Day: May 4, 2025

“Every Time We Say Goodbye”

Listening to the 1958 recording by Tony Bennett, sometimes, inhibits sleep. Maybe because of the Cole Porter lyric.

Or maybe, because of some photographs I made at Camp Lejeune. The day of a year long deployment to a far away land, of danger, long ago.

And I told a very young friend about it today. And I showed her these.

“Every time we say goodbye, I die a little”

“Every time we say goodbye, I wonder why a little”

“Why the Gods above me, who must be in the know
Think so little of me, they allow you to go”

“When you’re near, there’s such an air of spring about it
I can hear a lark somewhere begin to sing about it
There’s no love song finer
But how strange the change from major to minor
Every time we say goodbye”

Bravo!

I made this photograph in January of 2022, about 10 months before age & widower grief convinced me to retire. And I remember being struck by the artistry of a very young woman. Told her that plainly, afterward, in the lobby, in the presence of her father.

This evening, at A J Fletcher Opera Theater in Raleigh, I watched her dance the lead role in the ballet “Coppelia”. I can’t even imagine the work she’s invested in her craft since. But I know great art when I see it. Makes life worth living.