WOW !!! thank you guys so much for all of your thoughts. I am going to digest them and get back to you more individually....
OK, I will get back to him tomorrow sometime. I feel like the email thing is really empty or something, so I'm thinking I will phone him. Possible topics could include: I saw a cute article about the music camp he was a counselor at; telling him more about my new cello; asking him how his visit was with his family incl. getting his violin overhauled; if he will go on tour with his accordion-playing friend recently returned from Germany, etc. The only thing about phoning is that it seems more "invasive", the last two conv's we had he seemed like he had a lot to talk to me about but the feeling was a little sad, preoccupied, or distant. But the email thing seems really empty....
I feel like I need to sit down and look through all my data and try to find some kind of pattern. It seems like more or less everything I've done has "worked" in some way or another. but I feel like he was warmer & more receptive to me up to & including his bluegrass concert. The two phone conversations we had since and the lunch and the emails seemed not as warm and open. I don't know if this is because he was distancing, cycling through his emotions, moving one step forward or two steps back, depressed/struggling in his own life, genuinely disinterested in me and annoyed that I was trying to be friendly? who knows.
