Sharpness in ugliness:
Good fortune;
The salary proffered is not measured.
You may refer back to the intention of the Novena for the Order of Euphonius Monks. What I find myself always trying to do is to transform our perceptions of everything (and I mean EVERYTHING regardless of our conditioning) into an intense appreciation of its beauty and perfection. I could be projecting this extremely idealist view onto Cage. When we were together I seemed to continually receive affirmations from him:
I hadn't had time to clean up my very funky 1973 Datsun. When Cage stepped into the pile of trash on the floor board and sat in the passenger seat, he looked around and said one of his favorite affirmations, "Marvelous!" (However, his apartment is very neat and elegant.)
I waited in my car for Cage to finish an interview in which he talked about his friendship with Duchamp. I had been listening to the classical station and a Post-Romantic symphonic piece was still schloshing through my tinny car speaker. Cage doesn't like to wear seat belts and my seat belt buzzer buzzes only when the car is in gear. The buzzer was very loud and distorted the sound of the radio. Cage said that I was the conductor. We listened and laughed until tears came to our eyes as we drove across town.