Program Notes

"The future stands still, dear Mr. Kappus, but we move in infinite space." — Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet (1903-1908)

This piece describes brief moments that show me a different kind of existence. When I was home all day every day during the pandemic, these moments were some kind of blessing, serendipity or magic, when we "moved in infinite space" while staying within four walls.

For example...

If I hadn't have been home every single day at the same time... I wouldn't have noticed that for about 3 days at exactly 5:56pm, the sun happened to come through the window and an open doorframe and hit the glass doorknob of another adjacent, open door at a completely impossible angle, for about 4 and a half minutes only, shooting blasts of sparkling light onto the entire wall.

If I hadn't delayed working, one afternoon, for just 10 minutes, in absolute desperation to be able to see the sun again, on a blustery day in December... I wouldn't have been walking down the street, when a huge gust of wind blew a river of dead leaves around me and underneath my steps. They made the pavement liquid, flying water, scattering completely as it met oncoming traffic.