Finis Coronat Opus

One of those heavy, humid city days last summer, I trudged past a particularly dirty construction site. A man in a florescent vest, bent over his broom, was slowly and methodically sweeping the cement driveway which seemed to fill up with dust as soon as he swept.

As the sun beat down on the pavement I thought, what a lousy job to be cleaning up that endless, messy rubble, which will be just as dusty and dirty in half an hour.

Then something unexpected happened.

Another man in a yellow safety helmet, probably his supervisor, appeared in the doorway and shouted out loudly at the sweeper. Can you imagine what he said?

He shouted:

“Good job, Lenny!”

For some reason those simple words stopped me cold. I had expected a different encounter between the worker and his superior, and it inspired me to think how three small words of positive feedback, such a small gesture of grace, could make an unbearable job enjoyable; could give a man pride in his work.

It gave me pause to consider how I speak to my co-workers, collaborators, students, librarians, shopkeepers and bus drivers I encounter each day. How much more pleasant this sometimes tedious work might be if some dram of appreciation could be offered up?

This week I myself am getting back some of that sweet medicine. My faculty, the School of the Arts, Media, Performance and Design at York University (AMPD) is granting me the annual AMPD research award, acknowledging my creation of a new score for Parry’s oratorio ‘Judith’, and my work creating a new opera on a Canadian historical topic, ‘The Llandovery Castle’ – a gesture of grace that makes me happy, and gives me confidence to move forward in my sometimes tedious work.

For all this I must in turn offer words of appreciation to 4 special people who have worked very closely with me on those two monumental, occasionally monotonous, and always challenging research-creation projects: John-Luke Addison, Floydd Ricketts, Jennifer Collins and Paul Ciufo.

“Good job, Team!”