Anticipation!

This evening I am going to see my friend of longest standing (as opposed to my oldest friend).

We haven’t seen each other for over 30 years. We were young adults when she left the country. What have the years done to each of us? How easy will it be to talk again? We have only spoken on the phone a few times over the years, a few letters, a few e-mails.

That got me wondering about anticipation. Tim Curry as Dr Frank-N-Furter made it a WORD! One so multi-syllabic it was almost a sentence in its own right. Gosh but he was so lush in that movie.

Little anticipations, listening to a piece of music, this morning I am aware of the little moments of anticipation as tempo or key or player is due to change. They pull my attention into the music, waiting for each next musical event. I think that’s active listening. Not just letting the music flow over me, but feeling inside the people making it.

Last Friday we went to a theatrical event. A murder mystery, with two players. Set in my own beloved Johannesburg, in its earlier days of the ‘Randlords’ who were making their vast wealth from mining. An odd lot, adventurers, businessmen, and most likely not in the least concerned over the niceties of ethics. When they asked us “who dunnit?” I had my own reasoning all lined up. A wonderful tale of the woman’s past. But alas it wasn’t her setting up her husband to be hanged for murder. Damn! It seemed so likely as the whole story had unfolded. But then, it was written by a man, maybe the woman’s instinct for personal revenge had escaped him.