Off off-Broadway.
Last year when I learned of Jeffrey Mylett’s death, unconscious of the date he died, I wondered if the movie “Jeffrey” had been based on his life. “Jeffrey” was the screen adaptation of an off-Broadway production of the same name. The film featured a lot of stars playing in it, demonstrating Hollywood’s support for victims of AIDS. The story line dealt with the main character giving up on love (sex) because he is so discouraged by the AIDS epidemic. As often happens, when you stop looking for love, you find it, and Jeffrey found the man of his dreams. It’s not a very good film, albeit the film remains an important document on the culture.
Anyway - long story short, “Jeffrey” was not about Jeffrey. My friend Mr. Mylett died of complications due to AIDS in 1986 - in Los Angeles - not NYC. I met Jeffrey about 10 years earlier in Assisi, and although I only spent a couple of days with him, I think we both thought of one another as friends.
“Neither covet honor nor shun disgrace.”- Meher Baba
I was living as a pilgrim - seeking to emulate Benedict Joseph Labre - and made Assisi sort of my home-base. (Labre sort of had a home base in the Colosseum in Rome.) The Atonement sisters permitted me to stay in a porch of their house if I would help with the gardening. I was a disappointment to the community as a worker, but they permitted me to live there while I remained in Assisi.
One weekend, the nuns had an overflow of guests, so the sister in charge asked me to share a room with two other guys from the States, one was a rather snobbish student, the other was Jeffrey. I was very shy and quiet believe it or not, and I kept to myself. In those days everyone wanted to know all about me - why I was living in Italy; “Oh! You are not a student then?” Was I a priest? “We thought you must be because you wear a rosary on your belt.” Then they assumed I must be entering a community; “You’re not? So you left the Trappists and you are just going to wander around Europe? Wish I could do that.”
“Love God purely for the sake of loving.”- Meher Baba
Jeffrey wasn’t so interested in me until he found out that I was determined to live as a mendicant - then he lit up. I can’t recall our conversations exactly, but they centered upon mysticism and asceticism, and the desire for total union with God. Eventually Jeff explaind to me that he was no longer a Catholic, but a devotee of Meher Baba, whose teachings corresponded well with the spirituality/mysticism of St. Francis. He was unoffended when I said, “Oh that is too bad - but I’m sure St. Francis called you here and he will obtain the grace for you to return to the Church”.
The conversations continued, throughout the night. I told him about my friend Jim who also sought God through oriental religions; we discussed people such as Seals and Croft, two musicians who were into Bahai, Pete Townsend, whose rock opera Tommy was influenced by Meher Baba, and so on. Jeffrey and I were exactly the same age, shared many similar interests and experiences, and therefore understood each other very well.
“We beseech Thee” - Jeffrey’s song from “Godspell”
The next day, fasting, we walked up the mountain to the Carceri - the hermitage the first friars and St. Francis sought refuge in. On the way up Jeffrey revealed to me he was an actor. “Really? In movies? Broadway?” He told me he was both - he had been an original cast member in “Godspell” on Broadway, and repeated his role in the film. “Wow! I saw the film, but I don’t remember you.” He shrugged it all off however, and said, “It doesn’t matter.”
We continued our pilgrimage. When we got to the hermitage, we explored the caves where the friars slept and then decided to part for silent prayer. I returned to the chapel and he stayed at the caves. The friars asked me to spend the night while Jeffrey must have returned to the sister’s guest house, which was situated up the street from Santa Chiara, in Assisi.
The “Little Prince“.
We never met again, since he had already left Assisi when I returned to the nuns a day later. I often thought of him through the years, and have always remembered him in my prayers. I was very sad last year when I learned he had died.
“And when your sorrow is comforted (time soothes all sorrows) you will be content that you have known me. You will always be my friend.” - The Little Prince.
[Note: The reason I wrote this is for another friend who had asked me to write about how Jeffrey and I met. She is writing something about his life.]
