Today I worked on campus, and it was so cold out that on my morning break I went up to the conference room on the 14th floor to walk around. From that vantage point, I could see several swans on the lake. They won't be here long, since the water is already freezing over. Then an email came to our jam group, that a very fine mandolin player had lost all the fingers on his right hand in a buzz saw accident. That really hit home for me - I can't imagine never being able to play music again! At lunch I walked with Hardingfele in her building, and I told her about this terrible story. For some reason she was wondering whatever happened to Toque McToque and Light Bright, and I said as far as I know they are both still working on campus, so we searched for them and found they had both won awards recently. Then again, so did I, not too long ago - my Staff Excellence Award. Hardingfele said they were both looking old, which is odd because they are younger than we are, but she has a point. There was a video of Light Bright, and I couldn't believe how haggard she looked. Maybe two little kids will do that to you.
In the afternoon, after many emails had flown around about "How can we help?" and "Here's the address to send get-well cards," the afflicted mandolinist himself sent a rather lengthy email (how? without fingers?) with details about the accident, and how the doctors had surgically reattached his fingers but weren't sure how much function he would regain. He seemed surprisingly upbeat and even joked that someone said he should write a song called: "I Fought the Saw, and the Saw Won." He said since he's still got his thumb, he should be able to hold a pick somehow. This guy was very welcoming to me when I first joined Moldy Jam, since we were both playing mandolin, and he is so good that it would be an utter shame if he could never play again.
After work I went to the church we have been attending for Immaculate Conception, and Travalon joined me just as Mass was starting. I was so jazzed that we sang "The Angel Gabriel" at communion, since it's one of my favorite hymns, and the only one I know written by Basques. Someday I'll try to learn the words in the original Basque... It's actually a much easier language to sing in than English, but then again, what isn't? We have words like "world," which comes up a lot in the "Lamb of God." Basque has simpler vowels and not much in the way of consonant clusters. It's kind of like Latin that way, another easy language to sing in. German and French are a little harder, but English is the worst. That I know of, anyway. Who created this language?? Not a singer, I can tell you that much.
After Mass I saw the guy from the Care for Creation Team and Moldy Jam, so we commiserated about the shocking story of the day, then I took the long way home to pass this house.
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