Delights: May 22 to May 28

May 22: I volunteered to lead what turned out to be a much coveted tour — by my fellow Smithsonian American Art Museum docents. Volunteers from another Smithsonian museum, the National Asian Art Museum, had requested a tour of an installation called The Last Post. My challenge: how to facilitate an hour-long conversation about a 10-minute digital work presented in a blackbox theatre. My solution: listen to my fellow docents.

I eventually chose a format that gave us a 2-minute glimpse of the work, a brief framing conversation outside the room, an experience of the piece from start to finish, and then a deep examination back outside. The Last Post, created in 2010 by American artist Shahzia Sikander and projected onto a twenty-foot wall, immerses the viewer in an animated choreography of Indian court architecture, ornate paper cutouts, ink wash, and abstract splashes of color accompanied by an electronic soundtrack by Pulitzer-prize composer Du Yun. 

“Meditative.” “Mysterious.” “Unsettling.” These observations kicked off 45 minutes of insights from my visitors. We ended, 90 minutes after we had begun, only because I had another appointment. I think they went back into the theatre for another viewing. 

I really want to do this again. Maybe I can recruit my docent colleagues to give me a tour.

Bonus: Hear the artist, Shahkia Sikander, discuss The Last Post, illustrated with details of her work.

May 23: Rain, and more rain. A perfect day to see a show. Here in Falls Church — in our tiny 108-seat regional theatre Creative Cauldron — Kevin, my sister Dianne and I attended an outstanding performance of Little Women. Based on the 2005 Broadway musical, the play begins as an adult version of Jo struggles through persistent rejections of her potboiler stories (“blood & guts!”) and ends as Jo, conjuring memories of her childhood, discovers the story she was born to tell. 

Technically, the play ends with Jo’s decision to get married! And to start a school! But like a lot of slightly precocious 10-year-old girls reading Little Women for the first time, the happy ending occurred long before the wedding bells. Jo’s willingness to defy convention, her resilience, her imagination and, of course, her writing, made her my first literary hero.

I’m thrilled to welcome her back into my life.

May 24:  To celebrate the Feast of Pentecost in church today, the gospel text recounted how a mighty wind and tongues of fire inspired the disciples’ ability to speak in many languages and to be understood by the devout “from every nation under heaven.” In the spirit of the day, seven members of the congregation took turns reading a different verse from the story — in six different languages. We heard English (to start us off), then Latin, Korean, German, Mandarin, Latin (again) and Italian. The seven speakers then proclaimed in unison the final words of the gospel. Perhaps because we had first heard each language — and each voice — separately, what should have been a cacophony sounded instead like a song. E pluribus unum, indeed.

Bonus: Because Pentecost is the birthday of the Christian Church, the youth leader invited the youngest congregants to come forward to blow out five birthday candles on five cupcakes. (Their reward for such bravery was the cupcake.) The youth leader then compared the flame of Pentecost to the birthday candle flame: It might look like it’s gone, but it’s actually all around us. 

As the Italian speaker said in her reading, “Che giorno!” 

Memorial Day: I love parades, especially when the U.S. Marine Corps Band plays Sousa marches, Northern Virginia’s many Bolivian dance organizations perform, and our town librarians celebrate reading (but sensibly choose not to offer the “synchronized spinning book cart” drills from a few years ago). Oh, and hurray! The rain left town for its own holiday.

May 25: “Um, Carol Ann, did you check this? The grommet is too small for the hook!” 

So said Dianne as we stood at Oakwood Cemetery, with a limp celebratory “Falls Church 250” banner in our hands and tour guests due in less than an hour. 

Then, her engineer’s brain started whirring; after a few moments, she sent me home for various odds & ends she predicted I’d find in my junk drawer. Sure enough, while I flapped my hands helplessly, she affixed the banner to the hooks, anchored the bottom grommets, and gave me a shopping list for tomorrow’s trip to the hardware store. Pointing to our proud but wobbly banner, she said, “Let’s just hope we don’t get a strong wind.”

We did not get a strong wind. Or rain or heat. We did get 12 eager, kind visitors who tramped around the cemetery with me, encouraged my goofier stories, and even read aloud a Walt Whitman poem with strong ties to the cemetery. 

I, uh, hadn’t exactly practiced my whole spiel on site, so I ran 20 minutes long: a total of 80 minutes of me talking, not counting the 10 minutes of “out takes” I offered before the official tour began. As we all staggered to the finish, I asked folks what I should cut. “None of it,” replied the chorus. 

I’m still getting emails to register for future tours (which are now 100% full). What do I say? Book me for your wedding or bar mitzvah?

May 27: Jeremiah and I arrived early, with Kevin and Nate joining soon. Across the field, my friend Allison and I exchanged enthusiastic waves. Sound? Check. Lights? Check. Drums, horns, guitars, keyboards, and …….BRUUUUUCE!

Bruce Springsteen began tonight’s concert, the last of his “Land of Hopes and Dreams” tour, reminding us of the values America holds dear. Later he exhorted us to embody —and fight for — honor, integrity, kindness, decency and goodness. At times sacred, at other times buoyant, the concert united 40,000 people in faith and hope and love.

As Bruce — and we — sang, “Well, we made a promise, we swore we’d always remember/ no retreat, baby, no surrender. Like soldiers in the winter’s night with a vow to defend/ no retreat, baby, no surrender.”

I do believe in the promised land.

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If you’d like to browse my past delights, please consult the “word cloud” featured at the very bottom of this post. Find a theme or two that interests you and sift through the sands. Or learn a bit more about my Blog by visiting my Welcome page. You’ll also see links to four essays that were published in print magazines. I’m glad you’re here!