brenmck
So I'm out again with this excellent big band on the cruise ship, and this time Les hires J., an 81-year-old tenor saxophonist who's recorded with everybody from Frank Sinatra to Charlie Parker. He's funnier than Sid Caesar, plays steamer solos that has everybody jumping, and can hang out with the youngest guys on the band and leave 'em laughing at five a.m.
He sneaks up on me at lunch the second day out while I'm trying to scry the ocean, and he knows what I'm doing. We start talking on a level that delights us both. I tell him I practice the Tarot cards, and he immediately wants a reading. I laid out a three-card story spread, but the only card he sees is the Hermit in the center. He demands everything that I can say about it, then asks me if he can keep the card with him for a day. I know that he has a youthful but very wise center, so I say (or rather somebody using my voice says) "Ah, but he's ready to come out - how much longer are you going to carry him?" He winks at me like "yeah, that was pretty good," but keeps the card anyway.
So the next day he's entirely captivated by the Hermit, so I suggest we do a short Celtic Cross with the Hermit in the 1st position - we'll get to the bottom of this, and if we're going to eat two meals a day together I've got to get him talking about something other than the Hermit. The Five of Pentacles is in the 4th position. Now that's become his card. He can't take his eyes off of it. At this point his spirit pawing the table top so strongly I have to suggest that someone is going to come to him that is in a major crisis, and only he can help. (I knew that's not what the "book" says, but that's what the card said.) The Lovers was in the 5th position - his unique knowledge and love for his art will create a wholeness. These comments come out before I hear my own words.
That same night-into-morning, around three a.m., J. runs into a very young saxophonist in a jam session in the ship's auditorium who cannot get a sound past the front row. How he ever got a job playing the saxophone in one of the ship's groups for money is at that point a great mystery. J. runs to his room and gets the kid a mouthpiece and it works miracles - the kid is in ecstasy; his universe has opened up. J. of course makes him a present of the mouthpiece. There were witnesses who all told me the same story - for some reason I didn't get to see this firsthand. But this was my first reading for someone outside my immediate circle, so maybe I saw it first.
~brenmck~
He sneaks up on me at lunch the second day out while I'm trying to scry the ocean, and he knows what I'm doing. We start talking on a level that delights us both. I tell him I practice the Tarot cards, and he immediately wants a reading. I laid out a three-card story spread, but the only card he sees is the Hermit in the center. He demands everything that I can say about it, then asks me if he can keep the card with him for a day. I know that he has a youthful but very wise center, so I say (or rather somebody using my voice says) "Ah, but he's ready to come out - how much longer are you going to carry him?" He winks at me like "yeah, that was pretty good," but keeps the card anyway.
So the next day he's entirely captivated by the Hermit, so I suggest we do a short Celtic Cross with the Hermit in the 1st position - we'll get to the bottom of this, and if we're going to eat two meals a day together I've got to get him talking about something other than the Hermit. The Five of Pentacles is in the 4th position. Now that's become his card. He can't take his eyes off of it. At this point his spirit pawing the table top so strongly I have to suggest that someone is going to come to him that is in a major crisis, and only he can help. (I knew that's not what the "book" says, but that's what the card said.) The Lovers was in the 5th position - his unique knowledge and love for his art will create a wholeness. These comments come out before I hear my own words.
That same night-into-morning, around three a.m., J. runs into a very young saxophonist in a jam session in the ship's auditorium who cannot get a sound past the front row. How he ever got a job playing the saxophone in one of the ship's groups for money is at that point a great mystery. J. runs to his room and gets the kid a mouthpiece and it works miracles - the kid is in ecstasy; his universe has opened up. J. of course makes him a present of the mouthpiece. There were witnesses who all told me the same story - for some reason I didn't get to see this firsthand. But this was my first reading for someone outside my immediate circle, so maybe I saw it first.
~brenmck~
