An Air of Freedom...

Something very strange happened last night, late into the night...

I am an owl, I can't sleep before 3-4 am. And as I was preparing myself to go to bed, I drew the shutters down, as a final goodbye...It was cold last night, and as I was about to shut the window as well, I heard a familiar air...

Some neighbor, and he did pique my curiosity, was playing Vivaldi's Four Seasons, in the loudest possible manner at 3.30 am. I, who has very sensitive ears to noise, found myself surprisingly pleased.

Despite the cold breeze, I kept the window open, open enough to hear Vivaldi's Summer movement, followed by Fall. I feared that I might not hear it well whilst I was lying in my bed, so I pulled the shutters up, just a little, enough to let the violins penetrate the darkness of my bedroom...

Before doing all of the above, curiosity took the best of me, and I stood by the window trying to catch where the sound was coming from...

I spotted a small room in not such a far distance, with full bright lights, just like in the Summer. And this is where one of my favorite classical pieces was emanating from.

I am not sure why I assumed it was a man who inhabited this room. I saw no nothing from afar except this bright light. But I had a feeling it was a man. The man after darkness. The man after darkness had settled in like some old familiar blanket, enveloping all of us...

As the Fall movement approached, the "man" switched off the lights, obscuring my vision...but I could still hear the violins playing the Autumn season.

Is it a good omen - I thought to myself ?

After Bach's Double Violin Concerto, Vivaldi is my second favorite.

I was trying to read the signs given to me like some witch staring into empty sea shells...

Questions I asked myself, asked that tired head of mine. Why did the lights go off during the Autumn movement and not during the Summer one ? We are in full Autumn after all. Could it be that the Summer light is making itself so small so it can cocoon itself for a better brighter Spring ? The Lucia of a new era ?

Of course my cynical part led me to also think that the Autumn movement and the switching off of the lights from the only room that was illuminating this night, was due to some heavy hanky panky going on in the obscurity...and that Summer was nothing but the preliminaries (before the "fruit" rippens and falls)...the foreplay, if you wish. Mind you not every one is that "lucky" on this particular front.

After much self debating, I gave up...and just surrendered to the movements coming my way, as an offering, as a present from a terribly cold and silent night.

I occasionally resort to ear plugs specially designed in Germany. A good friend ships them my way, knowing how sensitive my ears are. Yesterday night, I did not need them. Plugging them into my ears was akin to blaspheming God.

I lied down on the crispy, white sheets and felt the cool breeze penetrate my room, accompanied by a hundred violins, carrying an air...An air of Freedom.


P.S: I was not quite sure if I had to publish this on the Uncensored blog or this one. But I finally figured out, that more often than not, the lines are very blurr between the political and the personal...


Painting : Iraqi artist, R. Al-Khafaji.