The Infinity Festival
At the time, we had thought it best to fill the planning committee for the Punctuality & Inclusion Festival with percussionists, known for their laidback nature and precision time awareness. And we hoped that, with all of their professional experience, they would organize a drum circle as their signature event, a joyful and communal emblem of what it means to make time for everyone all together in our own ways. But what happened is the drummers never showed up when they were supposed to, so the committee secretary was constantly rescheduling the meeting time to the point that drummers were constantly roaming in and out of the Festival Office asking when the meeting was going to start and being told it was yesterday or tomorrow or to come back next week. Eventually, our rotation of ever-rebellious committee chairs just started drumming and chanting outside of the office most days, waiting for someone to come and tell them to organize something. Inevitably, anyone who ever tried was drowned out by the sound of all of the tambourines and wood blocks and cowbells. And when that circle overflowed, another circle started up next to it, so we had two competing drum circles each trying to out-drum the other, a sort of lemniscate of noise. So that’s where the Infinity Festival came from, from the shape of the two drum circles and the fact that the noise never seemed to end.
Robert John Miller's work has appeared in places like HAD, X-R-A-Y, Maudlin House, Scaffold, Bending Genres and elsewhere, online at robertjohnmiller.com. He lives in Lake Charles, Louisiana.