A Good Day

 In Bob’s lexicon, “A Good Day” is a day where you get lots of work done.  Yesterday at 150 Hill Road was a good day.  It dawned clear, cold and soggy after a day of rain on Thursday.  The biggest work was done by our landscaping workers.  Three of them were assigned the onerous task of moving the stones from the street in front of our house where they sat on pallets in coarse screen cylinders for more than three weeks, down to the yard.  Bob and I had said they had to move the stones through our yard so as not to endanger people walking on the public path just beside our house.  We couldn’t imagine how they would do it.  A day was spent preparing ramps down our stairs so we thought they’d use a wheelbarrow.  Bob even engineered a brace on the wheelbarrow so they could rest it on the narrow ramps.  When they began, most of the rocks were moved one or two at a time, by hand or in a bucket.  By noon there was a big pile of stones down in the yard and yet they kept moving more.  Four pallets in all were moved, probably around two tons of rock moved by human effort.  Down in the yard, Ozzie selected and placed the stones in the carefully prepared troughs to begin the rock wall that will hold the soil in place by the stairs.  It was exciting to see this coming into being after such a long time of preparation.  

Arne and Liam spent the night here, sleeping on the sofas.  Boba found a comfortable spot and in the early morning Liam snuggled up to him using him as a pillow.  Arne made a big breakfast for us all.  And then the guys headed down to the shop, Liam and Bob’s favorite place.  Liam got to work making his beautiful wooden pens.  Bob always finds some work to do in the shop.  This time he was putting plywood up on a blank wall to hang more tools up.  Arne and I had our workouts, one after the other, with our favorite trainer on zoom.  I made Valentine cookies for everybody.  After lunch, Liam made a beautiful cherry bowl on the lathe.  He’s getting skilled at making these wood turned bowls.  Lucky me, he gave this one to me!  But the work wasn’t over, Arne and Liam had one more thing to do.  Together they made a beautiful wooden picture frame.  It delighted Bob to see them work on this project side by side, father and son.   By mid-afternoon, all the work stopped.  The stone movers were really tired out after all their work.  Giovani told me, “No more!!!”  Liam and Arne finished up and quickly left to get home to make dinner for Karna and Elsa who were coming home from Denver.  And a peace descended upon this place.  What a good day it was!

Grateful Resistance

 As I ponder what I’ve done the last couple of days, I am very grateful for a variety of activities all of which have nurtured my soul and strengthened my resistance to the political chaos in our country.  I’ve had two visits to the UC Botanical Garden in the last 3 days.  It’s been volunteering there nearly 10 years. Early on I noticed the peace I found there among all the beautiful paths, plants and benches where I could rest and appreciate the beauty of nature.  But over time, I got used to it.  Only recently, have I come back awareness of all I love in that place.  Saturday after lunch, Bob and I took Liam to the Garden.  He was glum from a couple of project failures in the shop that morning.  When we got to the Garden, he began to smile and as we walked the paths, I noticed he was skipping and singing.  He loves the Garden too and seeing his delight doubled my pleasure.  Yesterday, on my propagation shift, I noticed the community of people I’m a part of there.  It is such a pleasure to smile and greet my favorite horticulturist or see the Director as he greets me or smile at the warm greetings from other propagators.  And then there is that tangible peace I feel when I enter.  In these tough times, that peace is truly a treasure.  

A second thing that soothes my soul and restores me is music, especially live music.  Last night we went to a Schubertiade which was a part Freight and Salvage’s Monday night classic series.  A Schubertiade is a celebration of Franz Schubert’s music.  When we got there, there was already a long line waiting for the doors to open.  We were surprised.  The first part of the concert was a selection of 4 out of the 600 songs Schubert composed.  The soprano, Ann Moss, explained each song and began by reminding us how wonderful it was to be able to be at a concert and how music soothes and nurtures our souls.  How true!  The songs were varied and delightful and my friend Sharona, who doesn’t like Schubert’s songs, liked with Ann’s sweet voice, exuberant personality and evident joy.  One story she told was about one song “To Music” Schubert composed at a party.  One of his friends composed a poem at the party and then asked him to put it to music.  And so the story goes that he did so right there on the spot scribbling out the music sitting among his friends.  To finish the song part of the program, a longer piece written for piano, clarinet and singer was played.  The clarinet part was transcribed for a viola.  Both Bob and I agreed, it lost something in the transcription.  Finally the famous “Trout Quintet” was performed.   Hearing the first notes of it, I was immediately transported back to the Louisiana Art Museum outside Copenhagen where I first heard this piece in 1978 on a visit there.  The piece was very familiar and as I followed the piano part as it interacted with the strings, I was just engulfed by the music as it wove in and out going from minor to major and back again and again.  Schubert was a genius.  As all else fell away, the music filled me with joy.  This performance wasn’t the greatest, nevertheless I loved it and appreciated spending the evening listening to Schubert’s music.  It gave me perspective and renewed my strength.  

Comprehending Political Change

We’re just into the 3rd week of Trump’s Presidency and I’m sitting here in my living room becoming a bobble-head.  I just keep shaking my head back and forth—-saying no, No, NO, NOOOOO as I listen to the News Hour or read the NYTimes hearing about the political changes happening in my country.  These are the biggest political changes that have happened in my lifetime, maybe in the history of the United States and yet, I just sit here working on a list of flowers to plant in my new garden.  It’s unbelievable and yet it is happening.  It’s illegal and yet it is happening.  It’s incomprehensible and yet it is happening.  What the consequences will be?  I have no idea but I am sure they will be bad for everyone but Trump and his billionaire cronies and maybe China.  

It’s a coup.  It’s a hostile take-over.  It’s a government take-over.  The bad guy/guys are doing everything Trump said they would do and more.  Actions he told as a joke are really happening.  Every whim and fantasy like making the Gaza Strip a new Mar-A-Lago.  When will the people rise up?  How can we express our strong disapproval of what is happening?  At the beginning of the first Trump term,  there was the Women’s March where women and men came together all over the world to express their disapproval.  Now, there’s silence.  I am silent.  Now he has both Houses of Congress in his pocket and if anyone shows a glimmer of defection,  he threatens and bullies them in submission.  Now he has the Courts and especially the Supreme Court in his pocket not that he’s bothering to follow the Law.  And he is suing the media into submission.  Even 60 Minutes is cowering from his threats.  Thank goodness the New York Times is still strong.

And then there’s the Muskrat who is “throwing Government agencies into the wood chipper” as he said of U.S.A.I.D.  He and his gang of 20 year old geniuses are dismantling the government and gaining much information they should not have.  It’s said that Trump is using Musk so he, Trump, won’t be blamed for the suffering that will inevitably come to the people of the U.S.  I think the Muskrat is using Trump to his purpose of gaining control of the purses of the U.S. government and bending them to get control of the wealth of the world.  If that happens, what can stop him?

Ezra Klein of NYTimes recently wrote an article titled “Don’t Believe Him” saying that Trump is doing all this so fast that few if any can respond and react.  But really Trump is weak.  Perhaps he is like an evil Wizard of Oz, just a weak man cowering behind a curtain of bluster and threats.  I don’t know.  I know that I am scared of the reactions of the rest of the world to this evident decline in U.S. strength and power.  I say to others, watch and stay calm.  See what is really happening.  We can’t tell yet.  Don’t let the stories we make up in our head that away our power.  Yet, I find myself drawing parallels to Hitler’s take-over of Germany and then Europe and I say to myself:  Stay calm and alert.  Don’t make up stories.

Blomstedt at 97

Arne treated Bob and me taking us Thursday afternoon to a San Francisco Symphony concert with Herbert Blomstedt conducting.  He got front row seats, so as Bob joked we could catch Blomstedt if he fell.  Arne has been interested in Blomstedt since he became the Conductor of the SFSymphony in 1984.  That year, I took the boys aged 15, 13 and 10 to the Opening Concert of his Inaugural Season.  It was a fancy fancy concert with a champagne reception and the tickets were very expensive but I thought it was important for their cultural education.  As I recall they were more than $100/ticket, quite a lot for the time. Our seats were in the last row of the Second Balcony against the back wall of the hall on the far right.  Blomstedt conducted Beethoven’s 1st and 9th Symphonies.  The sound was fantastic, but the orchestra was very far away and the players looked very small.  As Arne remembered, we liked the 1st Symphony better.  I remember some gay guys teasing Arne, telling him Beethoven was down in the audience in main floor.  Arne, then attending the Crowden School, began telling them what he knew about Beethoven which was quite a lot.  He put those smart aleck guys in their place.

Since then, I’ve seen Blomstedt conduct a number of times as Guest Conductor of the Symphony.  Arne took his family to see him conduct several years ago.  Over the years, the audience and Orchestra have grown to appreciate him more and more.  I’d say he’s a really old “rock star” conductor now.  But what would he be like at 97?  He walked out on the arm of the Concertmaster, walking very slowly and wobbly, looking frail.  He could barely pull himself up onto the podium where a black padded piano bench was in front of the conductor’s music stand.  As the applause grew louder and louder with many people standing up to honor him, he turned and waved and smiled.  Then he raised his hands and the music began.  He didn’t use a baton.  I could only see his right side and sometimes both of his hands.  His arms were strong and he raised them up over his head in the loud passages of the 5th Symphony of Schubert.  It was a 27 minute sunny cheerful piece.  There was great applause after and clearly everyone loved him.  Carefully and painfully he stepped down and hobbled off stage.  Brahms’s 1st Symphony was the piece they played for the second half of the concert.  He was more dynamic conducting this one, but then the piece has such huge dynamic contrasts.  At one point, I saw him put his finger to his mouth, shushing the orchestra or one of the players.  I didn’t hear any response.  He seemed to be conducting both pieces from memory.  I wondered how many times he’s conducted this Brahms piece in his 70 years on the podium?  Afterwards, the cheering went on for a very long time.  For years now, no one knows if they’ll see him conduct again.  But he just goes on and on.  I wonder if he’ll be the first conductor to make it to 100 and still be conducting.  For me, it was such a treat to watch him and marvel at such an amazing man.