¡Salsa Divina! – Today I feel better than yesterday, but not as good as tomorrow, may the music and love that lives in your hearts bring harmony to your lives… Last Wednesday morning I woke up and read a posting by a friend on Facebook lamenting that his Christmas gifts, clothes, musical instruments and storage items were affected as a result of his basement being flooded with 4 inches of water from the previous day’s Nor’easter. I sympathized with him since my finished basement had been flooded the night before, resulting in the wall-to-wall carpeting being under nearly 6 inches of water. Thank God our son came to the house within minutes of us calling him to help me move hundreds of CDs, record albums, books, photo albums and files to safety just in time from them being submerged in the quickly rising water. The two sump pumps that have served us well failed to act at the most pressing moment, and our night, to say the least, was a long one. The following morning after the Nor’easter, our plumber installed two new sump pumps and the water receded, allowing us to survey the damage and quickly removing everything that was wet including the carpeting in my office and library. Whatever was salvageable we kept, and what was lost, we tossed. As an archivist it was somewhat disheartening and at times overwhelming looking through all of my files and boxes, and the wooden chest with thousands of CD copies of “¡Con Salsa!” soaked in water, but it was also an opportunity to discard what I really didn’t need and save what I really wanted. Thanks to the counsel of our dear friend Miren Uriarte I reached out to another friend, Giordana Mecagni, the Archivist at Northeastern University and came up with a game plan to save the CDs…a recorded history of “¡Con Salsa! from 2008 – 2011. I’ve written in the past about a story I was told during the winter of my discontent in 1972 when I was a student at Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio. Whenever I suffer from the calamities of extreme weather I am reminded of that memorable Saturday night in February when a young woman I had become acquainted with invited me to dinner at her off campus apartment. Having moved to the United States from Puerto Rico in 1970 I was still not enamored of the cold days and nights, blustery winds and snowstorms that were part of the daily experience of the season throughout the Midwest and other areas of the country. I had returned from spending Christmas and New Year’s in the Island and the season had quickly turned those days of sunny, blue skies, warm temperatures and fun at the beach to a distant memory. The day I arrived back on campus I made the acquaintance of the aforementioned attractive young woman, with beautiful blue eyes the color of the Caribbean ocean. After weeks of “getting to know you, getting to know all about you. Getting to like you, getting to hope you like me” she eventually invited me to that fateful dinner. As I trudged through the bitter cold and falling snow from my dorm on campus to her apartment for what seemed to be an eternity, I questioned the wisdom of having accepted her invitation. The moment she opened the door I started complaining of the snow and cold. This went on for some time as I made myself comfortable and we started enjoying her cooking. She quietly listened to my grumbling as I went on and on. Finally, she interrupted my onslaught against Mother Nature to ask if I had ever heard the story of the man who had no shoes. “No, I can’t say that I have”, I answered curious to hear what this had to do with the price of tea in China. She went on to tell me the story in a voice that was both admonishing and enticing, “There was a man who went throughout the village complaining that he had no shoes until one day he came upon a man who had no feet.” “And…?” I asked, expecting that there was more to the story. “That’s all, that’s the story”, she answered. “That’s it!” I responded in an incredulous tone. “Well José, you remind me of the man with no shoes,” she answered. “I’ve known you for a few weeks, and you tend to complain and complain about the weather. Do you realize you are in college instead of somewhere fighting for your life in Viet Nam? Do you realize that you have a family back home that are making it possible for you to attend college, not just any college but Antioch College? I like you and I’m hoping to know you better and like you even more, and hopefully you will like me more as well. I’ve prepared a home cooked meal for you, the fireplace is lit, and there are candles everywhere. I’ve hand picked the music to set the right tone for dinner, and I dont know if you have noticed, but I think I look exceptionally beautiful if I say so myself. And all you do is complain about the snow and cold! José, you are truly blessed and don’t ever forget it!” End of story as it turned out to be a night I would never forget. I believe that it is not a coincidence that people come across our paths throughout our life’s journey. It is up to us to understand and embrace them regardless if the experience is positive or negative, because in the long run they will play an important part in our lives. So as I spend hours cleaning out and organizing our basement in preparation for the professionals to come in and do what they need to do to help us move on to our next chapter, I am reminded of the story, knowing that it could have been much worst and that somewhere that night there were people looking for shelter who live homeless in the streets of our cities. As I go through the boxes I come across items that trigger a cascade of memorable moments and thus I write this wishing that the music and love that lives in all of your hearts bring harmony to your lives, because today I feel better than yesterday, but not as good as tomorrow.
Posted on: Sat, 20 Dec 2014 14:54:29 +0000
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