Song: Chopin’s “Mazurka No. 15 in C Major” played by Martha Argerich

It was one of the first pieces to convince me that I should listen to classical music. Argerich’s playing moves one to silence.

 

Book: “A Time of Gifts” (1977) by Patrick Leigh Fermor

The first of three volumes describing his walk across Europe from Holland to Constantinople at the age of 18, “A Time of Gifts” follows Fermor from Christmas to Easter. I do not know that there is a timelier book to be read. It is a window onto a now mostly vanished world.

 

Movie: “The Mirror” (1975) dir. Andrei Tarkovsky

It is a meditation on time, memory, and the irreducible particularity of beings. I can’t really say more. It simply has to be seen.