Grace

I've seen the word grace defined so many ways that I often forget what is intended by it. I googled it just now and the first result just may be my favourite; simple elegance. What should be a paradox isn't one at all. Today you and I were privy to two very different examples of simple elegance. For what better way to describe what is almost certainly the greatest album ever put out by an artist who was never to release one again. Now that may sound like the words of a hopeless music geek, but have some respect as we discuss serious matters. The album, Grace. The artist, Jeff Buckley. Our glimpse into it, the almost cliche but always breathtaking hallelujah.



It came at the end of a sunny April day that was spent walking the streets of our beautiful city. We walked, you were majestically pushed in your crimson carriage. You dosed in the sun for two and a half hours, we ate warm goat cheese and coconut salmon tartare on a St. Denis terasse. A perfect day.  When the sun began to set and we pulled up to our street to play our respective roles in your evening routine, we stayed in the car a few extra minutes to listen as Buckley sailed the melodic seas that our own poet laureate had mapped out for him. Just as the final notes flew out of the sunroof, you reminded us of your supremacy and led the way back home. Inside, I decided to juxtapose the two elements that I spoke of earlier. You and I played with a ball that we had just bought at the dollar store, I pulled out my copy of Grace and popped it into the cd player. I paused to reflect on the fact that a cd player will be hard for you to explain to your kids one day but that a ball will require no instructions at all. For 51 minutes and 44 seconds, we bounced and ran and bounced some more while a perfect work of art unraveled around us. The only thing is that Grace always ends so abruptly, no different than Buckley's life. But in those moments, while the ball was still bouncing and the songs were blending into each other, I couldn't help but stop to take in those perfectly crafted moments. How simple and elegant yet completely inexplicable were the symphony of your endless laughter intertwined with the finite masterpiece that we enjoyed on this perfect day.