Last Friday, NancyTW and I visited Epcot Center at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida. For her, it was the first time there, and my first time back since about 1987. We had reservations for dinner at the French restaurant, and found it to be among the most enjoyable dining experiences we have ever had. It was also among the most expensive, but worth every last cent.

About twenty years ago, as I walked the World Showcase at Epcot, a street entertainer in ‘France’ spontaneously performed a perfect pantomime impersonation of me taking a picture with the Nikon I was holding. A moment later, he was making humorous and emotional contact with other visitors, all through facial expressions and body language, without ever uttering a word. He juggled wooden clubs and other props, and his black striped shirt combined with his white make-up to provide me with exceptional opportunities for extraordinary photos of a man silently proficient at putting smiles on peoples’ faces, all on the fly.

In the years since then, I have wondered many times how well the performer would have mimicked me had I sat on a bench and tested my blood sugar.

On Saturday evening, we attended a performance of La Nouba by Cirque du Soleil at Downtown Disney. Similar to the mime of two decades ago, the 90 minute program featured dozens of clowns, mimes, and performers entertaining their audience with feats of incredible dexterity, and humor-filled stories and antics, all without the use of words.

So with memories of a mime from twenty years past, a marvelous experience in the finest French cuisine, and an awe-inspiring acrobatic performance to remember, I have to note the sad coincidence that famed French pantomime Marcel Marceau passed away in Paris this weekend. It is an admirable quality to bring laughter and joy into peoples’ hearts, and even more so when done in silence.