(no subject)
lay me low...
it's late and i have class in the morning but oh my god this weekend was one big roller coaster of emotions.
it amazed me how far people came to attend this... Seisei traveled across the country, Annie from Santa Cruz, CA, Tanya from DC... and there were many many more.
in the end, i just wanted to get out of there and retreat to montreal, regroup in my head, but for one moment, i wished that it would never end.
As Kushner held his hands in the air, grasping at the last wisps of sound at the end of "Lay Me Low" (a beautiful arrangement of a shaker song) crying, with his wife and children in the front row (the wife also crying) i felt the greatest connection to one particular moment...a greater connection than i've had in a long time. a moment of total suspension, of pure will as if we together could force this moment to remain forever. And as he slowly lowered his hands, the crowd and choir cheered in one large all encompassing wall of sound, surrounding him with the love that he truly deserves.
It was lovely to see all of my friends again... there were some people who i had never met before, and yet now will always have some form of connection to. Hopefully I'll see them in 2 years at the next reunion in Philadelphia :-).
Also, Kushner said the most wonderful thing to me. I had written a setting of the William Stafford poem "When I Met My Muse," and 17 of us performed it for him at the reception. Afterwards, he said that it was the greatest gift he had ever recieved. And in my mind, I knew that it could hardly repay the 18 years of influence and joy and hope he has given to me and to countless other students/alums/friends.
I will miss him. Exeter will feel the void left behind. But it fills me with the greatest joy to know that WE will always have a connection, one that none of us, none of the 60 or so alums who I sang with this weekend, will let go.
I'll see you all in Philadelphia very soon :-)
it's late and i have class in the morning but oh my god this weekend was one big roller coaster of emotions.
it amazed me how far people came to attend this... Seisei traveled across the country, Annie from Santa Cruz, CA, Tanya from DC... and there were many many more.
in the end, i just wanted to get out of there and retreat to montreal, regroup in my head, but for one moment, i wished that it would never end.
As Kushner held his hands in the air, grasping at the last wisps of sound at the end of "Lay Me Low" (a beautiful arrangement of a shaker song) crying, with his wife and children in the front row (the wife also crying) i felt the greatest connection to one particular moment...a greater connection than i've had in a long time. a moment of total suspension, of pure will as if we together could force this moment to remain forever. And as he slowly lowered his hands, the crowd and choir cheered in one large all encompassing wall of sound, surrounding him with the love that he truly deserves.
It was lovely to see all of my friends again... there were some people who i had never met before, and yet now will always have some form of connection to. Hopefully I'll see them in 2 years at the next reunion in Philadelphia :-).
Also, Kushner said the most wonderful thing to me. I had written a setting of the William Stafford poem "When I Met My Muse," and 17 of us performed it for him at the reception. Afterwards, he said that it was the greatest gift he had ever recieved. And in my mind, I knew that it could hardly repay the 18 years of influence and joy and hope he has given to me and to countless other students/alums/friends.
I will miss him. Exeter will feel the void left behind. But it fills me with the greatest joy to know that WE will always have a connection, one that none of us, none of the 60 or so alums who I sang with this weekend, will let go.
I'll see you all in Philadelphia very soon :-)