Chance = Change

...to trade one thing for another of equal value...(my definition, not Webster's)...hmmm... the dictionary ? Random House :1.to trade by exchange of commodities rather than by the use of money" 2. to trade as one commodity for another...Barter...Barter Theatre..to barter theater for ..what? life? Barter...what was Barter in my life and why was it (is it?) so important to me, to us, to Peter and to me? Is it now just memory? Will I return there ever? It seemed impossible to leave there, and now, as days go by and we get busier here, Abingdon seems further and further away..I am in the midst of bartering those days for these...and so life goes on. Rick knew this when he and I talked of how i could share time between NYC and Virginia...The years Peter and I spent there (good old Valley View Drive and its grassy yards) seem so distant even now. All we did do there was work. Here,to walk down a street is a cultural event! The first few weeks being back scared me to distraction (now I actually know what that phrase means!!) and now this seems not to be the case...the more legitimately I get involved in our life here, on personal professional levels,the more comfortable Ifeel, and the more inevitable it seems that coming home was the right thing to do. Inevitable , I suppose. Yes. Of course.

But there are things about the Barter Theatre i need to think and write about. I need to analyze and sort out what that was and what it meant to me...and in doing so, perhaps I can describe the many ways in which the Barter is unique in the world...because it is just that. And very valuable. Valuable to its commuinity, valuable to the world of theater, valuable to the artists who all work there. And in its own special way brilliantly run and shaped. Right there is a story all by itself: the sheer miracle of scheduling to even make it run as well as it does...

So, expect more blog space soon devoted to stories about the Barter Theatre and our time there.Perhaps in this way, no matter how busy I become here, the wonderful time we spent there will not so quickly fade from my mind. Because it makes me sad to think that Barter will become only the memories of it. At least stories live on.