Last night I had an early celebration of my birthday as Kevin took me to see Dar Williams with Susan Werner opening. That should be all I need to write, the rest you can figure out for yourself. Just as 2 + 3 = 5; Dar + Susan = Great Time. Sure I just saw them this weekend. It doesn’t matter, these are two of the greatest talents out there. Not only that but they complement each other. While they are both brilliant solo singers and songwriters they achieve greatness in different ways. It’s easy to see what Susan does, She is overflowing with musicality and cleverness. You alternate being awed by her musicianship and her wit. Look back a few entries and you’ll find more on what makes Susan one of the greatest entertainers out there.
What does Dar do? I always have trouble putting it into words, which is ironic as how she puts things into words is the source of her magic. Dar has the gift of letting you see the world through her eyes; it’s a strange and beautiful world. It is of the real world but in no way mundane. Then it hit me. There’s a dialogue in the Doctor Who serial, The Time Monster, featuring the Third Doctor and his companion Jo Grant, that hits exactly at not what Dar does, but the effect she has.
DOCTOR: Well, when I was a little boy, we used to live in a house that was perched halfway up the top of a mountain. And behind our house, there sat under a tree an old man, a hermit, a monk. He’d lived under this tree for half his lifetime, so they said, and he’d learned the secret of life. So, when my black day came, I went and asked him to help me.
JO: And he told you the secret? Well, what was it?
DOCTOR: Well, I’m coming to that, Jo, in my own time. Ah, I’ll never forget what it was like up there. All bleak and cold, it was. A few bare rocks with some weeds sprouting from them and some pathetic little patches of sludgy snow. It was just grey. Grey, grey, grey. Well, the tree the old man sat under, that was ancient and twisted and the old man himself was, he was as brittle and as dry as a leaf in the autumn.
JO: But what did he say?
DOCTOR: Nothing, not a word. He just sat there, silently, expressionless, and he listened whilst I poured out my troubles to him. I was too unhappy even for tears, I remember. And when I’d finished, he lifted a skeletal hand and he pointed. Do you know what he pointed at?
JO: No.
DOCTOR: A flower. One of those little weeds. Just like a daisy, it was. Well, I looked at it for a moment and suddenly I saw it through his eyes. It was simply glowing with life, like a perfectly cut jewel. And the colours? Well, the colours were deeper and richer than you could possibly imagine. Yes, that was the daisiest daisy I’d ever seen.
JO: And that was the secret of life? A daisy? Honestly, Doctor.
DOCTOR: Yes, I laughed too when I first heard it. So, later, I got up and I ran down that mountain and I found that the rocks weren’t grey at all, but they were red, brown and purple and gold. And those pathetic little patches of sludgy snow, they were shining white. Shining white in the sunlight.
I have always loved that scene and I have always loved Dar, but this was the first time I’ve put them together. It’s not that Dar makes the world better, it’s that she lets you see that the world is more magical than we usually perceive. I saw Susan and Dar on Saturday and Sunday and last night; and I’d do it again.
This was of course a gathering of the tribe. I think I counted ten people that I knew at the show. Let’s count them up now.
- Kevin
- Tony – by chance sitting at the table next to ours.
- Fred
- Glenn
- Colleen
- Adrian
- Sharon
- Chris
- Gene
- Isabel
- Jeff
- Bill
- Marty
As always the list is geographic, based on where they were sitting. That’s the way my mind and memory work. Before I got there I figured I’d know between 10 and 15 people. The right answer was dead center of the distribution. Why did I think I counted only 10? Oh right, because I’m an idiot. I’m sure there were others there, Patty was as she got a shout-out.
The perfect evening continued after the show as Kevin and I walked up to Cones on Bleecker Street for the best ice cream in the world. Susan, Dar, friends, and ice cream. That should be enough to make anyone happy, at least for one evening. If not, take another look at that daisy.
Weird day; I had a terrible night’s sleep, it’s 4:04 and only now, after a second glass of iced coffee do I feel up to writing. As it’s raining, I’m no longer going to take the walk to the supermarket I was planning. I probably won’t leave the house. Good thing I have tomorrow’s blog already planned out. This was originally the opening paragraph but all my writing teachers’ voices are in my head telling me to not bury the lede. I often do because that’s how Isaac Asimov structured his essays in the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, and they have influenced me as much as any literature I’ve read. They were brilliant. Much of my writing style comes from them. It’s not deliberate, it got baked into my brain.
Today’s entry reminds me of how much I write about things that I love, things that I want to share, so everyone else that can experience them too. I should perhaps dedicate an entire entry into just listing things that make me effuse with praise. In this short entry, I discussed, Susan, Dar, Doctor Who, Isaac Asimov, and Cones Ice Cream. What we love is not everything, but it’s a big part of each of us. I have made most of my friends through a shared love of something.
Wise Madness 