For a long time after I got married, I used to have this vague idea that the purpose of marriage was for each partner to fill in what the other lacked. Lately though, after 25 years of marriage, I’ve come to see it differently, that marriage is perhaps rather an ongoing process of each partner’s exposing of what the other lacks….Finally, only the person himself can fill in what he is missing. It’s not something another person can do for you. And in order to do the filling in, you yourself have to discover the size and location of the hole.

—Haruki Murakami via Austin Kleon

Six hundred people thought they were coming to see comedy and they got some of that and then, to their amazement, they were standing and singing “America” and “I Saw Her Standing There” and “How Great Thou Art,” and they were stunned by how beautiful they sounded. It’s stunning. People spend so much time alone, plugged into electronics, and here they are with an intense sensation of humanity. They don’t applaud for themselves, they simply are very moved.

This is the beauty of old age. Your ambition has faded away. You’re not going to set off fireworks. The world has gone off in other directions. AI is coming on fast and soon you’ll record yourself saying all the vowels and consonants, prepositions, conjunctions, and the computer will program Moby-Dick read in your voice — add a few other vowels and you’ll have Proust in French spoken by you, voilà! — but right now it’s still possible for an old man and a few hundred strangers to create an intimate evening together that’s not like anything else.… 

Having seen so much history gives a person a deep love of his country and people. So I want to keep on working, doing my outmoded show, speaking in my odd American voice.

Via Garrison Keillor, Garrison Keillor and Friends

Now listening to Bedrich Smetana, Quartet No. 1, From my Life on Sirius XM. Quite an effective foil to recording my thoughts on the morning's news. I haven't listened to this piece in a long time, and it very effectively moved me to a much more settled place. Will return to this soon I think. I wish I could suggest that the White House play this music and selections like it. (I remember when President Obama shared some pretty interesting playlists of his music choices. This might be an effective way for the current resident to build some understanding and communication in the country. Certainly better than just declaring that everything the government does is evil and wasteful.)

When I tuned in earlier I heard the end of a Mendelssohn piece, Christus, I think. I mean to track that down later.

I seriously doubt that the majority of the country really wants to burn the system to the ground the way Elon—whose poll numbers are plummeting—does. When Americans say they want change they mean they’d rather somebody other than Kansas City be in the Super Bowl.

Got sidetracked this morning when I stumbled across an old note, a quotation from George Eliot—

Let us refuse to accept as moral any political leader who should allow his conduct in relation to great issues to be determined by egoistic passion.