Onward to February!

Another “thinking on my feet” class with 5-year-olds and beanbags and yet another deciding the form of the four pieces with the jazz band. Then the good sense to walk along the canal in the warm air and end up in a park, where I took out my little notebook and wrote this:

 

Here's the January summer I had hoped for. Seated in shorts and Tivas on a park bench in Taipei with a twisted banyan tree in front of me. A couple plays badminton, some kids jump on a trampoline embedded in the grass, a man pushes a woman in a wheelchair. The sun has set, the air is warm and I feel mosquitoes on my bare legs. 

 

As much as I love the master music teacher I have become (and today’s thinking-on-my-feet classes certainly qualify me for that adjective without undue pride), still I love and need this other fellow who wanders aimlessly in strange cities. Observes the flow of the water in the canal, listens to the distant barking dog, savors the daily ice cream cone he treats himself to (today is toasted coconut). This true man of no titles happily alone and thus joined with all things. Over 6,000 miles from home and yet home right here, right now. 

 

The trees in this park care nothing for the turn of calendar pages, but we time-driven humans are aware that tomorrow is February. A month of significant birthdays—my wife’s, my old friend Ralf’s, my colleagues Sofia and James—and James’ 60^th!! (This young man who I met when he was 24 suddenly connected to this large number. How can it be?!) February is also the return of the plum blossoms in San Francisco and the first buds on the crab apples and cherries. 

 

I’ll start the month with a bang, as tomorrow is the rehearsal for the big show with 5^th grade and the jazz band, a book signing of my Jazz, Joy & Justice book and the showing of my film to whichever parents and teachers are interested. Possibly followed by me going to a jam session at a jazz club! I’ll move to another hotel on Friday night and teach another two-day course to the Taiwan Orff Association, then fly out Sunday night to Macao for three more days of teaching kids and adults. More to come when I return on the 8th, but you’ll read about it soon enough. 

Meanwhile, deep gratitude for my return to fully-functioning health, my undiminished joy in teaching and my occasional good sense to roam about in parks where no one knows who I am—including me. Happy February to all and do make good use of the extra day!