The Space Between Us
By Brian Elder
Confluence is discovered when an idea ignites action, like it did for Tom Lee. It may be setting out against troubled waters or simply sharing a voice in hopes that it resonates a positive meaning for someone else.
Thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, I have found myself more frequently on social media. One of the clever features of these sites is that they send you reminders of past trips, events, and the people you have spent time with through the years. I’ll admit I was a bit cynical when pictures of last year’s spring break trip to Memphis, Tennessee (including the picture above) popped up on my home page last week. This year’s break has been defined by social distancing, cancelled trips, suspended activities, and a general anxiety about how we will move forward in uncertain circumstances. For many others issues are far more grim, so I will resist complaining as my family and I hunker down, do our part to protect each other, and get through this challenge.
Our pictures of Memphis highlighted the duck parade at the Peabody Hotel, the Civil Rights Museum, Beale Street, Sun Studios, and loads of different barbecue restaurants that we continue to debate. We have made the trip from St. Louis before, but to Memphis’s credit, the town continues to supply something new each time we visit. For my two boys, Will (12), and Charlie (9), the highlight of the trip was seeing the Memphis Grizzlies outlast the Houston Rockets in overtime 126-125 despite 57 points from James Harden. Pictures from the game reminded us just how entertaining our first family NBA game was and gave us a bit of basketball nostalgia and good vibes while the courts are currently silent.
The morning of our last day before heading back to St. Louis we decided to walk down along the Mississippi River just south of downtown. My wife and I try to immerse our boys in a bit of the history and culture of the places we visit. It’s their burden as they have two teachers for parents, but they mostly go along with it and they both enjoy learning. The Civil Rights Museum had been deeply moving as we walked in the footsteps of Dr. King and other leaders. However, for me the river is always a constant artifact that navigates the long arc of history. It seemed a fitting end to our time in Memphis, to look towards home as we walked along riverside park. By chance we came across a statue and story that I feel has some wisdom for the here and now.
The name of the park we visited is Tom Lee Park. It was named for an African-American river worker who witnessed the sinking of the steamboat the U. S. Norman in 1925. Despite not knowing how to swim, Tom Lee repeatedly rowed his skiff “Zev” into the turbulent Mississippi waters and rescued 32 people from drowning. Lee, who passed away in 1952, became a local legend and Memphis erected a monument in his honor in 1954. A more fitting and inspiring statue was completed by artist David Alan Clark in 2006. That is the statue pictured above. Up close it is vivid and personal as you walk right beneath Lee and his boat imagining that he is reaching out to save you.
Scrolling across this picture made me pause for a moment this past weekend. The two hands reaching out to one another held at bay by what separates them seems to define these days of social distancing. Yes, we are apart, but that does not mean we can not follow the actions of Tom Lee. We can still reach out to one another with an open heart if not an open hand. That is my ideal as I begin teaching my students in a distance learning environment. The composer Claude Debussy said that, “music is the space between the notes.” Around the world we are all sharing in this challenge together and the space between us, while from one perspective divides us, it also is what binds us to each other. It is up to us to fill it with music.
This blog, From the Confluence began as an idea to investigate the diversity of music and individual musicians that have crossed paths in St. Louis, Missouri. It also pays tribute to the geographic identity of our town nestled beneath the meeting place of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers. More than this, From the Confluence seeks to explore all the channels by which we are connected through education, culture, art, history, sports, and so on. Confluence is discovered when an idea ignites action, like it did for Tom Lee. It may be setting out against troubled waters or simply sharing a voice in hopes that it resonates a positive meaning for someone else.
Looking back at our pictures I am reminded that life along the river is often filled with a slow and steady consistency. The ebb and flow of the winter to the spring, the summer’s warmth that leads to harvest. Baseball season. We can become complacent and nestled into our routines and comforts. Yet, the floods will rise and inevitably the river brings forth turmoil and challenge, a ship in distress. That day in 1922, Tom Lee did not know that he was destined to witness the river’s fury, but he did not run. Instead he went forward into the waters. In times like that, in times like this, the only way to go is forward one step, one day at a time. There is uncertainty, but there is also the confluence and the assurance that you are not alone.
