...correcting the space...

Last May, the stars aligned. I had a conference in New Orleans. This would be my third trip and for the first time it wouldn’t include an excursion with a boyfriend/husband. This was a trip for me to take back the city that I loved. My fella was very encouraging. He knew that I needed this as much as I knew that I needed it.

My arrival day was on May 10^th, 2014. I landed and pulled off the drop-off-suitcase-at-hotel-and-get- to-the-cemetery-tour in record time. I toured St. Louis No. 1 cemetery within an hour of landing (even with a flight delay). The universe was smiling on me. What made the day even better was that THAT VERY NIGHT ***swoon*** THE Julian Sands (more swooning) whom I have loved since I was a fledgling goth girl watching Gothic (1986) and dying over seeing Mr. Sands’ bottom (I’m sorry but it’s true) in that performance. It was on VHS so it was probably the size of a pea but still… I watched the movie again and again and again and again. Not exactly for his nakedness but you know what I mean. I rented it so often that I eventually owned it!  I could write a whole separate blog post just about that movie… but that’s for another time. Anyhow, 2014… I was in New Orleans and Mr. Sands was performing THREE BLOCKS from my hotel. I planned a nice dinner for myself and then walked to the Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans. The night was Julian Sands in ‘A Celebration of Harold Pinter’. 

This was the first time I heard Pinter’s poem, “I know the place”. Sands explained that even he didn’t quite understand it the first time he read it. He even misspoke when reading it in front of Pinter and turned “corrects” into “connects”. I, in fact, understood the poem instantly and it immediately became a favorite. So much in that it was the poem that I read to my fella at our wedding and it was included in the sugar skull paper art.  

I know the place.

It is true.

Everything we do

Corrects the space

Between death and me

And you.”

           ~ Harold Pinter

The evening was perfect. Mr. Sands even recited the shortest poem and since I was in the front row (front and center… the first one seated! Among an audience who was twice my age. I was so close that I could see him sweat!), he winked right at me.

Photography was prohibited but I asked the manager if I could please take a picture of the empty stage to remember the moment. These are my favorite colors. The evening was perfect. He cried reciting the last poem. We cried receiving it.

The New Orleans trip was perfect.  It was exactly what I needed before getting married.  I believe it may have been the single best trip I’ve ever taken… everything was exactly how it needed to be. I just didn’t realize how important the trip was until after… and until now.

Tonight is my one month wedding anniversary.  For a month I’ve lived with and loved the man to whom I’m now married. Each day we’re correcting the space.