Midnight in Paris or Evening in London

The Woody Allen film – Midnight in Paris; The Salons described by Somerset Maugham; The gatherings described by Tolstoy – all show us a glimpse of informal gatherings of people with passion discussing their common or differing worlds with concentrated attention and interest. People enlightening themselves with insights and facts – losing a track of time and losing themselves to the subject – the art, the literature or whatever the subject might be.

Years ago I decided that when I settle down – my life shall be filled with evenings such as these.

But life has shown that there is no such possibility – as the people with such genius are never all in  the same space-time for such a stimulating event to be engineered.

And so it remained a wistful dream. Lived to a small extent through internet forums and such.

But such events CAN happen!

Un-engineered. Unexpectedly! Impromptu!

Leaving infected and rejuvenated with the passion of the others. Leaving one exuberant through the joint appreciation of art, of the meaning within, of the camaraderie of exploration and most of all of the discovery of one’s insight through the genius of the other! An evening such as this is a magical and re-instills the faith in the journey of intellectual pursuits that is otherwise an individual maverick road and therefore always a lonely one.

Just as the characters  – in all the eras of ‘Midnight in Paris’ – even as they lived the most amazing times in their own days – thought, I too thought that such charming times were all sealed away in history – well out of reach.

And just like the Woody Allen’s characters, I was wrong.

Am so grateful that serendipity arranged for me, my personal experience of the vision of Allen & Maugham & Tolstoy!

jm

Nov 2014