During the witnessing of genius made manifest by the masterful virtuosity of Yo Yo Ma last night at the Greek Theater as he performed Bach's six solo cello suites, the audience had the opportunity to be taken into the rarified empty space that both artist and composer inhabit and which enables each to become a conduit through which the Devine may express Itself.
This, in turn, reminds one of Emily Dickinson's exquisite poem about a very similar state of being:
I'm Nobody! Who are you?
Are you - Nobody - too?
Then there's a pair of us!
Don't tell! they'd banish - you know!
How dreary - to be - Somebody!
How public - like a Frog -
To tell one's name - the livelong June -
To an admiring Bog!
Ms Dickinson brilliance here brings to mind the utter contrast between the empty space of artistic creation and the mad clamor of the contemporary political scene and perhaps the dire need for the latter to learn valuable lessons from the former.
Yo Yo Ma's expressed desire in the presentation of Bach's Suites at this time was 'to provide sustenance and comfort in a time of stress'. Much like Pablo Casals' Song of the Birds (played as thank you to the Berkeley audience by Yo Yo after two and one half hours of continuous recitation), which was performed as inspiration to the Spanish people in the grip of Franco's fascism, so too Yo Yo has offered us solace, comfort, sustenance, and hopeful vision in our darkened time of turmoil and
encroaching despair.
The Frog will continue to announce itself with loud vacuous bluster to the Bog of the day but, in the end, it is the clarity of the open, empty space, brought to life by some heavenly ambassador; some gifted Nobody, that will ultimately lead us into the light.
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