Is it time for music yet?
It feels like spring, so...
I have not thought much about the end of the pandemic because I needed — as we all did — to focus on just getting through.
But I left my house for a walk last week on one of those days when the snow is melting and the sun is shining, and coming up the hill, I swear I could hear fiddle music.
Sure enough, a small group had gathered in the town gazebo to practice for an upcoming concert. A concert! Outside, but still! I sat down to listen, and as they launched into “Danny Boy,” my heart opened a little, and it hit me that we might come through this, all this, the scary virus, the pandemic, the isolation.
I wrote this for Hearst. A warning: It’s behind a paywall.
I have to say that I didn’t read the article. I’ve forgotten more subscriptions than I remember but the topic means a lot to me.
We live for live music. Back in normal times we would catch live music three or four times a month. We were fortunate enough to have an outdoor concert series late summer/early fall in town, physically distanced with chalk lined assigned spaces laid out on the ground. A little strange but it worked. Between the beginning of shutdown and the first concert of the series at least a dozen events we had tickets for had been cancelled. When the first concert began, I choked up. I wasn’t prepared for that and even wondered for a moment if it was a good idea to be there. You talk about your heart opening up a little, I guess in that moment mine did too. Music, especially live music, can be and if you’re lucky should be transcendent but you have to let go for that to happen. I think I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to button things back up if I did that. We all have moments like that ahead of us and not just about music. I least now I know I’ll be less surprised when they happen.
I love your writing.
I'm counting on better days ahead. I can almost imagine what the collective gratitude might be like as we tiptoe back into our old ways of being.