Sunny Governments

The sun was out in all its glory today and everyone could see how much it has been changing in the last month.  Spring is coming.

We celebrated by going to the Hyogo Prefectural Assembly this morning to play a concert for the people that give us money.  Or more accurately, decide to give us other people's money.  They filed in as I've seen them do the past two years, bowed to the front of the room, sat down and automatically lifted their name markers before realizing this wasn't business as usually.  Oh, there's an orchestra there!  And then they quickly recovered and returned to their business-as-usual glazed expressions.

It's a funny thing to cross paths with other people's professions.  I spend so much time with musicians that for me, that is life as usual.  Lawmakers are in the news a lot, and the decisions and actions they make can have huge consequences for the way the government works and how people live.  They're a big deal!  But seeing these sleepy faces walk in, I could see how easy it might be for them to slip and be human and maybe not fully complete some prerogative, not fight for a cause that many care about.  The government is a castle on a cloud in my mind, and being on their turf made me realize how human and changeable it might actually be.  Maybe they see us the same way.  Why didn't we put in a little extra effort to really play in tune, really find the meaning in a phrase?

We played for them, and had them sing along in Furusato, and clap their hands in the Radetzky March.  As we stood up for the last time, our enthusiastic Wakuwaku conductor (Maestro "Subito open your heart") called out to them through the microphone as they rose to their feet in a standing ovation, "Vote for me!"

Well, maybe he said something else, but being a little rusty in Japanese and jumping a few steps of literal translation,  I came to that as the ultimate meaning he was conveying.  Give us money!  Yay, Radetzky!

And the sun was still there when we left.  Hard to believe it would wait through all of that and still be unfolding the day, so young.  I came home and biked to do some errands, and opened the doors to the rooms in my home to see the sun.  Spring is coming.