A C. T U. A L. L Y

Kirill Petrenko.  Not exactly a household name, I know, but it soon will be among music lovers everywhere.   Petrenko is the new Chief Conductor of the Berliner Philharmoniker (Berlin Symphony Orchestra), considered by many to be the world’s finest symphony orchestra.   (I’m so happy to live here!) My first introduction to Petrenko came via a poster in the U-bahn announcing a free open air concert by the Berlin Symphony playing Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony under the direction of Kirill Petrenko at Brandenburg Gate at 8 pm on Saturday, August 24th. Although I had never heard of Petrenko, I was very familiar with Beethoven’s Ninth (who isn’t?) and I was eager to go.   But admission to the concert was at 6 pm and attendance was limited to the first 20,000 people.  Worse, last Saturday was a very warm day in Berlin, close to 90 degrees and still quite warm by early evening.   So we reluctantly decided to opt out of standing around for two hou...

I was struck by this quote from an essay called “Learning to Live in an Apocalypse” from the MIT Technology Review ’s April 2019 issue on climate change: Nevertheless, the fact that our situation offers no good prospects does not absolve us of the obligation to find a way forward.   Our apocalypse is happening day by day, and our greatest challenge is learning to live with this truth while remaining committed to some as-yet-unimaginable form of future human flourishing—to live with radical hope.   Despite decades of failure, a disheartening track record, ongoing paralysis, a social order geared toward consumption and distraction, and the strong possibility that our great-grandchildren may be the last generation of humans ever to live on planet Earth, we must go on.   We have no choice. Oh, but we do.   There are at least three other choices.   We can fight back ineffectively, if not cynically, like India and China are.   Or we can do nothing,...