Quiet in the House

Today it IS quiet in the house!  The past few weeks have NOT been quiet, however, as three rooms in our condo were improved with built-in bookcases.  Now we are retrieving our books from storage and placing them in just the right order in just the right room.  Living with books is a great pleasure we have missed for these few months.

The past two weeks were also enriched with family and friend visits, bringing much joy and activity. The first day after such wonderful visits is usually quiet to the point of deafening silence, but fortunately, we spent that day at the Newport Jazz Festival immersed in quite another level of joyful noise!

One of the activities of family "beach week" was the creation of short videos to be shared in a "film festival" on the last night.  Four teams worked most of the week on their scripts and props, filming and editing for hours at a time.  I wasn't going to participate until VC sent me a poem that inspired me to create a simple video of my own.

I read the poem by Wallace Stevens while my actors, VC and DP, performed the activity of reading.  Apparently the video is too large to post here, so I'll just include a few lines:

     The house was quiet and the world was calm.
     The reader became the book; and summer night
     Was like the conscious being of the book.
     The house was quiet and the world was calm.

Needless to say, we came in 4th (i.e. last) place. The winning videos included a lot of action and music and wit and charm.  Serenity, apparently, comes in last during beach vacations!  Still, we were warmly applauded and I was quite happy with the outcome.