Friendly Space

My girlfriend loaned me an iPad.  This makes it a lot easier for me to read music I download on-line.  I’ve been very glad to have it.

Friendly: being loaned something that makes one’s life easier.

Q

The universe feels unfriendly to me this evening, so it’s been challenging to think of something that feels authentically friendly right now.  A little more effort was required.

However, today, I’ve been trying to learn a bunch of reels and jigs and other folk music on the mandolin, and that’s been pleasant.  The tunes are wonderfully catchy and fun to play.

A world where a 16-bar tune — and choreography to go along with it — can survive for 400 years — where 20 generations have joined to preserve that bit of fun — surely that’s evidence of a friendly universe.

 

There was a janitor at the college where I swim.  He barely spoke English and I don’t speak his language, Spanish.  For several years, we said hi to each other every morning at 7am as I was getting dressed after swim practice and he was getting dressed in his work clothes for the day.

At one point, he went home to Peru for a month to see his family. When he came back, he brought me this carved and painted gourd as a gift. I hadn’t thought of us as friends, exactly, more just “good morning” buddies. I was touched to realize he used his precious small amount of luggage space to bring me this gift.

A gift, as a gesture of friendship between people who don’t speak the same language: evidence of a friendly universe.

Q

Went to the Contra Dance New York contra dance last night.  Saw a lot of friends and made some new ones.  Had a great time.  Also, I may have found a contra dance band to play with.

Dancing is as old as the hills.  And it’s almost magical.  It’s positively wondrous how something as simple as dancing and live music can create a happy community.

Evidence the universe is friendly: dancing.

 

In order for a musical composition to exist that is as beautiful as this even when played haltingly, as it is here, by me, the universe must have some intrinsic beauty.

Is beauty equal to friendliness?  I don’t know.  But maybe.  Beauty is, at least, welcoming.

J.S. Bach, Invention 1, played by me Jan. 14, 2017.

Check back.  I’m sure I’ll be playing it a lot better in a few weeks.

Q