A reflection on a condition that struck myself and many friends.  I commented that it was “a season of distant women.”  While we had hope things would go back to the same ways, we knew that no one ever returns and had to laugh at the idea that a small group of guys all had females far far away.  It was a cold winter as I lost two parts of me, one part as if emergency ejected from my life, the other part of my life transformed into on-line chatting and Skype calls.  Seasons change.  However, never the same season twice.

The footage for this film was taken in Somerville (I call it “Boston” but it’s more Cambridge) at the house where I used to stay.  The party was very fun, the night entertaining, and for some of us, ended quite not as planned – but not as planned in a good way.  While the experience that night was positive, fun, and I was surprised as to how much I missed my old Hanson Street, the footage suggested an idea that has lingered with me for some time – and which is perhaps not unexpected in my work – that of loss, hope, and knowing that we must make the best of every day since we are provided so few.

The spoken work is Das gemeinsame Schicksal (“The shared fate”),written by Friedrich Schiller(1759 – 1805).  This was performed by NilsB and made available through the indispensable Freesound Project.  The original text reads:

Siehe, wir hassen, wir streiten, es trennet uns Neigung und Meinung,

aber es bleichet indes dir sich die Locke wie mir

NilsB’s translation reads:

Look, we hate, we argue, our affectations and opinions drive a wedge between us.

In the meantime your hair turns grey. Mine as well.

In the future I will be better at credits.  Right now, I continue to try to get too much done in too short an amount of time.