Editing My Dinner with Andre (section)

==Plot==
Struggling playwright Wally dreads having dinner with his old friend Andre, whom he has been avoiding since Andre gave up his career as a theater director in 1975 amidst a [[midlife crisis]] and embarked on an extended hiatus during which he traveled the world. Wally reflects that as he has aged he has had to focus more on making money than art.

At [[Café des Artistes]] in Manhattan, Andre tells Wally about some of the adventures he has had since they last saw each other, which included working with his mentor [[Jerzy Grotowski]] and a group of Polish actors in a forest in Poland; traveling to the [[Sahara]] while trying to create a play based on ''[[The Little Prince]]'' by [[Antoine de Saint-Exupéry]]; and visiting the ecological commune [[Findhorn Ecovillage|Findhorn]] in Scotland. The last in this string of events was when Andre and a small group of friends arranged [[Halloween]]-themed experiences for each other at an estate in [[Montauk, New York|Montauk]], including the participants being briefly [[Premature burial#Voluntary|buried alive]].

While Andre says he needed to do all of these things to get out of the rut he was in and learn how to be human, Wally argues that living as Andre has done for the past several years is simply not possible for most people. He describes how he finds pleasure in more ordinary things, like a cup of coffee or his new electric blanket. Andre asserts that focusing too much on comfort can be dangerous, and says that what passes for normal life in New York City is more akin to living in a dream than reality. While Wally agrees with many of Andre's criticisms of modern society, he takes issue with the more mystical aspects of Andre's stories.

After all of the other customers have already left the restaurant, the friends, each having expressed themselves openly and feeling heard by the other, part on good terms. Since Andre paid for dinner, Wally treats himself to a taxi ride, and he notices feeling a deep connection to all of the familiar places he passes on the way home. He narrates that, when he sees his girlfriend, he tells her all about his dinner with Andre.