Tales From The Vienna Woods

If you can get your hands on this piece of classical music, listen to it and let your imagination form its own story before reading this. Otherwise--here is the romance as the music told it to me.

Fade in: A foggy overcast morning looking across a valley at a dark forest.

0: 20 A castle. Tall, powerful.

0:37 Waking up--zoom in, and the quiet morning isn't so quiet as there is hustle & bustle within the castle walls,

0:50 the drawbridge comes down, soldiers march along the walls. All is well.

1:12A young man comes walking out of the castle, along the moat. He's a picture, he's a word, he's a presence, he's a solemn, pleasant melody.

1:40 He walks across a damp field,

1:55 along the shore of a lake where waterfowl are waking in the foggy brightening morning.

2:08 Then he sees her.

2:14 She's a picture, she's a word, she's a presence, she's the same melody on a different instrument; she looks shyly at him and the air sings delicately.

2:30 the melody is perfect. Though the notes are the same as what they've known in themselves, to see the same tune on a different person is a delight.

2:45 Smiles of mutual recognition; they take hands. They dance a little jig, and you see snapshots of them walking and talking through some months or a year.

3:10

Pomp & ceremony: what else, but a wedding with lots of waltzing!

They dance with friends & relatives, with important people.

4:20 The last dance of the wedding is theirs--to the same tune the air sang around them separately, but with the joviality of a wedding feast instead of the holy awe of their first acquaintance.

The dance goes on, but the pictures blends from the wedding into a waltz through life--

(5:15) festivals come and go; parasols and prams and gentler walks.

5:50 Now they're middle aged--the waltz is a little more stately. Strong, robust, but with more goals and task orientation; less fluid.

6:23 What's that--the children marrying? first grandchildren? These changes are sad and joyous. A little sigh, but this is natural and good; a new measure of life.

7:24 ??? children whining and running all over the garden?

7:45 Behave now, grandchildren... grandma's on a float in a parade, proudly waving like a queen.

8:30 The house is emptier now, but the two find their steps are a little lighter for it, and now, the waltz is freshened and clumsy by toddler grandchildren joining in.

9:00 And the grandchildren are now...in their young way... gaining gracefulness, and life is speeding up again.

9:40 In fact, what's this modernity coming about--trains and big steam ships? Life is getting more hurried as the couple is slowing down.

10:00 The dance is halting, slower, but the two know each other so well, in each others' arms they still dance like they did at their wedding. In fact, an observer forgets they're older and halting, and sees two who are in love, dancing like the wind. A great ceremony of celebration is held for their 70th wedding anniversary. What a tiring day, by the end....

11:50 but here they are now alone, two very old people who never stopped loving each other completely (see Portrait of a Marriage by Pearl S. Buck). He looks at her; she looks at him--their faces light up with tender sweetness. She doesn't see an old faded face; she sees the good soul that has embraced hers all these years; a face smoothed slightly, perhaps, through misty eyes. The melody sings as young and delicate as ever, sparkles like tears of joy. The exact same tune unbelievably deeper and sweeter in light of the many journeys they danced through in life--they have never forgotten the beauty of the moment, of their complementariness. They barely need murmur the words: "It's been a good life, my dear, my love."

12:25 The. End. Into the land of eternal sunshine.