Not Even Not Zen 432: The History of Love (as a Software Product)

 The History of Love (as a Software Product)

In the 1980s and 1990s, software companies issued their software complete with a history of the changes from the previous releases. This let buyers read about the features introduced with each version. It also gave purchasers a sense of how the product was progressing. 

In the 1990s, I wrote my first description of Love as a software product, complete with its software history. It was a satire about the world of my employment.

I got the idea on the day before Valentine's. Ignoring work and homework - I was in the Computer Science master's program - I dashed off the prank software release to three people. The next year, I planned in advance. This time, I sent an expanded edition to a full dozen. Then the joke seemed to grow stale. I skipped a year. I skipped another. More foolishness happened in the IT business world. I got inspired again by it and sent out an update of the Love Newsletter. 

Then, of course, life happened. I forgot about it for years.

When I found the Love software release again. I updated it for the Not Zen blog. A year later, I updated it again. And one more time. And now.

Love: The Corporate Release History
From Monolithic

Press Release: Love Version 12
Special Reporting by Secret Hippie

A Word to Our Users
from Monolithic Software
The Newest Release of Love   (TM)

Product History

Love 1.0: By today's hardware standards, there were many deficiencies in the first release of Love, a product designed entirely with the New Parent market in mind. It was a strong, basic operating system - adequate for its time - but it has grown tremendously since. It should be noted that Love's basic foundation was solid, as has been proven over many years and billions of customers.

Love 1.1: Several features were added due to early consumer demand. These included Love for Pre-Adolescents, Love for Seniors, Love for Siblings, and Love for In-Laws and Other Relations.

Love 1.2: Due to complaints from users with special, problem In-Laws, patches were added to the 1.1 version code in an attempt to fix their situation.

Love 1.4: The Monolithic team added Love for Pets. It was an instant hit. This popular feature has been carried forward in all releases. Further patches to the In-Laws code were issued with this release.

Love 2.0: Critics applauded the new, friendlier interface for Love, which divided the program into five sections: Agape, Eros, Narcissus, Familia, and Platonia. Users found it easier to get all sorts of Love. This was the version which made the product a household word. There were a few system crashes caused by users attempting to make the product achieve things the designers did not anticipate.

Love 2.02: Patches to the 2.0 code were installed to prevent affection crashes under unusual circumstances.

Love 2.03: An Arranged-Marriage module was added. Love for Pre-Adolescents was extended to cover adolescents.

Love 2.1: A same-sex "lifelong" feature was added. The In-Laws section was re-coded and renamed 'Extended Familia.'

Love 2.3: This release was issued by mistake. (The version number is unofficial.) A tool in it featured several programmer shortcuts which, when abused by inexperienced Lovers, often resulted in complete affection destruction. It was briefly popular. Pirate copies of this version still exist.

Love 3.0: Single parents greeted this release with joy at the new Step-Parents feature in Agape. This module (still recognized as superbly written, despite competitors' attempts to offer alternative arrangements in the same market) is in use in its original form in the most recent release. Unfortunately, this particular Love sold poorly and had to be pulled from circulation due to difficulties in the interface.

Love 3.1: Errors in interface design were fixed in response to customer complaints. A move toward standardization of the hardware situation (in Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, and the Americas) made stable code seem within reach to our programmers. The drive toward "perfect" code started.

Love 3.2: A safety feature was added to prevent Lovers from disfiguring themselves (a common occurrence with early affection engines). Additional safety features are now available in Love. No product can be perfectly safe; caution with affections is always advised.

Love 3.3: Despite some inadequacies with respect to modern hardware, this version of Love has proven very robust; it was the result of the attempt (now recognized as impossible) to create perfect code. In fact, 3.3 is still in use in many regions of the globe. This was the most popular release of Love, partly due to pirate copies. All of the main features for which Love is famous are present in 3.3, though some special tasks may prove unreasonably difficult to achieve. Upgrade from this version is strongly recommended.

Love 4.0: The evolution of the user environment prompted an entirely new look at the Love operating system. Hardware began to last longer and require more intricate management. The Eros and Familia sections had to be modified. Twenty-three new modules were added in an attempt to supply Love to "expandable" systems designed to stand the tests of time. The overall package was revolutionary. Unfortunately, some copies (no one knows how many) of 4.0 were released with a virus.

Love 4.01: A patch was added in the form of basic virus-protection. This protection, it should be noted, is now regarded as inadequate in today's environment. Monolithic corporation urges users to upgrade or to buy third-party protection if they intend to continue running any outdated release.

Love 4.1: The Extended Familia feature was disabled. A Distance Relationship package was offered in its place. (Mapping functions and travel recommendations from Monolithic were included.)

Love 4.4: A special War-Time Love edition. Very rare. Included are all the familiar Love features but the sum total was repackaged and offered to service families at a lower price. One notable change was the Distance Relationship module, which was expanded to include all possible permutations at the time (a feat made possible by the brilliance and dedication of war-time programmers and engineers). Distance Relationships are still an important affection market and Love is still the overarching provider.

Love 5.0: This is one of a handful of versions considered to be “classic.” It is very stable in most of its features. However, the new and completely-revised In-Law module failed under certain hardware configurations.

Love 5.03: This is the free upgrade version distributed to purchasers of Love 5.0. Special handlers in the In-Law module prevented most crashes. Some of the code in this section worked slowly. Users were advised to be patient with In-Laws.

Love 5.5: In this edition, a special Commuter module was added to the Distance Relationship package. Contrary to popular rumor, this module was not 'stolen' from the Traveling Salesman package offered by a rival company. (Note: the company in question is no longer in existence. Monolithic has acquired the Traveling Salesperson responsibility.)

Love 6.0: With changes in hardware becoming more frequent, Love stepped up to the speed challenge.

Love 6.1: Special Love Compression software arrived. With heart space at a premium, code reduction schemes allowed for the queuing and unpacking of various emotions necessary to run the new, more-complete In-Laws module. The lack of necessary affection channels in most hardware kept these modules from being practical, previously.

Love 6.2: Due to lawsuits involving the Love Compression engine, this version shipped without it. The In-Law module available in 6.1 continued to be offered but with a special disclaimer in the setup program as to the extra space needed to house the unpacked code.

Love 99: This release presented a radical change from previous versions. Lovers benefited from a smoother interface. Allegations arose that the look and feel were unfairly similar to the Adore (now iAdore) package. Fortunately, court decisions sided with the Love designers. The Monolithic interface to emotions continued to grow.

Love XL: A new generation of lovers required extra large devotion with additional features. As a bonus, the Love XL package came with the ability to troll for compliments at leading social sites like MyPassion.

Love Visa: Designers allowed for an improvement in touch interface. However, this version did not perform well with the newest generation of hardware. In this release, the company lost market share for the first time.

Love 7.0: This release achieved “classic” status in the opinions of many reviewers. The new Love Expander module competed strongly with iAdore and won back market share. Thanks to a more efficient Nepotism affection engine, the In-Laws module cemented its hold in business relationships.

Love 8.0: In the era during which MyPassion gave way to LikeFace and gSpot, Love concentrated on reaching out via mobile phones. A new generation of Lovers got a new interface.

Love 8.1: Improvements arrived to Love telecommunications. Many of those found their way into traditional Love hardware. Popular business apps like Quickie and LinkedUp stimulated offices around the globe. Small companies made games like HeartRace and Lovey Birds compatible with the Monolithic environment. Developers made antivirus protection part of the standard Love feature set.

Love 10: Love was everywhere. Most especially, it was in the air with LoveCloud. As demanded by our business customers and as a free add-on feature for our single Lovers (with a small monthly maintenance charge), a new wave of technology arrived to spread Love even farther. With LoveCloud, affections grew shared more widely and more securely. Customers used LoveCloud in business, during official and recreational travel, and at home.

Love 10.1: Cumulative patches to the LoveCloud service allowed for more security. Users reported the benefits to having their Love tracked more precisely. Advertising associated with affections grew more targeted.

Love 10.2: Some governments tracked forbidden affections too closely. With this version, LoveCloud became unavailable in some nations. The ever/present service experienced outages in some parts of the United States.

Love 10.3: Love as a Monolithic SaaS grew. However, our terms of service changed. With this release, the company added extra security so that unsubscribing required an in-person call to verify the transaction. More types of multifactor authentication were integrated into the subscription process.

Love 11: LoveBugs

Who doesn't love getting swarmed by LoveBugs? With this release, the corporation gave Love a set of AI subroutines. Each module possessed independent intelligence in the style of a robot. This did not make Love agentic in modern terms but the results greatly improved the speed of affection. If the sibling module could not attach, often three or four pet modules stepped in and took its place. This was a qualitative leap forward in Love.

Love 11.1: Love B&D with Love Prompts

As it turns out, a few people didn't like the idea of getting swarmed by LoveBugs. The initial release 11 remained popular but the name and the low intelligence of the LoveBugs drew ire from affectionware hobbyists. An improved release of Love, 'Backpropagation & Deep' was chosen as an upgrade to the technology and also as an alternative branding.

Love 11.2: Love S&M

Monolithic delivered patches into production speedily for the next upgrade, Love, Structured and Modeled. Natural Language Processing assisted users who wanted to adjust their terms of service. More to the point, most users achieved a deeper, more reliable affection with this release. However, within a month, the branding would change. Also, Monolithic dismissed the head of the marketing team responsible for choosing product names.

Love 11.3: LoveLearner

This was the final rebranding of the version 11 release. Monolithic downplayed the LoveRAG and the Love training. Nevertheless, people all around the world enjoyed the features they provide. Love Learner, fortunately, turned out to be an excellent branding. Everyone loves to learn about love.

Love Generation

Monolithic corporation heard the call of the public for Artificial Love. We acquired the LoveChat engine, which we combined with our powerful LoveCloud to form our Love Generation. The LoveGen (TM) service offered more intelligent matching, catfish games, special distance add-ons, premium services, and custom writing. (Motto: "Whether it's your words going out or their words coming back or an enhanced version of your mutual chat, you will definitely find yourself in Love!")

NOW INTRODUCING

Love 13: LoveAgent

With this release we have the Agent of Love!

A Love Agent can take your ideas (or even a sketch) and generate cards that you would have written if you'd had the time. The special person in your life deserves a handwritten, individual message. Now you can give them one every day. 

Love Agent can take the love you’ve got and make it better. It can take love you might feel is getting stale and make it new again. Love Agent has learned from millions of stories of love. That's why it can make your love into the most moving story there is, as everyone wishes theirs could be.

Note: in testing, we had occasional complaints of hallucinations. However, you can do worse than to hallucinate you are in love.

AS ALWAYS 

FreeLove is Not Monolithic
 
As always, we must issue this disclaimer: You may have heard of an open source product called FreeLove, originally produced by a former employee of ours using many modules of our original code. This hobbyist product is under legal dispute and it is not covered under Monolithic terms of use. It is strictly an imitation. You should be warned there have been complaints about the FreeLove line of affections. FreeLove has design flaws and bugs in implementation. Of course, it is free and you may think it is a good bargain until it ruins some important relationship. Remember that you end up paying for what you get.

Not Even Not Traveling 72: Hawaii - Did I Learn Anything?

Almost Thinking

During our many dinner discussions with other passengers, I was consistently surprised by how instructive other people's lives could be. Everyone’s choices had an internal coherence. Sometimes you had to wait until you understood their logic, but still. These people had survived a long time, sometimes in challenging businesses, and the ones who made it to the cruise life had done well. They had made their choices, dealt with the consequences, learned, and kept going.

There were a couple of engineers: One was a retired military and civil engineer who moved to Nevada to lower his cost of living, specifically to fund his world travel. He and his wife had been everywhere from Antarctica to the Panama Canal.

We met professional guides: Nick and Lori had lived as Hawaiian tour guides, luau hosts, Las Vegas card dealers, and golf package sellers. They never got rich but they always seemed to find a way to finance what they wanted, even if they had to play golf as the course hosts, not as the guests.

There were careerists: Unlike the families of inherited wealth, these individuals sweated for their money. They worked during the voyage, too, as a rule. I suppose I was one of these in a way, although sadly without owning a business. Still, I was new to my job and working my way through the vacation. What I learned (again) from the careerists is that it is way, way better to own the business. But I already knew that. 

The health concerns: We met folks with partial paralysis, with deafness, and with serious medical problems in their past. After all, about two thirds of the passengers were elderly. The most difficult may have been David, a retiree who had been the life of the party, once. Now he was mostly deaf. He felt frustrated about it because was unable to be his previous self. He couldn't catch the jokes and stories at the table; he couldn't return with his own banter. He watched lips carefully but often, he had to tap his wife to translate. He seethed about it.

We met lots of Canadians: Multiple couples, like Paul and Joanne, had retired from government jobs with pensions. Half of them had no children, which might have been a financial benefit that allowed them to travel. A few owned small businesses - but, after all, a small lumber business is still a profitable one.

In Summary:

• After a week, I stopped liking buffet food. It's more limiting than you might think.
• Canadians civil servants can retire to the cruising life.
• Americans who are in a position to start their own businesses are living by different rules. (Admittedly, I kind of knew this.)
• Mexico, at least in the lands around Ensenada, is more beautiful than Hawaii.
• Snorkeling should be sort of mandatory. There are kinds of fun that everyone should have and snorkeling may be one of them.
• No one should go to Honolulu or Waikiki. Maybe if you're staying there and can walk to where you want, it could be acceptable. But if you're trying to drive around the area to see the sights, no.
• Hawaii is so expensive that taking a cruise might be the cheapest way to stay in the islands.
• The defense of Hawaii against the Japanese attacks in World War II made the islanders and mainlanders come together. Basically, the USA mutual defense made Hawaii a state.

 

Not Even Not Traveling 71: Hawaii - Kona

Arriving at Kona

We had circled most of the island chain and returned to the big island of Hawai'i. This time, the Zaandam landed on the western shore, at Kona. 

Passengers had to disembark by tendering, this time. In case you haven't done it, you tender from a cruise ship because you've arrived at a port where the water is too shallow or the pier is too small for a large ship to dock. The alternative used by cruise lines in such situations is a fleet of smaller boats made for transporting passengers to shore. The boats were once called 'tenders' and were supplied by the ports. 

Nowadays, there are no specially-built tender vessels. Cruise ships like the Zaandam long ago upgraded from emergency rafts to tender boats as their standard. In any real emergency, one with time to deploy the boats, everyone would be better off than in emergencies of ages past. Tender boats have two decks, modern engines, heated cabins, and supplies to last a week. We bounced from our ship to the dock in relative comfort.

Once we reached Kona, we hiked to our rental car company. There, after a delay in processing, we got a car and drove up the nearest mountain. Then we kept going. We were deciding destinations as we went and among them we chose a historical site known as the Puʻuhonua o Hōnaunau National Historical Park and Refuge.

The Refuge

For local Hawaiians, sheltering in Puʻuhonua o Hōnaunau was analogous to a medieval peasant taking shelter in a Catholic Church. Your pursuers were not allowed to harm you at the holy site. If you had broken the kapu (sacred laws) or your army had been defeated or you were pursued for debts or vengeance, you could go to Puʻuhonua o Hōnaunau and try to live there until it was safe to come out. The park supports a half-dozen traditional structures, although they are sometimes roped off, meant to be seen more than played in. (I think there are only so many times tourists can get in a dugout canoe without breaking it.)

We strolled among the buildings, some of which were small homes, barns, or sheds. A few structures were forts, really, raised near the shore as if the protection of Puʻuhonua o Hōnaunau hadn't been perfect. It had perhaps needed to be buttressed by physical defenses sometimes. More impressive than the homes were the ponds and the shoreline. A past Hawaiian king had a series of fish ponds built. Some of them still actively providing homes for fish. Even better, the ocean shore along the refuge teemed with life of all sorts. It was a natural, shallow harbor. Its tidepools entertained children (and some adults) for hours while we were there. 

We could have hopped back in the car and raced to the southmost tip of the island, afterwards. We would have not made it back for dinner aboard the Zandaam but, if we had been determined, we could have stood at the southmost point in the United States (since that is what the southern tip of Hawai'i is) and skipped a meal. 

The Coffee

Although I mentioned I was sick for the whole voyage and don't find it worth dwelling on, here's where it played a factor for us, though. I didn't want to spend that much time driving anyways. Feeling ill and run-down sealed the decision.

"Let's stop for coffee," I said. 

"Maybe we can give ourselves a coffee tour." Diane consulted her tourist pamphlets, maps, and GPS. 

On the way back to Kona - nearly there, in fact, overlooking the city from its nearest mountain - we stopped at a local coffee house. On the slopes behind it, the shop owners had a two-acre coffee plantation. They were growing and processing their own coffee and chocolate. 

Diane and I sat in the back of the restaurant at a large window overlooking the plants. We ordered a couple of lattes, talked at length with the staff, and watched the plantation guide give a tour to people we recognized.

"Those folks are from the Zaandam," said Diane, pointing out the window to faces I recognized. 

"So this must be one of the ship excursions."

"We could go out there, trail behind them, and get the same tour for free." She grinned and leaned her chin in her hand as she studied the crowd walking through the coffee bushes. We knew they had paid two hundred apiece for the tour. 

"Nah." It was an attractive idea but I was too run down, physically. I needed the coffee I was drinking. 

We helped ourselves to another round of lattes, a shared sandwich, and a chocolate bar.

 

 That night, back aboard the ship, I barely had the energy to attend the concert. (The excellent coffee and a nap helped.) On the World Stage of the Zaandam, a performer put on a show of Carole King music. If you don't remember who Carole King is, hum "I feel the earth move / under my feet" and probably now you do. The performer was great but also, King was an amazing songwriter, so the performer had a huge amount of work to pull from. Even for impatient people like me, it was fine.

Not Even Not Traveling 70: Tiny Guitar of Doom

Tiny Guitar of Doom
(A Heartwarming Tale of Forty-Five Adults Failing to Clap in Unison)

Day G

On Friday, the second day of our voyage, I noticed a free ukulele lesson on the schedule of ship events. So did forty-five other passengers. When I arrived in the crow's nest, the twenty-four class seats were full. I had to steal a stool from the bar next door and improvise a place in the back row.

The instructors, a wife and husband team, had brought a crate of brand-new soprano ukuleles. That seemed like a happy event. I hopped up to get mine before they all disappeared.

"You won't get to keep them," warned the instructor, a middle-aged Hawaiian woman. "We will take them back and my husband will tune them all tonight."

The tiny ukuleles had arrived out of tune, and — because their strings were new — they refused to hold a note for more than a few seconds. Strumming on them was easy enough. Trying to confirm the sound of a chord in a room full of forty-five out-of-tune instruments playing at the same time, though, was an intellectual exercise, not a musical one, so much.

I learned to play a simple song in our first hour. That's what I thought; it sure was hard to verify.

Day C

On Saturday, the instructors raised the stakes. They gave us chord charts for "Mele Kalikimaka" and "Here Comes Santa in a Red Canoe." They told us we would be performing both songs on the World Stage on the night before docking in Hawaii.

I'd never heard the second song before but it had a hook I found appealing. They were both going to be fun, I thought, World Stage or not. But we weren't given melody notes for either piece. We were expected to memorize the singing by ear, which is easy enough, I suppose. Most of the men had to sing an octave down from the instructor, though, and she sang at a low alto. Maybe a fifth of us could make the octave. One silent man behind me chuckled.

"Sing louder," he told me.

"Yeah," agreed the musician to my right, one of those who had brought his own instrument.

We had two days to learn songs for the concert. Fine. Given the ease of the ukulele, I knew it was possible. I wanted a few other men to sing, though. Plus I couldn't see how the group was going to get the timing of the ukuleles right. We weren't strumming in anywhere close to the same rhythm. We seemed to have a cadre of music students who liked to race to the end.

"We keep speeding up," I complained.

"It's not happening in these seats," said the musician.

"Next rehearsal, maybe they'll chill out." That was my hope.

"Maybe they'll get even more excited," he countered. I gave him some side-eye.

"Everyone likes Flight of the Bumblebee," said the woman to my left. Okay, so it was musical humor of a sort. We turned to her. She tossed back her frizzy, blonde hair and and flashed us both a smile.

Day E

After workout and lunch, I went to my ukulele lesson (ratio: still one teacher per forty-five students) and I sat in the middle row of seats. A man who had brought his own instrument took a spot next to me. In the previous lessons, I'd noticed at least three other musicians who had brought their own. We had musical prodigies in the crowd as well, including a boy of twelve or thirteen. The boy, when he picked up his ukulele for the first time, tuned it in a few seconds and then plucked out all the scales on it by ear. Within a minute, he was playing chords and breaking the chords into components, plucked in syncopated rhythms.

This time, the boy and even more real musicians sat next to me. The grown man with the most beautiful concert-quality instrument rested it on his knee, leaned over, and said, "It sounds like you've played ukulele before."

I didn't know what to tell him. I had taught myself one song for a poetry event years back. Could an experienced musician pick up a single experience like that? And do it in a room full of other musicians? I felt like he was making a mistake. But in a nice way. I tried to let him down easy while I heard, to my right, the boy pick out part of Eine Kleine Nachtmusik.

He was really putting "Here Comes Santa in a Red Canoe" in perspective.

After a decent practice, I got nods from a few other folks I knew by sight. One of the gestures came from the military engineer I'd eaten lunch with a couple days earlier. At the time, he'd been severe. He had refused to drink coffee or alcohol. He'd pointedly said that he and his wife came from Utah. Despite his apparent disapproval then, he seemed satisfied with the music. 

His wife had clapped in time when it was demanded. He had not clapped. 

Day A
The Undressed Rehearsal
(It's only a metaphor - we kept our clothes on) 

Our next ukulele lesson panicked me. Our timing, as we strummed, was worse than dancers on a boat in a gale. We were down to forty individuals now but still we had no common sense of time. Half a dozen players kept picking up speed as we played.

The wife and husband instruction team kept arguing. The wife was the leader. She knew her part. She was going to direct the performance. But together, they didn't seem coordinated. They argued for about a third of the class. And they weren't concerned about looking bad on stage. I begged the group to return to the parts we hadn't gotten right. And we did. Still, we didn't nail them. And the instructor was not worried at all.

At dinner, Diane and I hit the Pinnacle Lounge, the most expensive and exclusive restaurant on the ship. Toward the end of dinner, Tim and Wendy sat down at a table nearby. They were our dining mates a few days back and now here they were again.

"I haven't seen you at ukulele lessons," I mentioned.

Tim laughed.

"I've given up on that," he admitted. "We'll do the hula dance. That's our part."

I had to admit, it was a reasonable strategy.

This Chord

Overnight, I practiced for the Hawaiian Cultural Festival. We had been allowed to take the soprano ukuleles to our cabins. Thanks to my wife's generous offer to head to the spa and let me strum, I knew our two songs. I knew I could hit the low notes while singing and keep time with the instrument. As a group, though, well, I remembered our run-through the day before.

Practice, practice. I even practiced the native Hawaiian chant, only one word and a few claps since a Cultural Leader was doing the rest. But I nailed it. 

The next day, I barely noticed my lunch because I was concentrating on the dress rehearsal coming up on the World Stage. 

The Dress Rehearsal

If you opt to learn about Hawaiian culture on a HollandAmerica cruise, you have to be prepared to be part of the show. The Zaandam had four cultural advisors traveling with us. They had taught music, hula dance, and lectured to us about Hawaiian island life. One of them got up on the World Stage and led us in a practice of the opening chant.

A Hawaiian welcoming ceremony had been gently adapted (or so I suspected) for us as passengers. It was simple and friendly. To my surprise, the rehearsal went well. We got our timing right. When we were singing, we took a formation that placed me in the middle. Aside from the men who hadn't sung, there were a few women who felt unsure about their voice roles. In the last rehearsal before this one, I had gently assisted the women’s melody.

"Are you going to sing soprano?" whispered the woman next to me. I knew she meant was I going to softly croon to the female voice line.

"Do you want me to?"

"Yes." She looked at her feet.

I told myself it would be okay as long as I stayed gentle. When the verse came around, I added a quiet line of notes. My ukulele friend and two other women close by nodded in approval. Good, because I needed approval.

The Hawaiian Cultural Festival

Well, it helps to perform in front of a friendly audience, which we were definitely doing. We clapped to the traditional chant in the correct rhythm (okay, except for one person). We applauded for the acrobatics and the drumming that took the place of a fire ceremony, which admittedly would be hard to hold aboard a modern ship due to well, fire alarms if nothing else.

We sang Melé Kalikimaka and Here Comes Santa in a Red Canoe. Many of us kept time correctly, even. We moved aside to accommodate the hula dancers. But then we sang along to accompany the hula. Honestly, I think we were the least cultured part of the Cultural Festival.

But the audience, composed of our friends and fellow passengers, stood and clapped. And then most of the people hugged, usually with the family member involved in the performance but not always.
 

Not Even Not Zen 431: Aleksi, Note 4 - Oh Yeah, Art

Oh Yeah, Art

In the summer of 2015, Diane and I brought our family on a driving vacation. Our two youngest kids were still interested in traveling with us, so we aimed to take them to new places. We consulted our extended families and acquaintances. We tried Mapquest. After a lot of thought and tracing out the possible routes, I decided I would rather see friends than anything else.

Okay, so I pretty much always would choose to visit friends if I could. It wasn't a one-sided decision. We knew that college friends of mine, Donna and Aleksi, were living north of Toronto with their son, Ensor, who happened to be around the same age as our kids. They all said yes to a visit. They seemed interested, even.

Diane planned our driving route. It was going to be great. Well, the first leg was going to be long. But Canada is, as everyone points out, a lot like a version of the United States where people don't litter. Folks are polite. Geese are aggressive. We made our way along Route 403 to Toronto and then beyond. No hotel for us, this time. At least, not yet. Donna and Aleksi had generously offered to put us up in their home, which is the kind of thing great friends do and most other citizens pretend they would also do if only things were different, like we all owned multiple houses. 

An hour after we arrived, Al and Donna whisked us off to see the sights of Toronto. Ens gave the trip a tolerant smile. We took a train. It was clean. In fact, the art district downtown was fairly spectacular. The conversation was the best part, though. Sharing opinions and memories is what makes friends worth crossing international borders for, maybe.

When we got back to their place, Aleksi settled us in and turned on the kind of television and sound system I'd never had. He asked if he could play us one of his pieces. Normally, I wince when people offer to show me their work - too many writing workshops with bad writers, I guess - but I remembered Aleksi's sense of art in college as being a strong one. He'd shown passion and determination. He'd had ideas about abstract art. He had since then worked his art into Hollywood movies, too, so I knew I was going to see something polished. 

Aleksi dimmed the lights. Music from Bach filled the room. Streaks of light and patterns began to flash on the screen. 

Seeing his animation, feeling it move me, not always knowing quite why I had the emotional responses, feeling my mind go out in unusual directions - this was different but it was familiar, too. This was art.

"This piece played for a while at a German art museum," he said. "It was in the lobby. People saw it as they came in."

"It was for a celebration of Bach," Donna added. 

Next, he played a second piece, another abstract visualization of a sonata. I noticed my kids fidgeting a little during it but not much, not enough for me to worry. Once more I felt the animation move me. It made me remember how Aleksi strongly envisioned his art. It really was art. It had been a long time since I had seen art for the sake of its inspiration, since I had seen it so pure and naked.

This was not commercialized, did not compromise much with techniques or with the need to communicate. It was driven by an inspired vision. Oh yeah, this was the real stuff. This was art.