Tales from a Time of Covid 19 – Ninth in a Series

ALL ABOUT THE ARTS

This has been a very painful time and, at the same time, a time to learn.

I retired from UM about 3 years ago and now I continue to work freelance on various projects. When I left I had seven Downbeat awards (from what is perhaps the best jazz magazine in the world) including the Lifetime Achievement award in Jazz Education that is given only once a year in a world-wide competition.

Retirement is a bittersweet cup to drink from, as you have a lot of time available that you didn’t have before. But you also start to miss a lot of the things you left behind, and as I live alone I began to get acquainted with something I didn’t know all that well before: loneliness.

I also became very close to someone with whom I spent little time while in my old job. His name is Bully and he’s a black cat, University of Miami royalty. He is truly the closest thing to a human I’ve ever met, and I have promised myself to take care of him, even though I don’t bring him to live with me because he already has his habits and I know he would never get used to living with me in a very comfortable but small studio

When the epidemic started it became really traumatic. I felt as if I was living in a science fiction novel. In addition to everything else my pension suffered a huge drop. Thank God I was able to recover about half!

For two and a half years every day I dedicate my time to Bully from 8 to 10 pm. every day. I feed him and sometimes after he eats I tell him things that happened to me and I could swear that sometimes he actually understands me. He is a very smart animal, and UM music students have him as a pet. He’s the only one who’s seen me cry in all this time.

I have no girlfriend or partner these days. I have a few friends and a cousin who is more than a sister but what with the virus nobody wants to see anybody. I remembered a writer whom I saw on TV who wrote a short story about a young man who was completely immune and who was paid to go to nursing homes and similar places to give hugs to people.

Alberto

Published by ALL ABOUT THE ARTS

Rafael de Acha has enjoyed a distinguished career in the arts as a performer, stage director, producer, and educator. He was born and grew up in Cuba. At the age of 17 he moved to the United States to study Drama at the University of Minnesota, and later Languages at L.A. City College, Music at the Juilliard School of Music, at the University of Cincinnati’s College Conservatory of Music, and at the New England Conservatory of Music, from which he received the Master's degree. He has taught courses on the History of Music at the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music and at Florida International University, and contributed writings and reviews to Seen and Heard International (www.seenandheard-international.com ) and to this blog. He co-founded the award-winning New Theatre in Coral Gables, Florida, where he produced and staged twenty seasons of classical and contemporary theater, including fifty world premieres of plays that went on to have international and national productions on and off Broadway, including Ana in the Tropics by Nilo Cruz (Pulitzer Prize for Drama 2002 and Tony Nomination 2003.) In 2006 he was presented with a citation from The Dade County Cultural Affairs Council for “trailblazing contributions to the arts in South Florida.”