Events in life continue, the hurt continues, and yet the sun keeps coming up. My dear cousin Gale summed things up when she observed that with my mother’s passing, perhaps I have lost my biggest cheerleader.
But now it’s about moving ahead. After all, I was always taught to pick myself up, and dust myself off, just like in the song. That’s what we do in life.
And I like to quote Jean Cocteau who said with irony “Nous sommes condamnés à vivre.”
In the last few weeks I’ve been absent from Facebook. A close circle of friends and family has been my safety net. The urge to engage in public was not there.
Sometimes I surge forward by leaps and bounds (for example at the gym, which has taken on new importance right now), sometimes by baby steps, back to favorite hobbies such as eating (haha)… and also walking, reading and writing, photography, visiting museums… And yet until today I pointedly lacked any urge to take the merest picture, or was absent even the slightest inclination to post and share things here. Just too sad, I guess.
May I add in passing that I was and am overwhelmed with gratitude for the wonderful, supportive comments on my last post.
Guys, there are still so many things I want to write about: my crazy adventures onstage, going back to the embryonic days of Les arts florissants and the early music movement, or amazing tales of working at the Paris Opéra, or at La Fenice in Venice, or working underground at the Met for 14 years, or recently in Brazil and how THOSE incredible five years happened! I want to tell stories about meeting and working with wonderful or inspiring opera singers, conductors, composers, pianists…and God, I’ve known so many; or write about memories of that evening with Anouck Aimée after the opening of ‘Les Troyens’ at the Bastille, or that tête-à-tête dinner with Leslie Caron; or how about those 40 years of My Travels With Jacques (now THERE’S the subject for a novel for you…); maybe even a few favorite memories of Mom after all, and how her mellowed wisdom and loving words somehow always kept me centered until now.
So my friends, it seems a sure thing I’ll be back here on Facebook, somehow, in some form. But it will be when the time seems right.
Greg