Motus Mentis

I lost a friend last Monday. His name was Alan Chevat. He was 72.

I met Alan about twenty years ago when he came to study at the Yee’s Hung Ga kwoon in Brooklyn, where I was an instructor. We became friends right away.

Alan was a very interesting man. He was Chief Attorney in one of the state court offices downtown, but his interests were wide-ranging. A lifelong Brooklynite, he lived near me in Park Slope with his wife and daughter. We used to walk home from class together, and we’d always get into some lively conversation, and end up standing on the street corner near my house on 9th Street, not wanting to part company and go home just yet. After he left the school to go study Wing Chun we stayed in touch, and we’d get together for lunch when I was in town.

Alan was a “renaissance man”. When he retired a few years ago, he dove into a variety of intellectual pursuits, including reading all of Shakespeare and studying advanced mathematics at Brooklyn College. He also loved history and music – and of course he was enormously knowledgeable about the law. We appreciated each other’s minds very much; he was the real deal. They say that “the owl of Minerva spreads her wings at dusk”, and this was never truer than with Alan. He saw retirement as a great gift, a garden to be cultivated. We could talk about anything at all, and though we didn’t always agree — he was a “red-diaper baby”, and a committed Progressive all his life, while I, as you will have noticed, am not — we could disagree in the best possible way: as an opportunity to learn, and to understand more deeply the contrary point of view. He was, in the truest sense, a gentleman and a scholar, and my life was deeply enriched by his friendship.

Alan’s wife Ruth called me a few days ago to tell me that Alan, who was quite fit — he rode his bike all the time, and worked out regularly with his Wing Chun training buddies — had died suddenly and unexpectedly sometime on Monday. It was sickening news.

Alan was of course fully vaccinated against the Wuhan Red Death. I can’t help wondering if that had something to do with his death. I guess I’ll never know.

RIP, Alan. You were truly a remarkable man, and a real kindred spirit. I will miss you terribly.