KT,
Another installment on process: Today. We’ll see how it goes but all bets are off without you to guide us. Sev, Mads, Linda, and I continue to fumble through the days. I look for small details now, unlike my previous approach to both the day and life. We’ll see if it connects function and purpose. So far, the gulf between is too great and they sit next to each other. Hence the subject line.
Yesterday was a significant event. Not just the day as an event but an event within the day. Linda and I went out to do something. Yep. Get off the hill. Out of the house. Join what normal people do with Ed and Trish guiding us in the process. The day was complicated though. Other events. The calendar. Functions and purpose juxtaposed.
Steffani stopped by to say hello after a month in Africa. What a beautiful family. Their commitment to bettering the people in Malawi is endless. Their purpose pure. It is what we should all be doing. But it gets squeezed out by time. She brought us a table. The most amazing, unique table. Hand carved by James, a villager who is one of her favorites. As she wrote…
“I have been pondering ways to help you or bring the slightest bit of some sort of happiness to you, even though there is nothing I can say or do to ease your pain. I asked Raina to send me the graphic design you guys created to carry on KT's legend. It only took a few hours for the locals here in Namakoma village to hear that we were here and they all started coming with their carvings. I met James the last time I came and he has had a special place in my heart ever sense. He came to the house the second day and I told him what had happened to your family, showed him the picture Raina had sent and asked if he could make your family something special. He smiled and said "don't worry, I will make a good one" he came back a week later and brought tears to my eyes with the table he had made you. He is an amazing man, living each day to survive the next.”
A truly amazing story. People who have nothing and give everything to someone they don’t know. This juxtaposition is so difficult to understand.
We went to a concert and had the beauty of sitting in the dark, watching and listening to John Prine and his band. One of the last pieces was John strumming with vigor. A bit of a jam session but with drive. Not wandering solos, but a uniform force. Guitars in rhythm and cords flying off the stage. The lyricist turned into an instrumentalist. A fiddle playing above the harmony. The bass a strong undercurrent and drums moving everyone along synchronously. Then, he laid the guitar down and began to dance. As well as he could, given his age. OK, it was more of a jig. Around the guitar. His back to the audience. Slowly moving off the stage. And then off the stage.
Only the guitar laid down on the stage while the band played on. Strong harmony: Guitars and drums. Driving along with the lead guitar laid down on the stage. It was all you, KT. Your presence quietly laid down to rest juxtaposed with all of us still playing the music. Strongly so. Juxtaposed.
JT