Gratitude Monday: All Souls

It’s been rather a tough year for me in terms of losing friends to death, so let me take advantage of Gratitude Monday coinciding with All Souls' Day to pull back—pull in—and both mourn and rejoice for two of them in particular.

I’ve written about John and Leilah before, even though of course there aren’t enough words. You have loved ones like them, too, if you’re lucky.

Over the weekend I’ve been dosing myself with requiems—mostly Verdi’s and Mozart’s. But I don’t think you need to come here for 60 to 90 minutes’ worth of solemnity. El Día de los Muertos is about celebrating the dead and knowing that some day we’ll be among them, either corporeally or spiritually, however you view such things.

So here are a couple of shorter pieces that are indelibly entwined in my memory with my two friends. First, “Poor Wand’ring One”, from Pirates of Penzance, which John introduced me to in my junior year of college. (I well recall Julie, a fellow student in my military history class, giving me a précis of this particular song, including the cadenza.)

This version is from the D’Oyly Carte, the company John loved the best for Gilbert & Sullivan.

Leilah’s song is Mary Black’s cover of “Bless the Road”, here paired with her “Speaking with the Angel”. She loved this piece; her sweet companion was her son, Anthony. It was on a DC I made for her to give him when he was in hospital.

We’re heading into the dark time of the year, when we step up our efforts to fill the night with light both literally and metaphorically. All Souls' Day gives us the opportunity to step between life and death, to consider those who’ve gone ahead of us and perhaps reflect on how we’ll make that journey ourselves. There was a time when this was meaningless to me, but I get it now. And I’m grateful for it.