This would have been the 7th year of donating a music performance to the Pan Mass Challenge, (the biggest fundraising for cancer event in New England).

Made a video online for them this time around for the “PMC Virtual” (here’s a shot from that video) and wishing everyone health and happiness in the organization.

They’re friends on a worthwhile mission and I’m happy to support them.

I’ve been making the most of the time, writing, listening, practicing, and cleaning and I’m grateful to have the time to do it.  Oftentimes we leave things unfinished -this is always going to happen in some way because you can’t finish everything and that’s life:  The messiness, the unknown future, the unspoken words.   All together, all in time.  The new recording is a snapshot of some of these things I was able to finish with the time that Covid gave us.

On another note….

I played last night in front of people at a little place in CT, and while most of the audience was on the patio outside and I was inside (playing to them indirectly) it was a relief to see people and play music for them again, to see their smiles and hear their laughter.

There’s backyard parties being planned for the next few months, the “new normal” as in … very “informal” and still grateful for everything coming down the road.

I was discussing the silver linings about our situation with someone and I thought I might share an insight:

There was a window of time in the history of this country (many others as well),  say starting in 1945, in which we had time.   We had nights and weekends and we didn’t carry computers around and our eyes didn’t burn from screens.  We weren’t the prisoners of phones.

It wasn’t that long ago.

We read books, listened to records, went dancing, and most homes had a piano and there was always someone who could at least get along with it.  We simply “showed up” at peoples houses and knocked on their doors, and if they were home we engaged.

Don’t misunderstand me, we also had crappier tech, less advanced medicine, more polluting machinery a few more wars to go, lest this be confused for a “it was better back in the day” statement because it isn’t.

Point being, a little slow down might help us in the long run lest we melt down from the heat that’s made by the culture spinning at the fastest speeds imaginable.  And there are wonderful things about “yesterday” that are being ignored by “tomorrow” like looking in a persons eye when you’re talking to them or being able to live without your implant (phone) for more than an hour.

Things to consider…