In Remembrance of Jim Henson
Posted By Kathleen David on May 16, 2008
18 years ago I was finishing up my MFA at the YSD. I had a job lined up at the Williamstown Theater festival which started shortly after I graduated. I was doing my last work study as stage crew for “Pygmalion” at the Rep. It was a Wednesday and we had a matinee for school kids. I can remember standing in the green room and hearing the news. I went up to the deck and had a good cry. Various people who knew how much Jim meant to me came up and checked on me.
During the memorial service they read a letter that Jim wrote before he died to be opened and read after his death. The line I will always remember was
Please watch out for each other. Love and forgive everybody. It’s a good life. Enjoy it.
I walked out of that service feeling better about my self and the world. Jim may have passed but I knew that his legacy would live on into the ages. And since then I have been trying to be an ambassador for puppets and puppetry. I have tried to educate people about puppets and what they can do. I have taught adults and children. I have created a bunch of people who know how to operate a basic hand and rod puppet. I am trying to pass on my love of puppetry to another generation who won’t know a time when Jim Henson was alive.
I have met a lot of people through my love of all things Henson. I have made some serious friends through my work in puppetry. Puppetry has been my touchstone for as long as I can remember and Jim Henson made it shine for me in ways I never thought about.
We still miss you Jim and we honor your memory with our work.
I am grateful that I have people I can talk to about Jim who get the same far away look in their eyes when talking about him and his work.
It was my senior year in college — the last week of classes. I came home and my apartmentmate was looking rather glum.
“Did you hear about the death?”
“Sammy Davis, Jr? Yeah, kind of a bummer.”
“No, not that one.”
“Huh?”
“Jim Henson.”
The rest of the day is a blur.
A little of a year later Lisa and I helped celebrate Jim’s life in our own way, by incorporating aspects of “The Rainbow Connection” into our wedding ceremony and the recessional.
And “Turn the World Around” is still a guaranteed pick-me-up in the Lynch house.
Thanks for reminding us all, Kath. And Jim? Still missin’ you.
TWL
I remember his death coming around the same time as the unexpected death of a family friend (similar situation, and only 35), though I can’t remember who passed first. The events are somewhat linked in my mind. The news was a shock enough, but when I started thinking about the scope of his work, it kind of sent me reeling. I think it was TV Guide (I could be wrong) that had the most wrenching commentary, and that was a cartoon of his best-known Muppets, from Big Bird on down, voiceless, and it made me cry.