Been a few days… Getting to the end of the month and guess it’s getting to me, this quarantine. Wanted to find something that would bring me out of these doldrums. Of course, as I wrote that, I realized, though I knew the word was appropriate, I wanted to get the fuller meaning of the word ‘doldrums.’
I found this:
1: a spell of listlessness or despondency / fighting off the winter doldrums
2often capitalized, oceanography : a part of the ocean near the equator abounding in calms (see CALM entry 1 sense 1b), squalls, and light shifting winds
3: a state or period of inactivity, stagnation, or slump / out of the economic doldrums
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/doldrums
Yes, we are all fighting off the COVID-19 doldrums… The economy is definitely in the doldrums. As for calms, squalls and light shifting winds; yeah, that about summarizes me the past few days… ok, weeks.
I went looking for music and found out that April was Jazz Appreciation Month. Unfortunately, April 2020 has been a profoundly painful month for the jazz world due to the loss of so many jazz artists to the pandemic. I found this article on NPR about the resiliency of jazz through the years and there is no doubt it will survive this time–battered and bloody, heartbroken even–but it will survive.
Each year in the past, Herbie Hancock has organized an International Jazz Day concert on April 30 to bring a celebratory end to the month. This year, he again has organized a concert, though this one blends past performances with present day performances by artists livestreaming from their homes as they shelter in place. He dedicates this concert to the artists that were taken from us by this pandemic. It’s two hours long, just so you know, but it is lovely and uplifting. I found myself refreshed anew and winds in my sail again. (yeah, I know it’s a corny ending, but I don’t care…)
All Things Elda 