Martha's celebration of life was Friday night. Something like 12 ONE members came to perform for her friends and family. Matt, Jasmine and I came early enough to be there for all of the speeches. I learned so much about Martha that I didn't know, since I only knew Martha the drummer, not Martha the friend, wife, mother, gardener, dancer... every piece brought into greater focus the picture of a woman I knew only from one angle. After all the speeches we played three songs that Martha knew. I played very badly at first, and started feeling very self-conscious... but the last song was Kokyo which I've known well enough and long enough to let myself go. We were trying to have fun and celebrate Martha's life, so we'd chosen Kokyo as an upbeat festive ending. Then we invited her friends and family to come up and drum if they wanted. A lot of them did... just playing whatever they felt like. I'm having trouble expressing how fitting it was as a sendoff for Martha's spirit. It was a big, loud, outpouring of passion.
Saturday night we had our new members party. A lot of us became members over the summer (with the institution of the community membership), but we had to wait a while for the celebration... the timing ended up a bit strange given what we were doing the day before... then again maybe we needed the party even more.
Only ONE members get purple t-shirts.
