Seth the Waiter Redux

This evening there was a concert at the Harvard Musical Association, and as usual on such occasions I went to the Scollay Square Restaurant for dinner beforehand. The maitresse d' showed me to a table, and as I was putting my things down, who should come over but Seth, whom I've posted about before, but whom I hadn't seen there for a couple of months. I asked if this was "his" table. Yes, it was. He then said, "We'll be having dinner together."

He later inquired about the book I was reading, and I showed it to him — "Pope John Paul II's Theology of the Body in Simple Language" — and I told him a couple of the basic concepts that the Pope extrapolates from "in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them," and "they were naked but felt no shame." Namely that our bodies physically show our spirits, and that the way we are most representative physically of God is when husband and wife have sex.

Later still he mentioned that he had talked with Phil, the other waiter, and learned that during my visits in the past couple of months Phil and I had got along pretty well. Later it occurred to me that my response should have been, "I don't want you guys fighting over me." I told him that when I thought of it, and he said I need not worry because he had made it clear that when he was there I was his. (Not the exact words, but the general idea.)

The concert was pretty good. The Vienna Piano Trio performed works by Mozart and Schumann. In between they did "10 Miniatures" by Johannes Maria Staud, an Austrian composer born in 1974. The first 4 miniatures had been composed a few years ago and the trio had performed them. At their suggestion the Association commissioned him to write 6 more miniatures, and they gave the world premiere at our concert this evening. They are vigorous, spectacular in places, but not tuneful. Not too tough to take. At the end they gave an encore by Brahms.

So, all in all, it was an enjoyable evening.