Koyaanisqatsi - life out of balance

I just read about a 1982 film called Koyaanisqatsi which is a Hopi word meaning "life out of balance." The film sounds interesting enough - and the music is by Philip Glass, which is a plus for me.

I don't know what the Hopi word for synchronicity is, but the timing was perfect: I've been very earnestly planning on having a summer that is more about spending quality time with family and friends than it is about checking things off lists. In my case, very little gets checked off and suddenly the summer is gone without having enjoyed it enough or having accomplished the tasks that kept me from enjoying it.

Today, I checked out Guy Kawasaki's blog for the first time in a long time. On April 16th, his post mentioned a fascinating Washington Post article called "Pearls Before Breakfast" which was about Joshua Bell posing as a street musician in a busy Washington DC Metro station. It is a long article, but well worth the read.


I'm often moved by live performances and enjoy a good street performer as much as I do a formal production.

Some of my favorite vacation memories involve street performers on Mallory Square in Key West, on a side street in Old Town Alexandria and in the middle of Quincy Market - not to mention some great performances by Robert Bradley right here in our own Eastern Market.

Once in Alexandria, my wife and I stumbled across Jamey Turner playing a Glass Harp. This guy had played on The Tonight Show, Lincoln Center, The Kennedy Center, etc - and here he was playing on the street! (I even found a clip of him on You Tube.)

This past weekend, I took my sons to see a grade-school production of Peter Pan. I had to keep reminding myself it was only grade-school because it was just that good. The young 8th-grader that played Peter was phenomenal.

Before going, I was thinking that I probably had "more important" things to do than attend this musical. My second-grader really wanted to go and we did indeed need a little balance in our lives - both of us. My 4 year-old didn't want to go at first. (Maybe he had more important things on his schedule, too.) Once we told him that the characters were really going to fly, he was sold. So the three of us went and saw an utterly amazing performance - by 4th - 8th graders.

The Washington Post article came my way at a good time. I hope I can keep enough balance in my life to notice when Joshua Bell is playing 10 feet away from me.