246
PHILIP
L.
GREENE
Lerner's third lecture at The New School where Lerner brilliantly
illustrated
his
thesis of the dynamics of American pluralism by showing
the bipolar attitude of the nation at large toward abortion, a topic
Merle continued with great expertise, over a cookeryburger. "Marsha
has had three--one in Jersey, one in Puerto Rico, and one right here
on Fifth Avenue. Lerner is right because
this
problem epitomizes the
indigenous moral strength of the American people. In the face of
official sanctions against
it,
there is a remarkable pragmatic
will
operating."
When Merle told me that Marsha was having some people over
and that Lil would be there, I accepted the invitation. I was at loose
ends myself and Lil had looked plaintively neurotic the last time
I
had seen her. I knew that her health-food phase was temporary, and
I hoped I might be just the thing to renew her contact with love.
She was leaning heavily on her new Frommian world view. Merle
had to pick up Tibby Barrett, Lil's old roommate at Oswego State
College, who had recently arrived from Goshen and had taken a one
and a half on Jane Street just around the comer from the old cat and
dog store that was being torn down to make way for a luxury apart–
ment, one of a number around the West Village that were following
an artist motif. The Van Gogh and The Rembrandt had already
been built. The new one was called The Picasso
Arms.
Tibby was
doing research at
Newsweek.
Merle, who was writing advertising copy,
met her for lunch every day in front of the library lions. .
When we arrived at Marsha's Lil was sitting on the couch
be–
tween Murray Abramson and
his
wife Lisa, who greeted me with a
warm voice edged with a Hungarian accent. She was finishing her
work at the White school. Murray and Lisa were planning to start a
husband-and-wife group therapy experiment.
As
the husband-and-wife
doctor team they would take only husband-and-wife teams as patients.
Murray's chapter on existential therapy for marital groups had been
published as an article in the
Saturday Evening Post.
When Marsha
came in with a tray of stuffed mushrooms she announced that Larry
had just called and would be arriving from Washington any minute.
Over drinks Lil posed the problem of pre-non-post-extra- marital
relations to Murray. Murray, with Lisa counterpointing in soft Hun–
garian, suggested that behavioral patterns weren't subject to moral
judgments, only analysis and clarification. Lil was overwhelmed by the
simple logic of Murray's position. Larry arrived, kissed Marsha and
