very deeply in love with his teacher and commander.
In training me, he let me know about any behavior he regarded as "chickenshit," but he would also stand up for you when it counted. He knew I could never pull off the impeccable uniform thing, and once during a visit someone said to him, "What about Boyce, he looks like he's been sleeping in his uniform?," and Paul said, "That's probably because he has been."
A few more tidbits before I sign off. Paul and I had terrible livelihood issues in the DC days, so in addition to being Rusung and Khenchung, we were also compatriots in doing low-level editorial jobs. I was sort of Paul's sidekick at times, a kind of Laurel and Hardy thing. We used to laugh no end about things we would find in the arcane government crap we were proofing. Even in Halifax we would recall the time we were proofing legal decisions back in the DC days and came across one for "public lewdness," where the perpetrator was caught with dozens of issues of Spankers' Monthly.
We both liked to watch the Rockford Files back in those days, and Rockford was known for having a series of not-so-bright sidekicks, one of whom was named Beamer, who fancied himself an intellectual. One time Beamer commented to Rockford about how sophisticated something was, and Rockford sneered back, "How would you know Beamer?" Whenever I would wax philosophical and prophetic, Paul would shoot back, or really mumble back. "How would you know Beamer?" We never laughed so hard.
Finally, Paul did something that completely blew my mind, when he wrote his manual on bodyguarding, Keep 'Em Alive, as if he had been a top professional in the field for years. It was daringly deceptive. It was a roman a clef that drew on his kasung experiences (and it even included a Beamer-like sidekick). He wrote it under the nom de guerre Paul Elhanan, his middle name. It is Paul's great American novel.
....He will be greatly missed.
-Barry Boyce
posted by Chronicles of CTR at 10:04 AM
1 Comments:
I knew Paul for a time during my days at the DC Dharmadhatu. He was a remarkable individual and one of my favorite people there. I am sad to hear of his passing. Another reminder of the impermanence of life.
Ven. Thubten Rinchen Palzang
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