The Soundtrack

Here's the thing. I was going to delete the blog following this one this morning, ("Actually"), but decided instead to clarify it, using the immortal words of Richard Curtis, as spoken by (sigh. Awhh) Hugh Grant in the first scene of the movie, "Love Actually."

These were the words (or some semblance of them, at any rate) swimming through my head as I wrote the last entry. It's funny how, without them, the entry sounds macabre. I suppose the sensation is akin to watching a passionate, tearful scene without the sound track, and thinking it's the last stand,(Baroque, "Adagio, from Viola Concerto in B Minor") when in fact it is the new beginning.("It's been a hard day's night").


Here is the sound track to the entry "Actually:"

Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world, I think about the arrivals gate at Heathrow Airport. General opinion's starting to make out that we live in a world of hatred and greed, but I don't see that. It seems to me that love is everywhere. Often it's not particularly dignified or newsworthy, but it's always there - fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, old friends. When the planes hit the Twin Towers, as far as I know none of the phone calls from the people on board were messages of hate or revenge - they were all messages of love. If you look for it, I've got a sneaking suspision love actually is all around.

-Richard Curtis

On September 12, 2001, my husband wrote a letter to the editor urging love and compassion. His letter was remarkable not only because of its message, but because my reserved partner felt the urgency to go public, immediately, with his words.

Our crisis these days is a different one. Love and compassion will not make our pockets bulge. I am realist enough to know that. But I also believe that our failure to love will impoverish us in ways that even an empty bank account cannot.

So, a stranger was kind. A bounce returned to my step, and my thoughts turned to writing, and being a good mother, and getting work done. We can all imagine where those kinds of thoughts might lead...