Hello friends and greetings from the quiet splendor of summer. Friday marked the end of grade 4 for Beauty and the end of year 24 of teaching for the Beast. We snapped a selfie in the park next to school to mark the moment.
Everyday we take a crosstown commute together to the same educational institution, oftentimes discussing the indignities of being institutionalized.
If anxiety is, as Kierkegaard argues, indeed the dizziness of freedom, so too is anxiety born of relentless responsibilities. We coach each other through our anxieties…and tell dad jokes.
I wanted to mark the moment from school to summer with something special. I hoped to steal time. To hold it, if only to recall what it feels like when it's mine. So I made big plans.
Alas, my squad, exhausted by the totality of boxing up the school year and sliding into summer, preferred a quiet weekend, a muted pivot to freedom. But yours truly was committed to sippin’ bourgeois brandy and proletarian beer while diggin’ soul music at the Kreuzbergstraße Music Fest all day, Friday through Sunday.
The ominous skies on Friday afternoon left me jammin’ alone with bebop and gray Crocs.
But by Saturday afternoon, the neighborhood came out to play.
So did these cats! On keys we’ve got Dr. John reincarnated into Sir Pugsley Buzzard Wateringcan, an Australian in Berlin. He was joined by Berlin mainstay Fuasi Abdul-Khaliq, who blows like Bennie Golson and makes me spin and smile and shout.
My friends, it was a lovely dive into summer. The sun graced the city on Saturday and baby girl graced me with her company on Sunday.
Sure, I paid a price this week for three days of shaking my tailfeather, but, as a wise one once said:
I paid the price with a chill week. I kinda hate-watched a documentary on the American Gladiators, which was a pleasant stroll down memory lane. Caught up on the always pleasant Daily Dose of Internet with my kid. We also watched an interview with the Daily Dose host, which felt like a repeat of the mistake I made when watching the Simpsons voice actors on Inside the Actors Studio 20 years ago.
I also worked on some podcast projects…
Dropped a GoGoPod reflection with some of my Comparative Government students.
Posted a discussion with Jacob Viet Mueller, a violin maker.
Lightly edited my discussion with the AMAZING Dr. Tiffany Florvil, an historian focusing on histories of post-1945 Europe, the African diaspora, social movements, Black internationalism, and gender and sexuality. Drops Tuesday. Tune in!
Recorded a conversation with Hugh Williamson, Director of Human Rights Watch in Europe and Central Asia. Coming soon…
I also got back into piano lessons with Eric Pan (a podcast guest for whom I recorded this freakin’ masterpiece, I might add).
Summer. So far, so good.
Hugs,
D
I’m learning how rituals that mark time matter to me. So this year, I am carving out an hour or so on Friday to sit quietly before my family wakes to write about what I obsessed about that week. If you enjoy this weekly reflection, please subscribe so I can send it to you every Friday.