I spent most of this past weekend up in the Twin Cities, at the request/invitation of Weston Noble, who was leading a special church choir workshop and wanted me on hand so they could sing my arrangement of “Amazing Grace.” Such an opportunity to make music with the great Weston Noble is not to be taken lightly, especially when it’s impossible to know how many more such opportunities await me. So I said an enthusiastic yes, even though it meant missing the Met HD simulcast of Boris Godunov, missing the chance to solo in a performance of Monteverdi’s “Vespers” with the Racine Symphony, and also meant rushing back in order to lead a youth choir rehearsal at Holy Communion Sunday morning. (The concert in the Twin Cities ended Saturday night at 9 – it’s a 6-hour drive back home – and rehearsal was 9:30 Sunday morning. You do the math.) But none of that mattered nearly as much as being at the side of Mr. Noble again, a blessed privilege not to be taken for granted. And on the eve of his 88th birthday, he is as amazing as ever- as adept as anyone I know at turning a Saturday morning choral rehearsal into a little glimpse of heaven. And what was especially fun about this was seeing Mr. Noble work his magic not with high school or college students- but with adults…. many of whom were not much younger than he is, but just as susceptible to his unique charms.
On top of all that, the trip to St. Paul yielded a completely unexpected and wonderful surprise. . . a reunion with a friend from Luther named Joel Feldkamp. He was actually two years behind me, but we sang a year together in Nordic Choir and he was someone I admired and whose company I always enjoyed. But because we weren’t classmates, we haven’t been back for the same reunions over the years- and by our mutual reckoning, it has been a quarter century since we laid eyes on each other! But when he came up to me Saturday morning to introduce himself, I knew immediately who he was – and as we talked, the years fell away as if by magic. I can’t quite put my finger on how that works. You can reunite with a friend you haven’t seen in 25 years and it’s like no time has passed at all – and someone else you saw last year might as well be from the previous century for all the distance you feel with them. With Joel, it was a matter of picking right up where we left off- and for that matter, maybe feeling even closer than we ever did before, altho‘ I can’t put my finger on just why. We have gone into different lines of work (Joel is a financial planner) – and lived different lives since college (he is married with several children) . . . but there it is. I just know that as we drove away from St. Paul and back to faraway Racine, I kept talking with Kathy about how grateful I was to have unexpectedly crossed paths with this great guy. . . yet another reminder of the exceptional sweetness that comes with life’s unanticipated blessings.
pictured above: GB and Joel Feldkamp. He took Mr. Noble, kathy and me out to dinner to a great restaurant called Axle’s- and the next time we’re in the Twin Cities, we are going back!