I fell a little bit in love
Did I ever tell you about the time I was at a YRUU con (Young Religious Unitarian Universalist conference) and the Saturday night activity was learning about wiccan traditions, and then we had a drum circle?
Yeah. I was in a successful drum circle. “Successful?” you wonder. I’ve decided that drum circles and eighth-hour jam sessions are either successful or unsuccessful. You either all hit the rhythm or you don’t. I’ve experienced both, but in this first percussion jam-out, it was successful.
There were several actual drums, and then we pulled all the pots and pans from the kitchen, along with various utensils, to use. I think I ended up with two heavy-duty coat hangers. They had a nice high tone. Austin Wells (Grinnell ’03) started out with a giant soup pot. In 4/4 time, we all joined in. The result was music. We sat, fascinated by the collective sound we made. Eventually there was a silent movement to get up and move around. We formed the obligatory cha-cha line of impromptu instruments.
Goddamn right, we looked like hippies. It was awesome. I’d never experienced spontaneous music, and being high schoolers, we weren’t jaded enough to not think it was the coolest thing ever. Even with my six-year-old-mind’s enthusiasm, I don’t know if I could start a drum circle with a straight face now. Isn’t that sad?
So we kind of Native-American-hopped around the room, coiling around until the head lead us downstairs. As we went, someone started singing. It was the first time I heard the lyrics, but I’ll never forget them.
We all come from the goddess
And to her we shall return
Like a drop of rain
Flowing to the ocean
It was one of those things I remember with a sense of awe. I thought of it this morning, in the context of remembering when the adults got really pissed off when they discovered a whole set of kitchenware, ruined.
I was reading my BoingBoing RSS feed today,
and read this account of an experience in a chocolate shop in Florence, Italy. As I read, I kept smiling bigger and bigger. The sensations Doctorow describes are amazing, and make me want to go home and pull out that truffle cookbook I got for a quarter, and make something really really decadent.
I mean, the look on his face in the picture says everything, and I fell a little bit in love with him just then.