Excerpted from an email I sent to family, with a little addendum...
During the service on Saturday, I found myself moved nearly to tears at the Philadelphia Horn Section's performance. To my ears, this was clearly a musical embodiment of the thoughts and feelings-- the memories of Mason that we share and shared --that most of us are accustomed to using only words to express.
However, later in the evening, this experience was eclipsed by an even greater one-- getting to connect and reconnect with the members of my extended family. While I will miss Mason and his influences on my life, his last, greatest gift to me is that I got to discover the cousins that I quite honestly didn't know I had, along with being brought together with the others I've barely known.
From my paternal grandmother's side of the family: four cousins (second cousins? something'th cousins? who cares..) of my generation, running the gamut of early 20s to late 30s. It is remotely possible that I've previously met ONE of them. But, really, all four were completely new acquaintances; I am the middle cousin, age-wise. I've made tentative plans to meet up again with one who will, coincidentally, be visiting LA this week. If not, there's always Facebook.
However, later in the evening, this experience was eclipsed by an even greater one-- getting to connect and reconnect with the members of my extended family. While I will miss Mason and his influences on my life, his last, greatest gift to me is that I got to discover the cousins that I quite honestly didn't know I had, along with being brought together with the others I've barely known.
From my paternal grandmother's side of the family: four cousins (second cousins? something'th cousins? who cares..) of my generation, running the gamut of early 20s to late 30s. It is remotely possible that I've previously met ONE of them. But, really, all four were completely new acquaintances; I am the middle cousin, age-wise. I've made tentative plans to meet up again with one who will, coincidentally, be visiting LA this week. If not, there's always Facebook.