I'm looking at this piano, which is being played by the greatest musician in the world (ya know, Hiromi Uehara), and I'm realizing just how lucky I am because I'm right next to this piano, touching the stage, and then I notice something kind of funny. I'm so close to the piano that the spotlight is shining on the top of my head and my silhouette is being reflected in the side of the divine instrument. The thing is, the light is really illuminating the top of my hair (which is tied back) so that I can see individual strands sticking out from the rest. If I were feeling especially poetic, I could say it had something to do with non-conformity, but instead I'm thinking it looks strange to have my hair mostly pulled back with noticeable renegade strands vying for the spotlight. When I look in a mirror, I rarely notice that unless it's especially wild, but with the bright light, it seems obvious. Luckily, I'm immediately comforted by the fact that A.) nobody in their right mind is looking at the back of my head instead of the pianist and the harpist on stage, and B.) even if I were standing right next to the pianist and you could only see our hair, I don't think anyone would consider mine especially disheveled, relatively speaking.
More importantly, on the way to the show I was thinking about how last night I didn't meet anyone at my table, and maybe that had something to do with going to the early shows on work nights for the first time ever. Until this year, I'd always had to get permission to get out of work early, or even ask for a vacation from my night shifts for a night or two. I would always meet interesting people from around the world at my table. I do that at work, but with the responsibility of needing to teach them. On top of that, there's a much higher turnout of jazz fans at this club than there is in my classrooms.
Thus, I was very pleased to walk in later than I'd hoped to and find that not only was there an available seat immediately next to the piano, but that I was seated with five interesting people from various walks of life. When they asked me what I do, I said I write by night, and when they asked what I write about, I said something about memoirs involving travel and noticing the poetry that is the world. One of the guys was a poet, and he asked me if there was anything I'd taken away from other cultures that I wanted to adopt. I said I didn't copy any systems, because what works for them systemically wouldn't work for me, but that there were elements of thinking in eastern religions which I found resonated with my own thoughts. It turned out that three of them knew each other because of a meditation group. I also mentioned that I generally felt less uptight about things after spending so many nights teaching people from Central and South America. Of course, there was a couple that lived in South America and had retired after working in education for many years. When I told the teacher that seeing Hiromi was like being able to say you saw Jimi Hendrix, he smiled and said, "I did see Hendrix! I wasn't this close though!"
Before I continue, I should mention that a few months ago, for the holidays, I was given a book called Earth Prayers: 365 Prayers, Poems, and Invocations from Around the World edited by Elizabeth Roberts and Elias Amidon. I've been reading it a lot more in the past couple months as I've been visiting nature more. A few weeks ago I was hiking my first mountain in the Cambridge Valley (where I grew up...) and read some of these poems at the top, breathing the fresh air. I also read some in a canoe recently, floating on the water, and on a hill, while sitting by a fire, admiring the Earth beneath my feet. One of the poems that really caught my attention was by John Seed and Joanna Macy. It was about the four elements: Water, Earth, Air and Fire.
It begins:
"What are you? What am I? Intersecting cycles of water, earth, air and fire, that's what I am, that's what you are."
I encourage you to find this book and read the rest!
Anyway, you can imagine my pleasure when she played a new suite entitled "The Elements: Air, Earth, Water & Fire."
There weren't any words, but the message was clear, dancing in my ears
More importantly, on the way to the show I was thinking about how last night I didn't meet anyone at my table, and maybe that had something to do with going to the early shows on work nights for the first time ever. Until this year, I'd always had to get permission to get out of work early, or even ask for a vacation from my night shifts for a night or two. I would always meet interesting people from around the world at my table. I do that at work, but with the responsibility of needing to teach them. On top of that, there's a much higher turnout of jazz fans at this club than there is in my classrooms.
Thus, I was very pleased to walk in later than I'd hoped to and find that not only was there an available seat immediately next to the piano, but that I was seated with five interesting people from various walks of life. When they asked me what I do, I said I write by night, and when they asked what I write about, I said something about memoirs involving travel and noticing the poetry that is the world. One of the guys was a poet, and he asked me if there was anything I'd taken away from other cultures that I wanted to adopt. I said I didn't copy any systems, because what works for them systemically wouldn't work for me, but that there were elements of thinking in eastern religions which I found resonated with my own thoughts. It turned out that three of them knew each other because of a meditation group. I also mentioned that I generally felt less uptight about things after spending so many nights teaching people from Central and South America. Of course, there was a couple that lived in South America and had retired after working in education for many years. When I told the teacher that seeing Hiromi was like being able to say you saw Jimi Hendrix, he smiled and said, "I did see Hendrix! I wasn't this close though!"
Before I continue, I should mention that a few months ago, for the holidays, I was given a book called Earth Prayers: 365 Prayers, Poems, and Invocations from Around the World edited by Elizabeth Roberts and Elias Amidon. I've been reading it a lot more in the past couple months as I've been visiting nature more. A few weeks ago I was hiking my first mountain in the Cambridge Valley (where I grew up...) and read some of these poems at the top, breathing the fresh air. I also read some in a canoe recently, floating on the water, and on a hill, while sitting by a fire, admiring the Earth beneath my feet. One of the poems that really caught my attention was by John Seed and Joanna Macy. It was about the four elements: Water, Earth, Air and Fire.
It begins:
"What are you? What am I? Intersecting cycles of water, earth, air and fire, that's what I am, that's what you are."
I encourage you to find this book and read the rest!
Anyway, you can imagine my pleasure when she played a new suite entitled "The Elements: Air, Earth, Water & Fire."
There weren't any words, but the message was clear, dancing in my ears
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