Spring 58: Half-Asleep

7:40am-8:20am, Peters Hill, Arnold Arboretum, Jamaica Plain, MA
drizzly, foggy

All this murky, hazy weather makes me feel like I'm half-asleep, and I long for a burst of blue-skied sunshine to awaken me to my full energy.

It makes me wonder about relative energy of various states of weather.

What if we never had blue skies, like the Ray Bradbury short story, "All Summer in a Day", where it is perpetually rainy (save for one moment of sunshine every 7 years)? What if the perpetual rain was constant, and there was never even that one moment of sun, so we wouldn't even know what we were missing?

Would our scale of appreciation be re-calibrated such that a brightly foggy day would actually be a cause for great excitement, as a distinct improvement on the typical, darker, grey days?

Inversely: what if there was another, more glorious and light-filled version of the sky that would make sunny blue skies look as shabby as an overcast day is now?

Today's bird is a mystery*! Perhaps a finch of some kind?


At home, after watching lots of birds chase each other in the park, I imagine a piece where two violins chase each other (sonically). More extravagently, I imagine creating the effect of motion by placing 10-12 violinists, in pairs, throughout the space, and have the chasing effect hop around the room.

*UPDATE 5/20: Today's bird was a Warbling Vireo. Thanks, Jim!*