There is only the present. All the rest of what we call time is but projection and imagination. Darryl stands by the Gecko in Asheville always in the present. He smiles as eternally as the Cheshire Cat in Alice.
So many people gather each New Years Eve to watch the exact same show of fireworks. What irony to welcome the new year in the same way we welcomed each of the past ten, 15, 25, 35 years, proving the past is nothing more than a projection backward in the present.
Paradox that it is, change is reimagining the past in the present. This Winter Solstice and New Year have been a transformation for me. I am still half a ghost, half of me existing only on a spiritual plane; the other half participating in life whole-heartedly. I ate lamb last night in an India-inspired restaurant. Will and I have now spent two weeks together in New Orleans, a few days in Atlanta, and several here in Asheville.
What is most real is our sharing of our lives, the good, but also our respective hardships. Neither of us is living exactly as we would wish. Will makes his music, writes his lyrics, works with a producer this month on making a five track recording of songs: covers and originals. His life is not an easy one.
This winter and spring (more imaginative projections) we shall discuss art, especially paintings from the Renaissance, Romanticism, Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, to Twentieth and Twenty-first century in Art History. Despite the current emphasis on altering history to suit the present-day, autocratic dogma, these paintings are living witness of the struggles of society after society to make life better for all humans, not simply the rich and powerful. Even the Nazis secretly valued paintings about socialism and revolution.
All the experience of being in Asheville over my long life informs my present stay here. Will and I spent a charming evening last night with our friend Leigh and her partner Adam. Leigh has praised and encouraged Will's creation of music. Last visit, Will performed for them at a wonderful gathering at their lovely home in Asheville. We partied at Little Jumbo over sparkling Negronis. Leigh, herself, wore a sparkling cocktail dress.
A Full Moon has made a splendid Night Sky even more romantic.
Tomorrow I shall drive to the Lake Rabun Hotel: one of the unique places I have stayed in and shared with Darryl. Two delightful nights there, with warming temperatures, offer a quiet, contemplative way to ease back into Atlanta and my academic routine,
