Silence and Words

Between Crash's concert (amazing, amazing - that is: Crash looks amazing in a tux; and the music was amazing) and Barnacle Boy's play (he's stage managing and running the curtains) I ducked out for 18 hours of silence at the old Jesuit novitiate. Until I walked into the chapel there a bit before 11 at night, I hadn't realized how much I missed the deep silence that pools in places like this.

I returned to all the craziness of the Boy's production (130 cast members - parents, friends, relatives, all packed into a vintage 1930s auditorium); then hit the road again this morning. I have a meeting beginning early tomorrow in Washington, DC, so came down today to avoid an early morning train trip.

I spent the afternoon at the National Gallery -- enjoying a special exhibit on medieval illumination and wandering the Calder and Matisse exhibits. I had a long walk on either end, 6 miles all together and then a peaceful dinner. Not silent, but still a day of few words.

Despite the scarcity of spoken words over the last few days, I learned three new ones! Snarge (the mess left when a bird collides with a plane, I read about how the birds are indentified by said remains); imbricate (some research on humor produced this one -- to overlap like tiles or fish scales) and euglossine (a type of bee that pollinates orchids).