An Evening of Reverie

It was pure a happenstance by which I came into possession of a cassette recording of "The Vagina Monologues" yesterday. The performance is something that I have heard about and had an interest in attending for many years, but the opportunity just never presented itself. So when I spied the plastic case containing two audio cassettes of the work as read by the author, Eve Ensler, on the rack of free books I snatched (no pun intended - get your mind out of the gutter) it up immediately and brought it home.

So it was that after dinner last night I put an extra log in the wood stove, poured myself a generous glass of bourbon, turned on my multi-color fiber-optic tree for ambiance and fired up the old twin deck cassette player. And then I sat down on the couch with the dogs piled around me, closed my eyes and listened. If you have ever attended a performance of "The Vagina Monologues" then you know it is at times serious, sometimes funny, remarkably enlightening (to me, anyway) and always entertaining.

There I sat, about as relaxed and happy as a man can be by himself (the dogs don't count), when, a little more than half way through the performance I think, I heard the words that at once grabbed my attention and made me think of something, someone actually, totally unrelated to the topic at hand. The phrase was, "I have always been obsessed with naming things", and upon hearing it my mind went immediately to a friend from whom I have not heard in some time. I won't embarrass her by identifying her and thereby forever associate her name with this piece, but she loves to name things; she has a company whose business in naming things; she makes her living naming things, for chrissake! So my thoughts immediately and naturally turned to her - in a totally nonsalacious way I hasten to add. The moment, as they say, was over.

I did eventually lapse back into a more relaxed state but I suspect that this time it was due more to the bourbon than to the total tranquility and contentment that had been my prior condition; my reverie was over for the night. I finished the tapes but I had lost my passion for the performance; nirvana once lost is difficult to regain.

I believe I'll listen to "The Vagina Monologues" again sometime - possibly soon. Maybe I'll invite a friend.