tassosstevens
Jul 10, 2017 · 2 min read

a passage

Blue and I have talked a lot this week about the passage of play. A meeting, and the play begins. The play ends. Then there’s a processing, a reflection. Before a parting. Then some time happens. And then a remembering, perhaps another beginning.

This will be the passage of the game we’re making, because it’s also been the passage of this week. And yesterday was a parting.

It was lovely that we didn’t need to talk much about the game, a feeling that its play is devised and settled. There are no more knots in the wood, and the conversation flowed more into design. B’s given the work of its making to me now, of course with his oversight and connection. And this work is a legacy.

We process, and do the things we needed, print some sketches, sign a lot of postcards, and then record the audio message of thanks, three of us sitting together — me, Blue, and my phone representing whoever will receive this in the future. And the simple and best of thanks, given to all three of us: thanks for being here.

We’re past the two hours agreed for the morning, and Blue is tired again, inevitably, so it’s time for a parting.

I don’t want to say goodbye. In fact, I’ve a pact I made — a legacy of an extraordinary piece of theatre experienced in Tasmania five years ago — that I never say goodbye unless I know, I’m sure, it’s for good. But of course, the circumstances, that damn cancer, and you just don’t know.

This has to be some version of goodbye. So we hug, and say a kind of goodbye that felt weighty. Although as I open the door, there is a chipmunk, always there when you need one.

I drive to the playground to collect some souvenirs to be included in the game. But then realise that I’d forgotten a box of CDs, so I have to drive back, beautiful mishap. And we have another version of goodbye, with Rocky too. Momentous, momentful, lighter.

Later, on the road, I receive an email from Blue saying au revoirco. A word better than any version of goodbye.

two more moments

on Saturday night, I play Jimmy Stewart… around a campfire in a backyard, for some new friends met at the open mike night at 10J. Thanks to Sarah and Roy for hosting :) Later (after a drinking game) I show them the video of me and Blue to explain what I’m doing in Indianapolis. ‘you guys are having fun together’ someone says.

later on Sunday I drive the freeway gif to Cortland, Ohio. I pull up in a driveway, get out of my car. A voice booms ‘if anyone tells you that you are not Greek, you tell them where to go’. Hello cousin Stelio…

I’m on a quest, the first stop to spend time with Bernie De Koven in Indianapolis, to exchange and make a game of legacy, for which we are also running a kickstarter — more here

    tassosstevens

    Written by

    Ex-psychologist, wright, wrangler. Director of @agencyofconey.