My Kindle

When Kindles first came out, I thought I would never want to read from one. I like books. But after having a Kindle for two months, I can say that I love it. It's so small and handy. It's so easy to find my place, to read in the dark with the little light on the case, to carry it in my purse, to read clandestinely when I'm supposed to be doing something else that is not to my liking, to have it for back-up at all times in case I have to wait for something, and to get all those free books! I downloaded 30 free public domain novels and bought a copy of King Lear for the book group for 95¢. It's especially great to have the Kindle this year, while we're remodeling and have packed away all the books; no searching! I'm hooked. I actually went in to a bookstore and didn't have to agonize over anything, since I knew I had 30 novels on the Kindle.

First day of school

It took four days for me to feel that the first day of school really happened. Now that both of my classes have met, I have met with my undergrad honors student, and we have already confronted a problem in our faculty meeting, I feel that the school year has begun. The beginning is always full of hope--hope that I will always be very organized and never overlook anything, that I will think of all the most important things, that the students will feel very engaged with the material and bring a lot of energy to the class, that we will always understand each other, that everyone will learn from everything, and that it will feel shiny and new every day just because we love learning and sharing all of our new thoughts and knowledge. That would be so wonderful! But, humans that we are, it's just possible that we might fall short somewhere along the way. If that happens, I hope that we will assume the best and not the worst, give it our best shot, and keep going with good energy. I hope there will be some great moments, some new insights, lots of new music, and that we will remember that we shared all of this happily.

Homecoming

This summer was just as uprooting as most of of the last ten summers have been. This year, Ohio became home base so that I could be near my mother as she recuperated from her exciting appendectomy. I was away from home for most of June and didn’t return until last Monday. Leaving my family in Ohio after our last great week of camping and hanging out together was hard, even though we all needed to get back into our own routines.

The home I returned to was not the one I left. We have packed up most of our furniture and accumulated stuff in order to prepare for the major renovation that our aging ranch home needs. So I came home to empty rooms, including my office. No place to sit and read, no way to figure out where certain piles of papers ended up. I piled luggage and traveling detritus in the bedroom, so it was not serene.

But returning to church today made me feel at home. The familiar faces, warm hugs, great lessons and messages made up for the unsettled home front. Seeing the ward family today helps a lot: there are new babies, new families to learn to know, speculation about who we can get to play the piano for the ward choir, and who will sing. There are also gaps left by those who have left us for new chapters in their lives, and no matter who takes their pew or their calling, no one will replace their unique presence.

I have learned that some people will stay in our lives. The networks that connected us to loved friends in our old wards revive when we are together, when someone has a joy or a sorrow, when we need the conversation that we can have only with a certain person. I sometimes forget that all the people in my past don’t know each other. It is not hard for me to imagine a time and place where all of these come together. That will be a real homecoming!

Keeping it up

So far, I tend to be a stalwart after I start something. I never quit anything except Bluebirds, when I was in fourth grade (I didn’t like the girl whose mother was the leader). So I am going to try to write almost every day, now that I am back in internet land for good. I have thought every day about writing, but it’s hard to decide what to write about—so many possibilities, most of which are probably only interesting to me. I am going to try to just PICK ONE and write. Glen Watkins, one of my most memorable professors, said, “Musicologists are writers. Writers need to write every day.” I know he meant that we should write some musicological tid bit every day, but I am just going to try to keep up my blog.