And then?
Then, if it’s an extra-great audience and venue, there’s the final encore: the Ukrainian lullabye, to cool everything down. To say: that’s it, for now; after this one, the show is over, the moment splits open. Life moves on to the next, and the next, and the next after that.
Then, if it’s an extra-great venue, the staff treat the performers to a great meal. People talk, laugh, eat, drink, exchange jokes, or life-altering information. People meet or split apart. Tell bits of their life story. Mix, match, look at spaces beyond the lights and the tables. People go home. Pick up the pieces where they left off; or discover something irrevocable happened while they were talking to the person sitting on their left.
Roadies. Performers. The specific kind of energy generated by a common goal. On the way home, the driver and I were talking about that. Earlier, I saw it while sitting at the table after the performance. During the performance too. The energy; how it moves, how it flows; how music does the job. How stories sometimes achieve the same kind of magic. The how is in the doing, though. Whether it can be captured by me in the next bit of living and writing time? I don’t know. All I know: it’s always worth a try.
What happens next to this blog and the other one? I don’t know. I’m going to try saving and transferring, as per instructions on the admin page. Then, deal with the complicated practicalities of every day life in the present tense. And stay tuned to whatever – the mysterious something.
A brief, brief moment last night when six young circus artists left after sharing the table with us. They were about to leave the courtyard through the gate out to the street. One of them turned, and waved both arms at us, beaming. Maybe some of us at the table will meet up with some of them at another gig, in another place. Maybe not. But there’s always that feeling of a special kind of bond where people take chances, give it their all and, sometimes, produce small moments of magic.
Then? Smile. Wave. Exit.
Poof. Gone.
(See you soon, somewhere on the road?)