In 1972 I completed my service in the Navy and moved to Colorado to finish up my undergraduate degree at the University of Denver. I was shopping at Target for a writing lamp and found something I could afford – $3.99. Standing next to me was an older couple looking at the same lamp and it was we both realized the last one in stock. We knew there was going to be a discussion and it was just a matter of who would say something first. The woman asked me why I was interested in that particular lamp and I told her it would be perfect for the writing I was anxious to start. That’s what I had chosen to do in my life at that point. I wanted to be a writer. She smiled and said “My husband has done some writing as well.” I was curious now and asked “Have you ever been published?” He didn’t say anything. He was still looking at the lamp! She answered for him. “Have you ever read Hawaii?” I looked again at her husband and yes it was James Michener. They were in Colorado working on the research and writing of a new book – Centennial. I was speechless of course. He smiled and handed me the lamp. At the same time he said “We are going to be here for several months. Why don’t you come see us?”

I’ve thought about that encounter many times over the years and about their shopping for bargains in Target and their kindness to a young man who must have seemed at best naïve. It didn’t matter to them. They were not celebrities. There was no entourage or assistants there to handle these chance encounters. They were just an older couple willing to share a lamp and a part of their lives with a young stranger wanting to be a writer.