A joyful end to a long day.
Up at four to take Julie and Sylvan to the airport. Everyone else had the same idea; lines were long. We saw Mike, Brooke, and Kylie (going to Hawaii) as well as Annie, Damien, and Oscar (going to Denver). Julie stood in the “security” line while I waited in the long line to hand her suitcase over to the friendly suitcase inspectors. It looks like their flights all went fine, except for the fussy fifteen-month old boy in 20H.
Later in the morning, I went to a memorial service for a retired faculty member at my school. It was moving. His children and one of his grandsons stood up and talked about him, followed by a number of his former students. They said that he knew the difference between happiness and contentment (hint: contentment involves sitting and watching television). They said that the highest compliment he could pay to a person or an object was “vigorous.” Vigorous meant that something, or someone, was full of energy, and still a little rough-hewn.
If people say a quarter of the good things about me when I die that they said about Philip, I will have lived a life wonderful beyond measure.
In the afternoon, I took a nap. Tephra helped. She’s helpful that way. I woke up and worked on an easy part of my thesis for a few hours. I revised about 2,500 words today. So far, so good.
I rewarded myself with a night at the opera. Well, at the symphony. They didn’t play Take Me Out To The Ballgame, but they did start with two short pieces. The first was a choral work by Ralph Vaughan Williams, Julie’s favorite composer, based on text from The Merchant of Venice (Act V, scene 1). The second was a rousing Bruckner choral piece based on Psalm 150, a psalm of praise, music, and loud noises.
After the intermission, the choir had decided to stay, so the orchestra played some Beethoven. Thirty minutes of crashing, zooming, and teasing followed, until finally the cellos and basses relented and warmed up the Ode To Joy theme. A whole lot of hollering followed, most of it apparently in German. The tenor had the most fun.
I had a cheap seat, which ended up being in the second row. I got to watch the conductor’s remarkable variety of facial expressions, but I didn’t get to see the timpani, which is the best part of the Ninth. Sounded good, though.
Seid umschlungen, Millionen.