Just a Bill

I have a post that is sitting in 'drafts'. It's waiting to be published, like so many others, biding its time. But this post keeps popping up from my sub-conscience. It tries to get my attention again and again. It keeps reminding me of itself in conversations I have with friends. In conversations with family. In conversations with myself. Mostly in conversations with myself. But it has to wait, along with the others, because I am staunchly opposed to posting it right now.

And I have live-out-loud boys, a thoughtful-if-tromping husband who stretches my thoughts to the larger world, a house which drives me to distraction, and a Welsh puppy who noses my elbow and licks my toes.

So .. not yet, shouty post. I am adamant. Despite the fact that it is the reason I have not posted these many months. I am adamant. You will become an actual post one day. Until then, I leave you with this:

Today's conundrum: Am I waiting in vain for that vendor to call-back?

Future conundrum: Will the local NBC all-weather, all-the-time channel ever change its music?

Thanks for perusing; see you again soon.  tIOx

'Once more into the breach, dear friends, once more'

Had mortality not taken hold, Shakespeare would have been 448 today. What he gave the world in the 52 years he lived was an enduring gift of eloquence and wit. What follows are some of my favorite lines from his plays:

'The quality of mercy is not strain'd.
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
upon the place beneath.
It is twice blest:
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.'
Merchant of Venice

'Love is not love
when it is mingled with regards that stand
aloof from the entire point.'
King Lear

'Macbeth shall never vanquish'd be, until
Great Birnam wood to high Dunsinane Hill
shall come against him.'
Macbeth

'When our actions do not,
our fears do make us traitors.'
Macbeth

Feste: 'What is the opinion of Pythagoras concerning wild-fowl?
Malvolio: 'That the soul of our grandam might haply inhabit a bird.'
Twelfth Night


'If we shadows have offended,
think but this, and all is mended,
that you have but slumber'd here
while there visions did appear.'
Midsummer Night's Dream
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I could go on. We all could, I'm sure.
I can no other answer make, but, thanks, and thanks.

Happy birthday, Mr Shakespeare.
(Click through the above link to see more good wishes for the Bard.)

Liszt and Lisitsa

Again, not me. But I have done 'La Campanella'. This performance of 'El Contrabandista' by Lisitsa is inspiring - and as near to perfection as I can imagine.

Reminiscing

While this video is not of me, it has me reminiscing. I think back to the days when this piece consumed my hours at the piano. Good days. Long hours. A happy piece and, below, an exciting performance.

Enjoy.   tIO x



Video via Youtube; property of pianist Natalie Erlich.

Hearing

It's not every day that you sit down with your child and hear yourself coming back to you. Not your words of praise or admonishment. Not your 'catch phrases', humorous anecdotes, or words of wisdom. Not those typical queries and exchanges of travelling through a lifetime. This is something different.

Usually you hear tales of woe and wonder as seen through their eyes. You hear about how life isn't fair. You hear about how they don't get to do things 'everyone else' gets to do. You hear pleadings and ploys, and frustrations and facts. And laughter.

But then. Then you hear them say something that they've brought up from the deep dark. Something that they approach you with hesitantly, not wishing to cause offense. Something they are very serious about. They search your face for pre-approval. And you hear those words that you once thought but didn't dare utter. From thoughts so remote, from a soul on a quest.

And you sit. Stunned. Because you realise two things:
1. Possibly he's mentioned it because he came from you and it's embedded somewhere deep in his genes.
2. He said it. You never did, but he did. Just now. To you.

And you think perhaps you're doing something right after all.


Today's conundrum: When double-checking fails, is triple-checking warranted the next time? And if triple-checking fails, then what?
Future conundrum: Who will buy this wonderful morning?


Thanks for perusing this blog. See you again soon.  tIO x