Perhaps she didn't know how good a joke it was but when Anna Netrebko in high spirits just off stage from playing Tchaikovsky's Iolanta, shout to the HD audience: 'What are you doiing here? It's Valentine's Day. Why aren't you home, making love?' she was talking to a semi-geriatric audience, many wheel-chair confined, and unlikely to have been ripping off shirts or bodices as tumbling headlong into the sack, rather than watching opera.
I loved that large gesture and grand exhortation coming from one who'd just spent the last hour gaining the use of her eyes and falling in love for the first time (both dizzying). It's wonderful for stars to feel the passion they portray.
Anonymous amour, inexplicable attraction, overwhelming desire, well, we're well past that disorientation, so cozy on the couch, we snuggled and watched a movie about the camaraderie of shared loss. Before checking out the window on the progress of the storm and so off to bed, however, we went a few questions further down the list of '36 Questions That Lead to Love,' published in January in the NYTimes.
After 40 years (and that just of marriage) you'd think there'd be nothing new to say. We're not meeting for the first time in that space that seems richer second by second in romantic possibilities. We're not learning about each other's histories, or families, or vulnerabilities, or quirks. We've talked through our pasts, and increasingly we are each other's pasts. The families from which we came are being supplemented by those which come from us. We've had our breakdowns, and comforted each other, exasperated each other, disappointed each other, surprised each other. Quirks have become irritating or lovably familiar. Our questions have been answered by our lives.
Still, it's a good thing to ask old questions again. We can give each other more time to answer, compare today's answers with those we've given before, ask for clarification and exemplification. It's surprising and interesting to hear how self-aware the other is; we forget how much we watch and think about ourselves.
The list is long and the evening is well-advanced. We don't have to rush falling in love. The climax of the process comes when, after the questions, we spend four minutes just looking each other in the eye without looking away. We've done it before of course but this time will be deliberated, and after so many years, will it work as asserted? It's not a scary questions but it is somewhat exciting.
Even so, there's lots of shoveling to do tomorrow and it's time to turn out the light. G'night, love.
I loved that large gesture and grand exhortation coming from one who'd just spent the last hour gaining the use of her eyes and falling in love for the first time (both dizzying). It's wonderful for stars to feel the passion they portray.
Anonymous amour, inexplicable attraction, overwhelming desire, well, we're well past that disorientation, so cozy on the couch, we snuggled and watched a movie about the camaraderie of shared loss. Before checking out the window on the progress of the storm and so off to bed, however, we went a few questions further down the list of '36 Questions That Lead to Love,' published in January in the NYTimes.
After 40 years (and that just of marriage) you'd think there'd be nothing new to say. We're not meeting for the first time in that space that seems richer second by second in romantic possibilities. We're not learning about each other's histories, or families, or vulnerabilities, or quirks. We've talked through our pasts, and increasingly we are each other's pasts. The families from which we came are being supplemented by those which come from us. We've had our breakdowns, and comforted each other, exasperated each other, disappointed each other, surprised each other. Quirks have become irritating or lovably familiar. Our questions have been answered by our lives.
Still, it's a good thing to ask old questions again. We can give each other more time to answer, compare today's answers with those we've given before, ask for clarification and exemplification. It's surprising and interesting to hear how self-aware the other is; we forget how much we watch and think about ourselves.
The list is long and the evening is well-advanced. We don't have to rush falling in love. The climax of the process comes when, after the questions, we spend four minutes just looking each other in the eye without looking away. We've done it before of course but this time will be deliberated, and after so many years, will it work as asserted? It's not a scary questions but it is somewhat exciting.
Even so, there's lots of shoveling to do tomorrow and it's time to turn out the light. G'night, love.
No comments:
Post a Comment