I was at the Central North American Pre-World-Conference Conference in 1998. On the second evening, Harvey was talking about his newly developed understatement theory when the staff informed us of a tornado warning. I had been watching the sky. As a firefighter I figured my job was to be sure everyone took it seriously and went to the safe area in the basement.
In my mind, Harvey was an important resource who should have been up in the front of the one-hundred-plus-person line to the basement. Instead he was making everyone go in front of him and taking the role I had seen for myself-directing everyone to be calm and sauntering calmly down the hall himself, at the end of the line. He seemed to be enjoying the excitement.
We lined the basement hallways and were told we would need to wait there until the storm subsided. Harvey stood at the junction of the hallways and proceeded with his lecture. He then did a powerful demonstration with someone using the direction, "It sometimes happens that someone likes somebody." We stayed in the basement for almost an hour.
I witnessed Harvey's fearlessness and tenacity in operation that night. I won't forget his taking every opportunity to teach-even in a basement hallway during a tornado warning. I have no doubt that had we been swept up like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, Harvey would have counseled us as we whirled away.
Jeanne Bulla
Seattle, Washington, USA