A "Winterreised " Review of the Lessons of the Year In Music (LOTS of Music, with a bit NEW)

Photo by the author, Deeann D. Mathews, Dec. 17, 2023

See, I knew last week I was going to be in trouble for my English/German pastiche between Winterreise and winterized, because some basso profundos are not the type to let anyone get away without consequences ... if the character in Winterreise wasn't going to get away, then what was I thinking?

"What is this thing you young people are saying, Frau Mathews -- 'explain this to me like I'm five' -- eighty-five, seven years past when I should have to be bothered with the folly of this earth! You are supposed to be attending to your German, and you are down here breaking centuries of both German and English and getting me blown across the entire heavenly choir loft over Win-ter-rei-sed?"

"Uh, well, uh, sir ... how do you say 'what had happened was' in German?"

"Mein kind -- I do not even know how you are saying that in English!"

Of course, modern English slang inflected by African American Vernacular English was a little beyond him ... in my head I started working it out in German. Meanwhile, the Ghost of Musical Greatness Past was costumed on this day as Old Man Winter: white hair and beard, in his last robustness of about 65 years of age, his long robe and shoes white with silver and blue sequins glittering icily. Quite impressive -- one imagined him perhaps as his majestic Commendatore with blizzard energy, his voice rattling my windows and shaking my floors in its thunder ...

... but see, even winter sunshine is warm, breaking through the thunderclouds! Even as Commendatore in his mortal life, he could not keep from smiling when the attention was on anyone else ... and this made his present appearance more like Santa Claus at a winter-white fashion show than anything else! I could just hear "Ho ho ho!" -- a merry laugh -- trying to break out of his voice, and as he paced around me, he was smiling before he quite left my peripheral vision! This was still his one weakness: he could no more cast himself as a villain than anyone else had successfully had ever done it!

"We shall say that I am a reasonably good singer, a decent actor, and the best teacher I know how to be -- what I was not certified to be was a para-glider, a pilot, or above all things, an astronaut! I had nothing but admiration for Neil Armstrong back in 1969, and I have now met Dr. Katharine Johnson whom you know from Hidden Figures -- so I most certainly know the minds of African American women have been getting men into space for decades -- but that was not part of my plan for my afterlife! Singing in the mask is a completely different technique than singing in an astronaut's helmet -- do you have any idea what it is like to try to project a bass voice through one of those things?"

"Well, there's no air in space, sir, so ... ."

"Schweig!" he cried, but his order for me to be silent came too late ... we were both laughing! He actually was in a splendid mood -- that mood that had turned Mozart's Osmin into the delightful character in which he had stolen the show for decades on stage! Osmin as a growling, hilarious Old Man Winter -- that was what he was doing as the show went on!

"Not that I had a chance to even sign up for astronaut training in time, Frau Mathews! Without warning, the great wave of laughter propelled me clear across the Solar System -- so there I was trying to pick up tips from the solar sails I was passing on how to do this because you decided to break your language and mine, and Jerome Hines heard about it -- now his is a bass voice, and he keeps no secrets! I have been commuting back from the heliopause for five of the last seven days -- just in time to meet another wave and get carried clear out again!

"And then, Frau Mathews, just about whenever I could get near Earth again, there was always some older relative of mine coming up to say, 'See, when you are an old man and start running around with young women ... now we taught you about that, mein kind.' They are up there explaining it to me like I'm five!

"And then, Frau Mathews, at rehearsal, do you know what Jerome Hines with his opera-writing self brought us for a warm-up today, in the tune of 'Frere Jacques' in minor-mode -- and had that whole choir singing it?"

With the most colossal comic frown ever, he stretched himself up to his full height and put it forth:

"Win-ter-rei-sed, Win-ter-rei-sed,
You know who -- Frau Mathews!
Someone needs to solve it, somehow to resolve it,
We know who -- Kurt, that's you!"

He then leaned over me with all the mock-menace in the world, his double-deep voice purr-growling to the point that I felt that down to my toes ...

"Do you have any idea what it is like to be blasted clear out to Alpha Centauri with that whole choir and all the music of the spheres, blaring that?"

"Uh, no, sir ... but it sounds like a good all-expense-paid Christmas vacation! Now that you are back, "Frohe Weihnachten -- a few days late, but ... aber ... was passiert war..."

His eyes went wide.

"Was passiert war ... what passed or transpired was ... what had happened was ... oh no, Frau Mathews! Oh no you DIDN'T!"

He snatched up a popular English phrase just that quick to answer me -- that big of an intellect living in my imagination would get to making use of the resources there under duress, of course, and it is a good thing I am a large woman, because I would have been blown right through my window ... but big bronze contraltos sing back where smaller sopranos fear to tread ... and bring in big-time reinforcements!

"Well, they told you about us jungfrauen, did they not? We'll fly you to the moon, and let you play among the stars!*"

My guest, confronted by a singing star of his own time, laughed himself right off his feet ... and Old Man Winter vanished in his fall! He landed as Commendatore on my sofa, but on a pre-stone statue day, at home with his beloved daughter at about age 55, and having nothing but a good time with her hi-jinks because it was now her turn!

"You keep coming here like you're going to tell me off and get me straight," I said, "but any soul who basically head-bopped on Haydn's Creation while singing the role of an angel --."

"Head-bopped -- child!"

" -- is not going to be able to do much with the soul of a four-octave-bass playing stride-gospel-classical pianist-composer who has a bopping, bouncing musical tradition to pull from! I can't imagine what Jerome Hines and Martti Talvela did at 6'7 each when they were told they would be standing not quite next to each other for all eternity because a little bouncing German bass of 6'2 would soon be coming up to be positioned between them so he would not bounce his way right off the edge of Heaven in his exuberance -- but that bass thinks he is going to come back here and deal with me, who will have you clapping on the two and the four, stomping every day, and bringing in all her other musical friends to put him in the Knockout Zone? Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight ... ."

He needed my whole sofa to stretch out on and enjoy that laugh ... this was my Christmas gift to him, given that I had spent Christmas and the days before it listening to him in Beethoven's Missa Solemnis and Haydn's Creation. He and the singers and orchestras with him, and Maestro Leonard Bernstein in both, had given me plenty.

"My mother has this problem -- can't scare anyone, even a little bit," I said as he recovered enough to sit back up. "But as I say to her all the time, the world has enough terrorists. You also were just not called to be one, and that is a blessing!"

I had used the wisdom I had learned from him and other great teachers ... humor to open the heart, and then to bless that heart with deeper matters ... I had spoken of his entire 78 years in a few words ... and then I came and took his hand and smiled.

"You are still coming through, loud and clear, Herr Möll!"

His eyes shone with his joy.

"Danke schön, Frau Mathews. Vielen Dank. Being born where I was, when I was, as a German, that compliment goes to my inmost heart. It means I communicated what I needed to ... danke schön, danke schön, danke schön."

His fully mortal joy had swept crowds, but this was something beyond ... even the clouds could not endure his sudden smile and tears and voice at that moment and remain angrily weeping ... the sun came out, right there, and I was doubly dazzled!

Photo by the author, Deeann D. Mathews, Dec. 17, 2023

Of course, my guest, ever humble, reverent, and hilarious, would not allow there to be a misunderstanding...

"Now, Frau Mathews, no one above is going to mess up and let me run the weather, but, my stage timing is still pretty good."

It was a good thing I was close to the sofa, and that, since I had his hand, he just swung me right on in beside him as I rolled, laughing!

But as ever, there was a purpose to all this merriment. As he had said as Commendatore, only serious matters could cause him to return where there was anything like a winter, in its storms ... and I could see, out of the corner of my eye, the deep paternal love in his face as he was now waiting on me to get myself together.

"Frohe Weihnachten, Frau Mathews, a little late, but indeed, as you have improvised between English and German, much has happened, and passed, in this year. It is wonderful to see you ending it laughing, mein kind, and wonderful to see and hear you applying all the wisdom it cost you so much to get through this year."

"You made it easier than it would have been, Herr Möll, and for that, you have my everlasting gratitude," I said. "Very few people have the reputation of being in this world and still obeying the law of kindness, always ... so that you can trust them with your heart even when they tell you very hard things. You had that reputation, and you still have it ... you still come through, loud and clear."

"You have my everlasting gratitude, Frau Mathews, in that you listen ... your heart hears my heart. No singer can rightly hope for more than you have given me -- for no more could he have given!"

That this most beautiful voice could come near to cracking from emotion ... but as ever he got right up to the edge and did not cross it, pausing there on the verge. I had forgotten why for the moment ... but he had not, and took his time composing himself before coming to the actual purpose of his visit.

"I have come with only one lesson planned today: the law of reciprocity, Frau Mathews, by example. You have allowed me to teach you many things ... you have opened to me your mind and your heart. I return to you the honor, Frau Mathews. Tell me of 'Winterreised,' what you mean, what you intend, what you feel. I am here to learn. You have my full attention."

I told y'all I was going to be in trouble, just not the trouble I expected ... when your teacher turns the tables and says, "Oh, you have something new here? Really? Show me and the class." It was like all December 16 and sunshine to this point in the story...

Photo by the author, Deeann D. Mathews, Dec. 16, 2023

... but it was like winter came and got me right then, just as I had awakened to THIS SURPRISE on December 18...

https://youtube.com/shorts/MO5voGJshgo?feature=share

And suddenly there was another costume change, and I was in the embrace of Old Man Winter once again, in his very clutches! He had snatched me up over "Winterreised" after all, in his irresistible grip, his double-deep voice extra dark and menacing...

"You have not learned yet, my dear and ever trusting jungfrau, that I don't ever come to do ghost things I don't know full well how to do?"

But then he started laughing all over again!

"Consider the length of my commute, and that I can't get anyone down here to let me cash those in these frequent flyer miles! So you think --."

"You were only able to be scary for three seconds before cracking another joke!" I said.

"But I had you for those three seconds!" he said, and laughed triumphantly down to B flat 1 as I fell right through to the Knockout Zone for relief ... it was all right, and as ever he made it easy for me to stand up for my work.

"First of all," I said, "I did do my German work and an additional study of how verb forms from German came into English. Reise is a noun for journey, but also, a verb -- ich reise, or I journey. Owing to the way German forms compound words, Winterreise could also cross over to a verb -- ich winterreise, or, I winter-journey.

"So then, if I journeyed -- ich reiste, then of course, ich winterreiste. Swap out the te for ed in English, and leave it somewhere back closer to where English diverged from German before the Great Vowel Shift, and you could indeed get I winterreised -- win-ter-rei-sed. Since I was a student of Shakespeare and King James English overall, and because my studies of the English Bible included how Old English, Middle English, and Modern English slowly diverged from Middle High German in the same passages of Scripture, I knew that derivation would work, and that English actually has a word that finishes the job for the modern usage."*

He thought about that for a long time, since he also had studied English, and then smiled as again the sun blazed out through the clouds ...

Photo by the author, Deeann D. Mathews, Dec. 20, 2023

"If you winter-traveled often enough, and survived, we would have to assume that you were pretty well winterized, in the true English sense of prepared to endure, or travel, through winter conditions ... so there is a sense in which ... it could have just as easily been derived your way also. Ich sehe, Frau Mathews. "

"I knew you were going to come check my German homework, and even in a very free use of it I knew I had better have my life together," I said.

"How you get this much out of one year of high school and one year of collegiate German astounds me," he said, "but on the other hand I understand it. You are a master communicator with the heart of a teacher just as I am, so much so that you fill my spot in your circle. Our type will always either find a way or make one, given any and all materials at hand, and given any and all opportunities!"

He laughed suddenly, and then revealed the true reason for his bright mood -- the Christmas gift I had given him without knowing -- but he remembered!

"Christmas Eve when your best alto in children's choir came with that narrow-mouthed long E sound -- you got right in front of that child like you saw me do with my student and showed her what to do to make that beautiful round-mouthed E that can go to all heights and depths, and she got it! What a gift of love, given and shared, from me to you to her! Oh, of all the gifts you could have gotten an old master-teacher, my dear master student-teacher, that was the one -- as you loved Frau Linda Kotcher, your first teacher, so you have loved your last!"

He could not keep his seat, or his voice, and burst out into his stunning high-range coloratura -- shocking in a basso profundo, and adept and beautiful as ever as he bounced around the room like his light-footed Don Bartolo in The Marriage of Figaro, with a tune of that lightness also:

"Oh, my heart is glad over you and yours -- oh, Frau Mathews -- oh, my heart is glad!"

He had been living in my head all year, and I am a composer ... naturally, he was picking it up ... which means 2024 could get very interesting because of the choir music that is bouncing around in my head ... his bouncing around like an overjoyed bass-voiced songbird signified a change might be coming!

But I had to look out a little bit for planet Earth, and especially San Francisco ...

"Now, Herr Möll," I said gently, "you know that Mssrs. Hines and Talvela aren't here, so --."

He roared laughing, but tuned his laughter and really showed off that coloratura -- right up to his high F all the way down to F2, a "proper note" for a basso profundo -- and then went and nailed F1 -- "HA!" -- because he could!

My house shook -- my whole city was in danger -- but it would have been a wonderful way to go!

"To see you making use of my legacy with the children ... oh, Frau Mathews, danke schön! Danke schön!"

He was overjoyed, and I needed to give him several moments to calm down. He was hitting the mortal extremes of his voice so easily because he no longer had those limits at all! He was so overjoyed that he was very close to crossing over into immortal voice ... and that, the earth could not withstand. But he also knew that, and sat down, smiling.

"Schweig, old man, schweig," he said to himself. "You were not sent here to flatten all this good work your student is doing -- schweig!"

But it was really close, because he could not hold his true feelings back entirely ... he suddenly bowed his head and gripped the sofa, and his whole form shook with the effort to keep down to a safe level what I had once heard him say what he did to August Everding in describing how a door of opportunity had been open to him to become the musician that he did, coming from destroyed Cologne, Germany when he did:

"Gott ... Sie Dank!"

It was a good thing my home is not in those areas of San Francisco that are on landfill. I wanted to sing out, "Coulda been gone!" but that would have been too much, because I would have been gone in that next instant!

But at this point I knew what to do, and just went and got my fan and a bottle of water and my best Southern accent and started doing what my elders did in old times when a church member went on and got happy...

"See, y'all over in my evangelical free church in Gelnhausen, Germany wouldn't know what to do here, but we over here in the Black Baptist community in San Francisco know how to help Brother Möll..."

That tickled him so much he needed my whole couch to stretch out on once again as I just fanned and smiled until the sun came out again ...

Photo by the author, Deeann D. Mathews, Dec. 7, 2023

... and he finally got it all out of him ... or so I thought.

"I digressed," he said with a smile, "which is the privilege of old age!"

He paused, and then showed it was not all out of him -- one forgot that where he lived, joy was ever the order of the day, and sometimes, he brought more of that with him than other times -- he nearly went right back up again, because --

"Your gifts to me, Frau Mathews, out of the recovery of your own joy, and the love of your heart toward those all around, have overwhelmed my heart, for as your own ancestors have put in song from the Scripture, what you have was not given you by the world, and you have decided to walk in the truth that the world and all its troubles cannot take it away, so I have come here, and met you sharing our true home things of love and joy, here! When I was young, I learned as you did, in German, to pray, 'Our Father, Who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy name; Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on Earth, as it is in Heaven' -- but how many know what it means in terms of 'peace on earth, goodwill toward men,' and joy, even here, if that prayer comes from a heart of willing obedience?"

"Not as many as we would like," I said, "but those of us who know do the best we can down here to walk so that it can be known, and that is what I work on every day!"

"I know. You have made me know it -- you have blessed me to know it! But let me quiet myself, and return to listening to your conception of 'Winterreised,' Frau Mathews."

I sat in the winter sunlight with him for a little while, and the beauty of the clearing sky helped me finish my explanation -- it gave me the analogy I needed.

"Of course, Schubert's Winterreise continues to haunt me," I said softly, "but then Mr. Talvela's beautiful singing of 'Stille Tränen' truly helped me understand what I was trying to get to ... there are people in the darkness because they have chosen it as their portion, and there are people in the darkness who are there, despite the difficulty and pain, because we are called to light the way out, to bind up the wounds of those not choosing death, to lend them our strength in the right direction, to be part of the means by which it is ordained that they make it ... just as so many have done for us.

"The thought from last week is that the survivors of my childhood community, like those of yours, have been on winter journeys galore, but in English, the past tense indicates completeness. We made it through ... and how ... we were spared through love, and spared to love others through. We are winter-journeyed ... but we are also winterized ... prepared to endure, through love, even through the pain, but Mr. Talvela sang triumphantly even in that, because we can still love ... it is far greater than even the pain, and so the sun will come out again ... the evening precedes the morning in the Scripture, but joy comes in that morning! That is what is missing from Winterreise, but is in Stille Tranen ... and in your life story ... and also in Mr. Talvela's life story ... and also mine, as I choose to follow my calling."

Photo by the author, Deeann D. Mathews, Dec. 21, 2023

My guest sat for a long time with me in the sunshine, his face suddenly the picture of unspeakable joy -- I could hear him using all his breath control to stay calm, and when one considered he didn't actually have lungs, the fact that I could hear that indicated that again, we were coming to a wonderful and yet dangerous moment... but he waited a long, long time before speaking in his awesome double-deep range.

"I see that despite the grief of the year, you come to the end still holding firmly to the general secret of the meaning of life -- indeed, for you, the number indicated in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy turns out to be correct -- 42, for so you are that age! You have not been dissuaded -- more winter-journeyed, but in your thinking just more winterized for the next stage of the journey in and through love, for so you have been called, and so you remain undeterred! Ich sehe, Frau Mathews. Ich sehe."

He paused and then continued, and the ground quivered at the brilliant timbre of his voice then, even though it was soft ...

"Although I have no grasp of the weather, Frau Mathews, there are times when I can manage the stage ... since you insist, meine junge töchterlein, on flying me to the moon, and having me play among the stars, let us go, for I can hold back my full voice no longer!"

And there we were, out among the stars, out near Alpha Centauri looking back at the Solar System, far enough away because there is no air in space, and therefore no destructive sound waves possible, for him to cry out in his full immortal voice, and for my heart to hear his heart:

"Mein Herz jubelt für dich, Frau Mathews!"

Jubelt -- the strongest word possible for rejoices, recalling that word "jubilee"!

"My heart rejoices for you, Frau Mathews! God, I thank Thee -- Gott, Sie dank! Sie dank!

That got us past out past Alpha Centauri, on toward Altair -- that said something about why his full immortal voice could not be heard in mortal space and time, because that's almost 12 light-years traveled in that many seconds! Yet some of my ancestors in the heavenly choir decided to get on into it --

"Did somebody out here say Jubilee while praising the Lord?"

And they shouted us all the way back to Earth with their mighty shouts of praise!

My companion and I touched down on the bluest and most beautiful afternoon near a little wood having its own jubilee -- for the rain had washed the face of the sky, and left it, as Martti Talvela had sung about such a day, in wondrous blue!

Photo by the author, Deeann D. Mathews, Dec. 22, 2023

For a little while, all we could do was just walk and settle again into gravity -- harder for him, as it was no longer his natural realm, but after all, he was a basso profundo, and basso profundos, with a gravity well in their voices, indeed do gravity well!

But then again, the day was so beautiful...

Photo by the author, Deeann D. Mathews, Dec. 22, 2023

... it was hard for both of us, so we sang parts of Haydn's Creation back and forth to each other, and laughed as we playfully competed over the tenor parts with me testing my depths, and he his heights, as the afternoon yielded us more beauties!

Photo by the author, Deeann D. Mathews, Dec. 22, 2023

But after a while, I had a serious thought.

"You weren't worried about me this year, were you?" I said gently after a good long time walking, and he looked down at me with a face intense with paternal love.

"It is technically not possible in my state of existence to worry," he said, "although I will say that when here I can remember how it was to have to struggle not to do that! I am still human, Frau Mathews, so when in this realm, I have to deal with certain human commonalities. I still have human emotions, and the memory of how to misapply them! In your case, I had deep, deep concern, and quite a strong memory of being worried.

"But, on earth as it is in Heaven, when concern is permissible and warranted, what one does in wisdom is use one's strength to address the concern instead of misusing one's energy through worry. As a human, one does what one can ... and if one trusts that if indeed one was called to the issue, He Who called is faithful in taking one's portion and all the other portions and doing just as He has ordained already shall be done in His own infinite strength."

I laughed.

"It is an honor to be invited to even be involved," I said, for which we give thanks on earth as we will in Heaven, that we are even called to do our part in what already is ordained shall be done!"

"Which is why I also thank you, Frau Mathews, because you were ordained to come through this year just as you have, and you were kind enough to include me and extend my surprisingly long afterlife career to Hive. That is a small picture of a much more important lesson."

"Indeed -- klar," I said.

"One last corollary, Frau Mathews, one last lesson from this year: we know from Winterreise how dangerous the darkness is. At some point you will know more of that because eventually, you, Mr. Talvela as our remote guide, and I will begin exploring its dimensions."

"We will?" I said.

"Of course -- that's the cost of being Winterreised, Frau Mathews. If you are going to hold out a light and do search and rescue, you must know the ground as well as possible."

I told you, my friends in Q-Inspired, that he wasn't going to let me get away with it. He would not let King Phillip get away with keeping himself up getting ready to kill folks, subtle as the clues are in his beautiful recording of that aria ... he would not let the character in Strauss's Der Einsame get away with us thinking he just fainted into the pit ... he would not let the character in Winterreise get away without us knowing he chose his own doom. He was consistent in all things. He was always as kind and gentle as he could be ... but also, ever in his strength. One did not skate by with him!

"And you expect nothing less from me," he said gently. "I twice foreshadowed the fact that by no means were you going to get by with 'Winterreised,' but you knew we would get here seriously in the end, for you do know me."

"Exactly," I said. "I love you, and I also respect you, and that is why."

"Believe me, Frau Mathews, that I like all sensible men know better than to let you down, even when that means that you yourself cannot be allowed to 'skate by' -- such a fine term for a winter journey!"

I laughed ... he was always as gentle and kind as he could be, though ever in his strength.

"The point for today is that in this year you also have learned that unless and until and only as long as is necessary to effect a rescue, you dare not walk in darkness. You do not direct yourself on such missions -- you must wait in patience until you are called."

"Ich sehe, Herr Möll," I said. "Rarely -- unless at the scene when it happens -- do emergency technicians rush into a scene before a call. If they are off-duty and the situation arises, they respond, but at much greater risk to themselves, because they are not prepared as they would be had they been called to the scene."

"That is exactly what I desire for you to see as you go into 2024," he said. "Now, I need to remind you of another of your ancestors' own wonderful songs here --."

" ... and I draw your attention to what it says: 'Hold out your light, ye heav'n bound soldier. It does not say rush into anything!"

"Because 'fools rush in where angels fear to tread,'" I said. "I understand now."

"And some young, eager contraltos rush in where savvier sopranos who are older and wiser fear to tread," he said.

"Oh, you heard me thinking that and corrected it -- I keep forgetting you can do that," I said as I chuckled.

He placed his hands on my shoulder gently.

"You have a kind and tender heart that you refuse to have embittered -- mein Herz jubelt für dich, Frau Mathews! My heart rejoices for you! To have kept the will to love, to even love and serve more -- to have responded to your calling in obedient faith, even through this year that pressed you to the verge of despair -- that we should have this day, and not another --!"

That brought me also to the verge of tears ... it could have indeed gone quite differently ... all the memories ... good and bad ... I too might have easily stepped over some marge from which there is no returning just from the extremes alone ... but to have come to the end of the year, in joy ... that we should have this day, and not another!

Yet the year was not out yet, and the old master teacher fought for his composure and won it, suddenly in serious aspect. His voice rang through me then, more like winter than I had heard all day, and it was then that he truly shook me.

"Yet in 2024, you must consider this: you cannot misuse what you have without endangering its integrity. The fact that you are past 40 and have made the mistakes that you made in the past two years speaks of the deep kindness of your heart ... but there can be no more mistakes of that type, when now you have been taught better, and will continue to be taught better. From here, Frau Mathews, you are responsible, and you will not skate by should you fail to use what you have learned."

His eyes glittered, but it was not of the coldness of winter -- it was the passion of a father in his love, and in his willingness to do anything necessary for the safety of his daughter. His costume then was a more modern Commendatore, recalling my own father or my grand old soldier lost love in military parade dress ... but more of a naval cut ... a little later I would realize he was costumed as an admiral, actually...

"I have a further lesson in mind, Frau Mathews," he said. "I must continue to reinforce you, against a lifetime of reflexes that you have, for we know not what temptations await you in 2024. While we have time, this work must be done! But I will consider and plan it carefully ... I will not press upon the grief you have experienced needlessly."

"I know that, and I trust you, Herr Moll," I said. "I am prepared to study further lessons as you set them forth."

"You don't lack for courage, Frau Mathews," he said, "and I will not lack for careful consideration and planning. "

But then he smiled, and thus dismissed all dark thoughts ... that stage timing of his coming into play as he heard the church bell ring from the church sitting up on nearby Lone Mountain.

"I love a happy ending as much as you do, Frau Mathews," he purred.

"It was a long winter journey even through spring, summer, and autumn to get here for me," I said, "but, indeed we are here, God be thanked, at a happy ending."

The year replayed itself in the weather as we climbed my stairs to look back ... a last great patch of clouds had gathered ...

Photo by the author, Deeann D. Mathews, Dec. 20, 2023

... and all went into flames, it seemed ...

Photo by the author, Deeann D. Mathews, Dec. 20, 2023

... but afterward, it settled down into a brilliant gray-blue, such that it recalled to me the year's last great lesson from Martti Talvela in "Stille Tränen* blended with "Silent Night."

Photo by the author, Deeann D. Mathews, Dec. 20, 2023

My companion was again overjoyed, but now at last in calmer mood, and so sang my entire neighborhood a tender evening song about a life journey ... in which good old Admiral Morosus, after all his missteps, learns with the help of his community the wisdom and then the peace and joy for which he was searching, by the end of Strauss's Die schweigsame Frau:

The man knew how to do an ending, indeed ... now I was in tears, and so were half my neighbors who came out to hear him ... most of them did not speak German, of course, but the deep warmth and love of his heart still came through, loud and clear. At that time as I recalled the year, I could no longer remember the pain of it ... all there was left, having gained all that I was meant to gain, and having learned its lessons, was peace, and joy.

My neighbors did not even remember to clap ... when one was an audience that paid, then one knew the expectations if one was pleased with what one had paid for, but we had been so surprised by this gift ... the homeowners, the homeless, the commuters ... all those differences were knocked out upon entering the Knockout Zone ... we were just people, for a moment, all blessed together.

He who had shared this gift had forgotten also to bow, for that had not been a performance, but had come out of the overflow of his love, and, as it had often been, he had simply taken us to where he was ... now, the lights of the houses and streetlights could not quite account for his glowing ... but then again, he had made a convincing angel, radiantly bouncing along in his joy in mortal life as well ... so, it still worked out, the hidden part that had always been there just a bit more visible in this extension of his career.

"Danke, Frau Mathews, for including me in your 2023, and hearing me with your heart," he said softly to me, and then said to all around, "Thank you all -- Happy New Year, and good night!"

Then he bowed, and left the stage of 2023 -- he turned the corner of the street, one step out of sight, the next step up, at home. Every eye followed him but mine, for I still had to live in the neighborhood, and at some point deal with all the questions about the officer and gentleman who had lovingly serenaded me and thus all of them ... but not that night, not this year. I softly turned my key, and was behind my door just as he took his second step ... and so I heard him chuckling as he went across the gap.

"Well played, mein kind. Happy New Year, and as always ... nur ruhe."