- What is sitting on my desk right now?
In addition to all the computer stuff and unfinished Christmas cards and Christmas letters, I have the score for the first suite of Claude Balbastre’s collection of noëls . There are four suites, and each one contains 6 noëls. Each noël has about 8 variations totalling 192 variations, each of which is to be played twice. If each variation takes 30 second on average, that is about three hours and 12 minutes of uninterrupted noël. I wonder if thoughts such as these are a symptom of COVID-19.
2. What would I rather be doing right now?
Watching pumas, tapirs, and monkeys in Costa Rica. I had had reservations for a Christmas week in a jungle house perched on a cliff overlooking the Pacific on the Osa Peninsula in Costa Rica where the wildlife just loves to be watched. The temperature would be better and the sunsets over the blue Pacific would be calming. Alas, the plague has made that impossible. Maybe next year—unless I am still working on the noëls.
3. The best advice I ever received?
I am sure such a thing as “best advice” exists, and I am equally sure that whenever it was given to me, I did not recognize it for what it was.
4. The best advice I ever gave?
Life’s smaller problems are usually solved by the clock, and the larger ones are usually taken care of by the calendar.
5. What keeps me motivated in life?
Learning keeps me motivated. I enjoy putting together programs and lectures to present to my fellow residents in the “retirement community” where I live. I love to put together images and video clips to illustrate lectures. Last month was about seeing the USA in a motor home, and the next one will be about the largest pipe organ in the world, both of them (Boardwalk and Wanamaker). Of course, lectures are given on CCTV since group activities are banned. Being a little more locked down than the rest of you, it’s crazy things like noëlomania and studying mile-long stop lists of giant pipe organs that keep me sane—I hope.