Time crawls and then lurches

Returning to Hawaii once a year as a guest artist usually creates a feeling of time not having passed. You see the same folks and pick up where you left off with your friends. Someone is a little greyer; someone has shed a few pounds, but things are basically the same. Having been in productions together, you get a shared history. This season has been bittersweet--one person has lost his father, another his wife, another his mother. This time, time has lurched forward into new realities. In some years they could be joyous changes--engagements, weddings, births--but this year they are not.