ON HOPE

The opera ain’t over

 ‘til the fat lady sings

has some exceptions.

For the cynical

 those who don’t know

about hope

for them the lady sings

perpetually

or so it seems.

The blessed ones

the hopeful ones

hear the lady warming up

it’s like a choir of angels.

John A. Bayerl, January 1, 2012

I wrote the first draft of this on New Year's Day.  Today seems like a good day to set it free.

It's been exciting around here.  There were some devastating storms in the early evening yesterday.  I love to watch storms, not through a window, but somewhere where I can feel, hear, smell, touch, even stick my tongue out and taste, all the elements of a storm.  I opened the garage door, found a comfortable chair, and watched as giant thunderheads piled up in the sky.  The neighborhood warning siren began wailing, so I knew this wasn't going to be be your ordinary thunderstorm.  Soon the rain began, then the wind, a lightning strike so close by that I heard the thunder almost as soon as I saw the flash of light; then hail began drumming on the roof of the garage.  It was over almost as quickly as it began.

I went in the house, turned on the TV, thankful that we hadn't lost electricity.  It was time for the evening news, but it was all about a tornado that had touched down in the village of Dexter, about ten miles from where I had been sitting in the garage.  Thirteen homes were smashed to smithereens, many more were damaged, but fortunately there were no injuries to anyone.  I thought about taking a ride to inspect the damage, but decided that it was probably pretty chaotic there, and the last thing in the world that was needed was one more car cluttering up the neighborhood. 

My singing lesson was changed from Wednesday night to tonight--something to look forward to.  Kyle, my teacher, sang for a Masters Recital for a student who is a collaborative pianist.  Since her major is in playing the piano as an accompanist, she needed someone to accompany, and Kyle was among four other students who sang with her.   I attended the recital--it was beautiful, you had to be there.  The songs Kyle sang were beautiful love poems; how could I not cry?   I think I'll go to more of these recitals; there is such talent in The School of Music at UM.  And, best of all, the recitals are free and we do the students a favor by providing an audience.

At the recital an elderly couple sat next to me Dear, and I had a nice conversation with them; all the while thinking you should have been there with me.