Fourth Act

If I think of my life as a 4-act play or 4- movement symphony, today is the last day of the third act/ movement before the curtain closes for the 4^th. Each of the first three are 25 years long and though it’s possible that the 4^th could be also, I suspect it will be a shorter one before the final curtain. A short summary: 

 

 First Act: From a free-range childhood to resisting repressive schools to first steps towards a unified vision in the turbulent and liberating late sixties/early seventies. 

 

Second Act: Travel, family, work. Zen, Jazz, and Orff Schulwerk. All at a remarkable school that allowed for and helped all of the above to thrive and develop. 

 

Third Act: International teacher, author, performer, grandfather, stitching all the threads together into one uniform multi-colored cloth. 

 

Fourth Act (unwritten—or written but not yet lived): Recapitulate all the themes of the first three movements of the symphony, tie up the loose threads of the first three acts to a meaningful conclusion. Then the inevitable decrescendo of the body/mind fading into silence. 

 

These my thoughts on my last day as a 74-year-old. As always, happy to spend it teaching.