Dots on a Page . . .

The composer said to the audience: "Until the music is played, it is just dots on a page". Modest and true. Yet, something mysterious and miraculous happens through creating and sharing music.

Pick your favorite kind of music, it doesn't matter whether classical or rock'n roll, the process begins and ends in the same way. In the first instance, an idea is heard in the mind of someone with pencil in hand moving on a blank page; from that moment on, silent sounds yet to be heard take shape. When the day comes, months or years later, the black markings come alive, even the silences, those rests written to breathe space in-between sound. In the end, our ears will hear what another once thought. Then, music becomes a live entity connecting the dots on the page to our lives and with others' lives. Every audience has experienced that ineffable connection with a stranger through music.

Like notes on a scale, I know not where words come from. Yet I sit at my writing desk looking out the large window framing summer like a photo and wonder what words will appear? Today, I started out to write one thing (music as the antidote to horrors of the world) and wound up here, instead. The writer/composer is also editor-at-will. I could simply hit the backspace and return to that original idea, but I don't want to. My head is full of music that I imbibed the past few evenings at the St. Augustine Music Festival. It lingers. The more I think I want to write about the power of music to heal, the more I want to share something of a moment that defies explanation. Music feels like a cool swim on a hot day; a walk through a garden full of red roses; a homesickness for some place; a longing for someone; a memory out of the blue; a bright yellow painting on a white wall; an old friend come to visit; a lost love; a newborn baby; a smile; a tear; a sigh.

Soulful and heartfelt gifts from the heart and soul of one human spirit to another heals individually and collectively. Granted much hard work is necessary from the process to the performance, yet it is that effort that underpins how meaningful and significant music is for a world ailing under its own weight.

A couple of summers ago while in Berlin, by chance I had a long conversation with an artist in her studio about music and time and Julian of Norwich. She invited me to make a video of our serendipitous meeting. This link is the final result of that process. You will find Suzanne Rikus is fluent in English, but you may want to turn on closed caption or follow along with the transcription.

https://youtu.be/ZAvETmk06f4?si=C73IY8WOSkutPWuZ

https://susannerikus.com/

In Solidarity

I have been given to understand how small this world is and how it torments itself with countless things it need not torment itself with if people could find within themselves a little more courage, a little more hope, a little more responsibility, a little more mutual understanding and love.

The past week in America people found courage within themselves and with that came a little more hope. Millions marched together to say NO to any King, or any dictator ruling over "we the people". Those who stood together from LA to Boston spoke with one voice, out loud, in Solidarity, the word most often associated with Vaclav Havel, dissident turned President of former Czechoslovakia.*

Photos are everywhere of how the Saturday protests looked from the outside. What it looked like on the inside is what makes the difference. If you were there you know the way the crowd kept growing; the signs kept coming; the flags kept rising higher above the fray. June 14 used to be called "Flag Day" before it became NO KINGS day. They are one in the same. Those early days of this Republic were symbolized by the red, white and blue. When I had a Cape Cod home, I flew a "Betsy Ross" flag by the front door. The thirteen stars in a circle and as many stripes fit the locale where pilgrims who sailed across open waters for months on end first made landfall. (Plymouth was the second place).

At "First Encounter"Beach*, the long story of White Europeans encountering indigenous peoples who did not look like them, speak like them, believe like them is said to have begun. This four-hundred-year old narrative brings us to where we are in America today.

In their first efforts to escape an intolerant King on their homeland, these men and women arrived uninvited and claimed the moral high ground over others. This attitude led to violence with those who belonged in the first place. We know how this played out for First Peoples. Yet, we still see this attitude toward who belongs in this Replublic and who does not. But, unlike early days, we have become a mix of colors, languages, religions, and personal identities. There is no "one and only one" who can rightfully and righteously speak for what this country, or any country, ought to look like, sound like, dress like, love like. No! We are all in this together. One for all and all for one, except for any ONE person who would be King.

*https://www.themarginalian.org/2017/09/18/vaclav-havel-harvard-commencement/

** https://www.easthamhistoricalsociety.org/site-of-the-first-encounter

America the Beautiful

Twenty-one year old American Southern Black Woman, Coco Gauff, French Open Tennis Champion 2025

This is what America also looks like today to the world. This young woman stood not only for herself, but with hand over heart, represented the United States during the National Amthem played during her championship moment.*

There is a story here that is All-American, in Ms Gauff's own words: ‘Americans who look like me’

She nailed it on the court and in the public eye. She showed us the possibilities too often hidden by racial prejudice that restricts rising to the top. She kept her cool under pressure and demonstrated to a whole generation of women, no matter their color, and especially their color, what success feels like against all odds. She beat the odds!

There have been other role models in sports and politics and business, but as this champion said following the match, It means a lot, and obviously there's a lot going on in our country right now with... like, everything,” Gauff said “But just to be able to be a representation of that and a representation of people that look like me in America who maybe don't feel as supported during this time period.

Words spoken from a platform watched by millions around the world matter. How come this Gen Z woman gets that when those parading around the world on serious business have no idea? Coco Gauff said the truth through a megaphone to the entire world. She IS as American as apple pie!

*https://www.the-independent.com/sport/tennis/coco-gauff-french-open-donald-trump-anthem-b2765874.html