I’ve been tilting at windmills for so long that I find myself guilty of seeing things through a too distant lens. While I find it impossible not to scream until hoarse at the inexcusable behavior of so many bad actors in our country and around the globe, it hit home this week, at the passing of a cherished friend, that life, mine and yours, if measured by the oppressive weight of the worst of us, will always seem joyless. I’m not a joyless person. I see and hear and feel beauty all around me. I love and feel love in extraordinary abundance, every day. So, not as a looming resolution or frivolous promise to lighten up, (anyone awake can see that we are in one of the most-dire epochs of human existence), but as an affirmation of the half-full glass I keep at the ready, I intend to share more of what makes me whole.
I loved Jeffery Clayton. He was an hilarious force of good nature and an excellent hugger. He made sounds with the alto sax or any flute that would wander deep inside and always leave me weeping. He faced life full on, sneering at the Bell’s Palsey that numbed his face to reinvent his playing technique. He was a beloved brother, husband, uncle, friend and I feel privileged to be considered a family-adjacent Clayton. Thankfully, I have hours of his recorded music to keep him present, but my sadness, what I will miss aside from the hugs, is the music left un-played. That…is everyone’s loss. Peace, Jeffery.
Click on the photo, below, for a glimpse into Jeff’s amazing talent and irrepressible spirit