It was nice clear late evening last night. I decided to walk to the AGO  meeting at the college. It was a very pleasant walk.

As I came into the music building, I was pleasantly greeted by a man who graduated from Hope, did some grad work and came back to work at one of the local prestigious Reformed churches in this area. He remembered my name and asked me if I was working at the Episcopal church.

As we were walking down the hall, the organ prof ran around the corner and almost bumped into me.

He looked in a hurry and stared at me. My friend asked him if he was feeling better. He hesitated than said he was and hurried on. I told my friend he was moving pretty quickly and must be feeling better.

In the room where we were to meet, I was surprised how many people I recognized. I figured it would be a new crew. An elderly couple from my  church were seated in the back. They made regular trips to the UK for years and are quite the anglophiles. The subject of the meeting was  Hope college’s annual European trip…. this past May they were in the UK.

A few people seemed to recognize me and cordially greeted me across the room. We settled in for a slide/video presentation prepared by one of the profs who went the tour. It was nicely done. There were visiting members of the Muskegon chapter. Maybe they were thinking of utilizing the presentation at one of their meetings. Who knows?

It was interesting to listen to the two students narrate the slides with occasional asides from the profs who went with them. Always illuminating to hear young people talk about what interests them. Not always the organs, but certainly the architecture, museums and restaurants.

There were videos of them playing the various organs they visited. On one of them I was quite drawn to what turned out to be a movement of Locklair’s Rubrics. I think I will order this music. It’s pretty cool.

The UK class system splashed across the screen several times as the students and profs described gaining entry in to “posh” and forbidden things like the choir rehearsal of Kings College Cambridge’s choir.

After the presentation, I quickly left the room. I feel more than ever like someone who sees the world very differently from the people in this organization and at this college. I wondered idly if the young student who played the Locklair had heard or played any Arvo Part and what he thought of that music. But since the organ prof there is about as good an organist as I have heard in my life and I think  I make him vaguely uncomfortable if he even notices me at all, I feel a bit shut out of any way to connect with these people around the issues of music I love so much. I have to ascribe this feeling mostly to my own view of the world and lack of social skills.

I went up to the prof and thanked him for the evening and walked home in the cool Michigan night. Life is good. I have much to be thankful for.