Happy New Year!

Enrico Caruso

Imagine suddenly finding yourself in a large auditorium. The curtain goes up and every seat is filled. There's a thunderous applause. You find yourself studying the perimeter of the round circle of luminescence in which you find yourself serendipitously placed. You've never been a performer. You don’t know anything about acting and have been given no lines to speak. You don’t play any instruments and are totally unable to carry a tune. This could be your chance to expatiate on any topic, but being given the opportunity to come forth with your grievances or remedies you find yourself tongue-tied. However, before you have a chance to pull yourself together, the tables turn. People start to speak out. It turns out the audience are the ones who will be doing the talking. You're there simply to listen to what they have to say—in this case about you. You begin to realize that the assembled crowd have all been part of your history. And now the familiar faces going back to childhood and leading right up to your adult years, all begin their reminiscences one after the other in chronological order. Some are funny and affectionate and others are sad, desperate and sometimes angry and at the end it's not you who take the bow, but they who you applaud, crying out in the end, “encore, encore.”