Anagnorisis

Must This Show Go On?

My life has been
a difficult struggle lately, and today gives me one more reason
to be gloomy...




It is World Theatre Day, a celebration of the theatrical arts, but also a reminder of how much I miss teaching and directing...

"You got to do it 28 times, though, and changed those kids' lives in the process."

I know...I just wasn't quite ready to let it go, though...

Miscalculation

Sometimes the only real way to adequately explain my screwed-up life is by referencing beloved cartoon characters from my childhood, so bear with me...

"Sorry, Shu, but the WABAC Machine was fictional."

In my own mind I am Mr. Peabody, the smartest person around, someone whose problem-solving ideas never fail to work out splendidly, even if they sometimes occur to him barely
in the nick of time...

"Have you tried Acme's online catalog for ideas?"

...while the reality is I'm usually more Wile E. Coyote, who considers himself
a Super Genius but whose harebrained schemes invariably end in disaster...

Visual depiction of how my "brilliant" plan for March 9 worked out...

"Looks painful."

Old friend, in this instance you truly have no idea how painful...

Until Next Time...

A lot of the songs in my "Tearjerkers" iTunes playlist are there simply because the artist's voice tugs on my heartstrings, or because there is a bit of mournful guitar
or violin or piano that seems especially poignant, or because the lyrics speak to some particular flavor of emotional pain I happen to be experiencing. And then there are
a handful of songs that irresistibly combine all three factors.

I first heard country artist Vince Gill's heart-rending "Tryin' To Get Over You"
in early 1994, during a period of my life when both my spouse and the car dealership where I was working played country music pretty much nonstop. It was the fourth single from Vince's multi-platinum smash album I Still Believe In You to reach No. 1 on Billboard's Hot Country Songs chart, and his first-ever single to crack the Billboard Hot 100 Singles chart, establishing his crossover appeal beyond the country audience.

Vince has one of the best singing voices in American popular music, regardless of genre, and he is also one of my favorite guitar slingers (in no small part because he excels at of the sort of understated, soulful playing he exhibits here), but the clincher
is the song's lyrics, which made it one of my wallowing favorites when my marriage unraveled in 1995. These words are not so literally appropriate now as they were then, but metaphorically they perfectly fit my present emotional state. I don't want to reach the fatalistic conclusion Vince reaches, but "stiff upper lip" stoicism has gotten harder to manage as I have grown older.

This is the official music video for the song, from Vince's VEVO channel...