Stain-glass Eyes

I love opera.   I can’t always afford to go, but when I do I’m not disappointed. So, when our interim director of Our Own Thing Chorale sent out an email inviting members to an opera in Toledo (at The Valentine Theatre), I jumped on the chance to get a cheaper ticket and attend.   The opera is I Dream .   It’s about the life and times of Martin Luther King, Jr., leading up to his assassination.   Darnell Ishmel, who got me a comp ticket, was able to get me a seat about 10 rows behind the orchestra.   During some of the movements in the opera, it was chilling to be close enough to the stage to be able to hear the crisp footsteps of the marchers in some of the scenes.   I think the pounding of the feet was important to the affect, adding to the vocals.   The heart-wrenching pounding of people marching to acquire the right to the freedom was remarkable. The opening of this opera began with a young boy (in the role of MLK, Jr. as a child) who sings with his

Spring always comes.   Winter always ends. When I watch the birds and squirrels get ready for their new family members, I wonder, “How do they keep their optimism? It’s icy-cold outside, blowing like hell and they are out there singing and preparing for spring.” I thought how humans think negatively first and then work to the optimism. Maybe we were optimistic as a species at one time, but in order to survive we became pessimistic.   Maybe our optimism didn’t serve us in our survival. If anyone has suffered depression either personally or contagiously through a loved one, you have some idea on how hard it is for a depressed person to think that there’s such a thing as a silver lining in a cloud.   Or that the sun really is behind the cloud even if it’s not visible.   Even if we see year after year after year that one season will end and the other will come up next behind it.   Even if we know morning always comes.   Even if we have wit