I don’t miss explaining to people that singing is what I “really do for a living.” I don’t miss hotels and apartments. I don’t miss searching for places to eat that won’t make me sick.
I don’t miss the contrived fights I had with my wife in the days just before leaving the house, because I didn’t want to leave her again for two months. I don’t miss having to explain to my boys why I was leaving and that “I always come home.” I don’t miss how depressed I would be on the walk back to my hotel. I do not miss the night horrors.”
I do miss going to lessons. I do miss opening a brand new score and unraveling the mystery. I miss many of my colleagues. Not all of them. I miss standing next to voices which made me cry and forced me to regain my composure during a performance.
I miss the electricity of the 20 minutes just before the curtain rises. I miss being in a dressing room where greatness once had their scores on the piano. I miss looking at the labels inside my costumes to see who else wore them. I miss my dressers and make up artists who gave me so much free therapy.
I miss belonging to such a marvelous phenomenon which gave my soul wings at times and brought me crashing to the ground at others.
I miss…..
by Frank Lopardo
Dear writer,
I read your post days ago and did again just now.
I thought I would write to you to tell about a person I know who began going
to a certain supermarket many years ago with no special reason at all.
Lately, some days -which may be apart twelve months- meets there with a second person
who is also just shopping and who my friend knows from more than thirty years ago.
(Just to clarify the situation, for what I know they never do the shopping together)
I suspect that this person is really important for my friend, probably extremely important.
I think I recall that when they were young they had something like an odd relation, maybe they were just friends -no more, no less.
A couple of days ago that situation happened again and my friend told me that had kept the receipt form the counter.
I don’t know what more to tell you about that; probably that my friend misses that other person.
Regards from a reader.