From the warm sunny beach on a Greek island to the coldest snowy day
I’ve experienced in my Tokyo time, I’ve written hundreds of essays and short
stories, IE blogs. “Living With Time” was the first. Life was exciting ten
years ago in the sunshine and it still is today, snowbound in Tokyo. So much
has changed yet remains so much the same. RB
It's after me, it's been after me for a long
time, I can't see it but I know it's after me. I can't tell if it's catching up
because I can't see it, so I keep running to keep my distance. I don't need to
look back; I know where I've been. The problem is to keep in sight where I'm
going. It's not easy going this fast and with no end in view.
It's not my enemy, it never has been. Most of my
life has been dedicated to it, always being one step ahead or one step behind,
but in music I work with it, adjusting to the thousandth of a second. We've
worked so well together and we still do, but when we're not working together I try
to keep ahead. Strange, some of my jazz friends have a race to see who can get
the most behind.
And now, like a good California surfer, I ride it
like a perfect ocean wave, perfectly in sync as I balance on its crest. The
dream wave; I'm flying on it, with no end it sight. How long can this
incredible ride last. I've seen other surfers slip back and have to tread
water, hoping in vain that another dream wave will come. It doesn't. I've seen
others slip over its crest and fall. I'm lucky. I stay at the crest and fly
with it, but where is it taking me, where will it end? Will it gently let me
down on a beautiful sandy beach or will it crash me into a rocky cliff? But for
now, I just keep in balance and enjoy the ride.
But what
a ride, I chose to be here but never expected this.
What
a ride!
Island of Lesvos, Greece, Summer 2003
Revised on a very snowy day in Tokyo, January 14,
2013
