Good Old J.S.

With all the cat pictures lately I haven't mentioned I've been on what can only be described as a knitting frenzy--in the last 10 days, I've finished legwarmers, a hat, half a mitten, and about seven inches of my vest. Needless to say, my hands were stiff Monday while I was typing at work. But after eight hours of typing about Microsoft I desperately wanted something soothing and intelligent to do. My hands said, "No knitting!" and then I remembered the Goldberg Variations. I remembered how much I love Bach. And I remembered this passage from An Equal Music, which I read in college only once.

This passage ends the book; it's thought by the narrator as he watches his (married)beloved perform a recital of Bach's The Art of the Fugue: "Music, such music, is a sufficient gift. Why ask for happiness; why hope not to grieve? It is enough, it is to be blessed enough, to live from day to day and to hear such music--not too much, or the soul could not sustain it--from time to time."

(By the way, I had copied that passage into an old journal sometime between May 7th and 16th, 2003, when I was moving. And if anyone thinks catching up on reading my blog lately makes them want to "go on antidepressants"--well, try searching through four years of journals to find a passage that asks, "why hope not to grieve?". That's all I'm saying.)