Quiet, Radiant Heart

Didn’t plan it that way but when the descarga “Vulcano” by the Martinique performer Henri Guedon came randomly rotated its way into the mix this morning walking up the stairs, at 6:20AM to the weight room, I knew I’d be making some headway.  A percussionist, I’m not sure if he is the timbale player on that cut but if he is, he’s a monster and after his solo the whole band brings it back to that muscular head that we started with.  Love it. 

Had a meeting at a corporate office that is located within the 798 Art Zone today.  Even if the heart of what’s cool in that scene has long since moved on, it’s still good to be around a cacophony of pipes and chimneys and odd building shapes that don’t conform to the rest of just-add-water Beijing outside the second ring road.  I had lunch in a spot across the street and sat and dug the pedestrians quickly making their way by outside, hustling somewhere to get out of the cold.  They make salads differently than I would have.  I suppose it was worth it. 

One friend told me another chum was down.  He had the blues.  The new parents blues is a particular kind of blues and I couldn’t reach him in the morning when I tried once and then again later.  But he called me back on my ride home and we had a good chat.  He didn’t want to talk much about his own situation.  Turned out an old high school friend of ours had passed last night, back in the U.S.  Beautiful, sophisticated soul, even when we were all just sixteen years old.  I only saw her once in the last thirty years, but she had the same, quiet radiant heart. She left behind a family and it all must be very sad right now. 

My friend who had called, had once been in love with her.  I remember we once had a public piece of therapy driven by one of our teachers where one and then another student was encouraged to speak about what was on their mind and after some time, he was crying out that he loved her and that he was sad, as she didn’t love him back, at least not in the same way.  I reminded him of this and he remembered. We noted that it was the second member we knew of, from our high school class who had passed, taken too young.  Later, when I was riding my bike I sent some thoughts up to this friend, who’d passed on, wishing her spirit peace, wondering just what it must be like for a spirit to receive such messages, if that’s what spirits do. 

Tuesday, 01/08/19