At the clinic where I am receiving long-term residential treatment,
a local singer and chorus director volunteers his time
two evenings a week (weekday nights),
inviting the residents to sing along with him
in individual appointment sessions -- no pressure,
and he will play anything for them to sing.


He is classically trained, however, and so am I --
my specialty used to be piano accompaniments of Lieder and art song --
so when I show up, something different happens:
I take the piano keyboard,
and he stands up and sings bass-baritone Lieder:
Schubert, Brahms, Wolf, Schumann, Richard Strauss ...

the stuff he studied as a young singer , which
he teaches to the best of his singing students,
and which, in the days of social-distancing,
is hard to come by.

But we are in a large room with a very good grand piano,
and I sit there and play with my facemask on,
and he stands halfway across the room with the score singing.

Tonight, when we finished our time, he told me
that divine grace brought him this opportunity
to sing the music he loves so dearly
but never gets to perform for anybody.
How can you not love the fellow?

(Meanwhile he had to drive to the train station to meet
his adult daughter, coming home for Thanksgiving.)