The Chord of Longing
Posted November 15, 2017 at 5:49 am by Tim Dustrude
Meet & Greet Author Event at Griffin Bay Bookstore
The Chord of Longing by Mother Felicitas Curti
Islanders will have the good fortune to meet Shaw Island’s ebullient Mother Felicitas Curti by visiting Griffin Bay Bookstore on Saturday, November 18, 2:00—4:00 pm when she presents her memoir, The Chord of Longing: My Life as Atheist, Marxist, Mother, Nun.
The Chord of Longing explores a musical scholar’s search for meaning, love, and acceptance though decades as a single mother, a Marxist, a musician, and finally, a member of a monastic community. In frank and honest language, Mother Felicitas explains how the long search led her through extraordinary pain and difficulty, profound questioning, and finally toward everlasting and perfect love.
The title is based on a chord of yearning—the famous chord that begins Wagner’s opera, Tristan and Isolde. Writes the author: “This chord’s dissonance, this tension, demands to be resolved.” It is the perfect metaphor to describe her own quest for resolution, beautifully described in this personal tale of tribulation and transcendence.
Mother Felicitas Curti – Contributed photo
About the Author
After spending her first fifty years living in eight states, Mother Felicitas Curti entered the community of Our Lady of the Rock on Shaw Island in 1982 and has been there ever since.
In addition to her monastic work, she has been actively involved with music. She has taught violin students from Orcas and Friday Harbor as well as from Shaw; she has spent countless hours happily playing chamber music with island people.
Working side by side with Mother Kateri Visocky, one of the Franciscans on Shaw, founder and director of the Island Sinfonia and its modest predecessor, the Island Consort, she played in the Consort and the Sinfonia until 2005.
For recreation, she enjoys reading, being outdoors, and spending time with the monastery’s three dogs.
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Categories: Arts, Entertainment, People
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