Archive for May 3, 2008
he called
the mathematician called me last night while i was napping before my dress rehearsal. i didn’t hear the phone because i shut the ringer off, because inevitably, i would get a million calls while trying to nap (and i did get 4, as it happens).
his message was sweet. you may remember that a few days ago (i think it was wed? maybe?) we saw each other on the street after work. he asked for my number then, but didn’t write it down because “i’m good with numbers.” i wondered if he forgot it.
apparently he didn’t. he said he was calling to say hi, to see if he remembered my number correctly, and he said he knew that i was really busy this week, but maybe we could make plans to do something next week. he hoped my rehearsals were going well.
well. how nice is he? first he asks me out. then he calls at a decent interval, remembers that i am busy, isn’t pushy or rude about it, and remembers that i am singing and wishes me well with that.
uhm. what planet is he from?
sigh. i’m so glad. a nice friend? perhaps more. we shall see.
he has this cute boyishness to him, both in his face, and in his demeanor. i like it. i’m pretty sure he’s older than me, but not too much older.
yes
even as i sing and learn about the man who taught more than 150 prisoners in a nazi concentration camp how to sing the verdi requiem by rote, i think to myself how the holocaust has reached into the arab world, in the form of the creation of israel. i am not anti-semitic, but i believe that the palestinians were orginally illegally removed from their land. that’s i know it’s controversial, and people will disagree with me (i’ve gotten hate comments before about this), but it’s the state, government, that i am opposed to (in case anyone wants to challenge me on that, my last long term bf and now my best friend, is jewish).
i feel this deep sadness, that even after what the jewish people (and many other “groups”) experienced during WWII, that the world has not really learned from that event. we are singing for those people, especially the ones who sang to defy the nazi’s, who sang to live, who sang to regain and retain their humanity. i am singing this weekend for them.
one of the original chorus members who sang this piece was at our dress rehearsal tonight. when he was introduced we gave him a standing ovation. i cried, as did many others, before he spoke even one word.
we sang for him tonight.
but i keep thinking about palestine, through all of this. and for some reason, feeling badly that i keep thinking about it.
and then tonight i saw this letter that he posted (some call him anti-semitic too, but though he may be a lot of things, this i know for sure, he’s not a racist).
it made me feel better about my uneasiness. thank you.
