Gracious Gift 4/11/09

Once in a while you have to take a break,and visit yourself.

Audrey Giorgi
******************
Hello again.
-----------------------
Lori of Dusty Pages has given me this Kreative Bloogers award and now I must visit myself to see if I deserve it. Well I guess maybe I do, I don't know. There are a lot of creative people out there. I just enjoy writing, so I write every day. I like to share my thoughts with people. I've always liked that. Good conversation is a delicious dinner with a fine wine. So even though I dine alone....

I am supposed to list 7 things I love. Anyone who reads my blog knows that I'm a lover of fine music and good literature, but here are some specifics.

1. The music of J. S. Bach. When I first heard the Bach B minor Mass I thought it was the world's greatest piece of music and I still think so. The opening chorus lasts from 10 to 12 minutes depending on the conductor and during it the chorus sings only the 2 words "kyrie eleison" in a slow majestic fugue,

2. 52 years ago, as I approached my senior year in high school, I had a job in Boston for the summer. One day, in Harvard Square I went into the Harvard Coop and picked off the shelf a complete Shakespeare. It's a very small volume. It measures 7" x 5" x 1" and yet it contains all the plays and all the poems of Shakespeare. It cost $6.50. I bought it, wrote my name in it and it has been with me ever since. It goes with me wherever I go.

3. One afternoon in New York City I went to the Museum of Modern Art during a time when they were renovating the building. Most of the art work was stored but some of the pieces were on displays on peg board sections. I turned a corner and came face to face with The Piano Lesson by Henri Matisse. I spent at least 20 minutes staring at that picture. It definitely changed my life.

4. I spent my adult life as an actor. Sadly, I can't do it anymore or I would be, right now. If I were to grow suddenly wealthy and could afford to get all of my physical problems solved, healed or under treatment I would gladly go back to the stage, because I can remember performances which when I did them I said to myself "I love this more than life itself."

5. I love my friends. They are not too numerous to mentions, but I won't mention them because I don't want to make the mistake of leaving anyone out. They know who they are.

6. The music-dramas of Richard Wagner. Like most opera lovers I came late to an appreciation of Wagner's work. I thought it was too heavy, ponderous and verbose and it gave me a headache. Until one afternoon, at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City I sat through a performance of Tannhauser with Astrid Varnay, Margaret Harshaw and George London. During the third act I had an epiphany. I suddenly heard, saw and felt a spark, a momentary flicker of light into the whole mystical Wagnerian universe. Since then the light has grown brighter and is still growing.

7. Although I can't do it anymore, hiking the trails of the White Mountain National Forest in New Hampshire and Maine. All by myself, striding up and down those hills and through those forests, I don't think I have ever been happier in my life.
--------------------------------
I am also supposed to pass this award along to 7 other bloggers. So from my humble corner of the journalistic world here are 7. No explanations necessary.

1. http://theworldinblackandwhite/
2. adebanji alade - urban sketches
3. raymond shurtz - cowboys and bohemians
4. ImagesByBacon@aol.com
5. valerie - joy in the rain
6. Big Mark 243 - Stars Like Grains Of Sand In My Pocket
7. Judith Ellis - The Being Brand

I could easily choose 10 more, but these will do.

Thank you Lori

DB The Vagabond
______________
May you have unexpected joy today.
*********************************