I’m slow to record these impressions, having been back from Fayetteville, AR for nearly a week now. Perhaps it’s easiest to share the letter I wrote to Chris Knighten, Director of Bands at UA:

Dear Chris,

   Today’s been a day of getting everything together for moving up to Tim’s place in Tennessee.  From the attic to the third floor to the basement, I’ve put in lots of stairs today.  Thank goodness Pattie was ready for a break, because my hamstrings and quads are about to go out on strike.  Yesterday morning, I started to respond to your text with a text, but my reply got too long.  So email it is, and finally I have time to sit and write something.

   The past week with you, Jann, your colleagues, and your students has been extraordinary...

In Fayetteville, Arkansas for a performance, and Pattie and I had a fabulous evening with Chris and Jann Knighten last night. So wonderful to see friends and to catch up!

Am looking forward to meeting lots of staff and students here over the coming days. A rehearsal of Prismata this afternoon will be nice, I’m sure. Pattie will do some exploring on her own, then we’ll connect for a tour of the campus before an evening dinner again.

https://news.uark.edu/articles/72919/u-of-a-bands-to-hold-final-concert-of-fall-semester-nov-25

Just received a wonderful suprise gift in the mail from a former student. The book, Rendezvous with Rama (Arthur C. Clarke) came with a lovely note, but I can’t make out the signature! So I can’t send a thank you, as much as I’d like to. If you happened to have sent this my way, please send me an email so that I can thank you!

Pattie and I are very excited to head out to the University of Arkansas tomorrow, for a performance with Chris Knighten’s Wind Ensemble there. We are both looking forward to exploring the area, to seeing Chris and Jann; and I am particularly looking forward to meeting students, colleagues, and staff there!

Onward to a Razorback football game, too!

It’s been a busy week that’s helped me focus on important matters close to home.

Pattie was down with strep throat for almost a week, now well on the mend. But b/c she wasn’t well, I made the trip up to NY alone to help Joe, Cristin, and the boys move into their new home. So it was a week of working to address immediate issues.

It is so very helpful to live in the moment for a while. Taking care of problems that are right in front of your face–getting Pattie’s medicine, packing a box or moving a light fixture. Making an effort and actually seeing the positive result, rather than focusing on problems of a grand nature, has improved my mood greatly.

The next day or two will be about preparing/packing for our trip to UArkansas. A performance of Prismata on Monday night will be ...

Veteran’s Day.

I haven’t slept more than four continuous hours since a week ago now. Up between 2-3am, then fall asleep again for an hour at ~6:30.

Still trying to process, though unsuccessfully.

My response to yesterday’s email:

I appreciate these words, and the better part of me maintains a belief in human nature.  The last thing I would ever want to do is pull further on these dark threads, only to reveal an abyss beneath. [now, having completed this email, I apologize for doing just that, though.]

I think we all/each make choices about whom to surround ourselves with, and in those choices we promote the values we want to see and live in our society.  We create our own little society in the choices of relationships, I think.  For whatever reason, I learned and hold dear liberal, broad-minded values; and choose our self-built societies accordingly.  I am proud of the little world I have built around me, or found myself in.  

But, of course, I know that this my worl...

I shared yesterday’s post with a few people in my life with whom I share many perspectives, and for whom I have enormous respect both intellectually and personally. One provided the response below:

“Dear Eddie,
Cannot have that dark dark piece be the last word, as true as it appears right now. Musings:
I believe that character, kindness and decency matter.  
I certainly feel betrayed by my countryfolk.
My friend, (an African-American man), who knows a thing or two about loving a country that has often betrayed him, tells me this country has always fought for every small step  and that he swears things are better now than when he finished college in 1968.

Etty Hillesum knew a great deal about the evil in the world and she wrote:
“Ultimately, we have just one moral duty: to reclaim l...