In July I was talking to an old friend and I mentioned that I like to listen to classical music. She replied sarcastically, "How old are you?" A week ago I told my brother I listen to classical and he too responded negatively.
Therefore, I feel it is time for me to defend my love of classical music with 3 bullet points.
ALWAYS SOMETHING FRESH - Since there is so much of it, I can listen to MPR (Minnesota Public Radio) for weeks and never hear the same piece twice. All other stations play the same music over and over. BORING.
NO DUMB LYRICS - Classical music is usually instrumental, so I don't have to put up with stupid or inappropriate lyrics. I can also decide for myself what I think the music is about. Give it a try as you listen to the piece below. Do you think of a peaceful garden, two lovers, a battle field, or all of the above?
VARIETY - Classical music has tons of it. Even in this song, which is basically the same melody repeated 18 times, you'll find no one "verse" is like the others. Each is played by a different part of the orchestra, and with growing intensity, making a piece that should be a bore wonderfully exciting.
If you haven't guessed it yet, the classical piece I invite you to listen to is Ravel's Bolero. Prepare to be moved!
In July I was talking to an old friend and I mentioned that I like to listen to classical music. She replied sarcastically, "How old are you?" A week ago I told my brother I listen to classical and he too responded negatively.
Therefore, I feel it is time for me to defend my love of classical music with 3 bullet points.
ALWAYS SOMETHING FRESH - Since there is so much of it, I can listen to MPR (Minnesota Public Radio) for weeks and never hear the same piece twice. All other stations play the same music over and over. BORING.
NO DUMB LYRICS - Classical music is usually instrumental, so I don't have to put up with stupid or inappropriate lyrics. I can also decide for myself what I think the music is about. Give it a try as you listen to the piece below. Do you think of a peaceful garden, two lovers, a battle field, or all of the above?
VARIETY - Classical music has tons of it. Even in this song, which is basically the same melody repeated 18 times, you'll find no one "verse" is like the others. Each is played by a different part of the orchestra, and with growing intensity, making a piece that should be a bore, wonderfully exciting!
If you haven't guessed it yet, the classical piece I invite you to listen to is Ravel's Bolero. I was going to try and put a youtube video of it here, but either I can't or I don't know how. So just go to YouTube.com and search for Bolero. The one posted by "consejomunicipal" is the best. I also have it posted on my facebook wall. After you listen to it come back here and tell us what you thought. Have I made a classical music lover out of you?
NOTE: You can also listen to MPR right from your computer. Just visit http://minnesota.publicradio.org/ and click on the link in the green box. Friday afternoon is the best time to listen. They have "Friday Favorites" where it's all listener requested music. Saturday afternoon is the worst time to listen. That's when they play opera. I love classical, but I can only take so much opera.
NOTE # 2: This morning I figured out how to post YouTube videos to my blog. Click on Bonus Blog - 01 revised to the right to see/hear the Bolero video.
The first time I remember noticing a person’s hands was back in 11th grade American Literature. Mr. Bergevin wasn’t an effeminate man by any means, but his hands were soft, pink, and well manicured - so unlike my father’s hands. Dad was a farmer, and his hands showed it. They were scarred and soiled with grime under the nails, and colored deep-red like beef jerky in the sunshine. His hands show the kind of man he is… tough, determined, no-nonsense.
The hands that intrigue me now-a-days are my own. I like to think I’m rather youthful in body and spirit, but then I’ll catch a glimpse of my hands and shudder. “What are my mother’s old wrinkly hands doing at the end of my arms!” Ick.
I guess I could do something about it. Maybe I could wear gloves, or keep my hands suspended in the air. They seem to look better when I hold them up. But that sort of defeats the purpose of trying not to draw attention to them. I saw on TV recently they have new procedures where they inject special chemicals just under the skin, to fill in between your veins and give your hands a more youthful appearance. It’s called Hand Rejuvenation. That seems a bit extreme. And I’m not sure if puffy hands are any better than wrinkly hands.
Faced with these choices I have decided to simply not worry about it. My hands may not be all that attractive, but they are extremely functional.
Case in point, my walk to work. I observed this past week, that even during this activity which one might assume is “leg’s work” my hands were employed in many subtle yet essential activities, such as:
-pushing up my glasses
-scratching itches
-pulling a wayward strand of hair back in place
-swatting away pests
-adjusting creeping undergarments
-waving to a friend
Looking at this list one can see clearly that a walk to work without one’s hands would be uncomfortable at best. Sometimes people are encouraged to blindfold themselves to get an idea of what it would be like to be blind. But I’ve never heard anyone suggest you bound your hands in order to imagine life without them. Nor am I suggesting that now (though donning a pair of stiff winter mittens might do the trick). Instead I invite you to join me in celebrating hands – my hands, your hands, all hands, the beautiful as well as the otherwise. Let’s give them a round of applause.
Long may they wave!
Note: Thanks to Zack for taking the picture for this week's blog. I tried doing it myself, but it was impossible without the use of my hands.
I crossed an item off my bucket list this week! I’ll bet you’d like to know what it was. Well, before you get too excited I should warn you…my bucket list isn’t like most other bucket lists. Mine is a list of books.
You see, when this whole idea of writing a bucket list (that is, things one hopes to do before one kicks the bucket) first became popular I gave it a great deal of thought. Not so much about what I’d put on my list, but whether or not it was a good idea to even have one.
Making a list of things you hope to accomplish in a day or a week is one thing, but to list your goals for your life seems to be pushing the envelope, especially when a lot of the things on these sorts of lists are so self-serving.
I think back to a Bible lesson I learned as a kid. The people of Israel wanted a king. Everyone else had a king and so the Israelites wanted one too. God told them (through their priest) that it wasn’t a good idea, but they felt sure it was the right thing for them. So God gave them what they wanted, and just as he predicted, things went down hill pretty quickly after that.* The moral of the story: Be careful what you wish for.
And so I’ve always been careful not to get too specific in my prayers and sort of let God do whatever he felt was best for me. It’s worked so far. I’ve no complaints.
Anyways, I thought about it long and hard and finally decided a bucket list of literary classics was the solution. It’s a list I can pursue in my free time and will cost me virtually nothing (thanks to the public library).
All right, enough beating around the bush, or should I say the bucket. This week I finally read (drum roll) “The Great Gatsby,” by F. Scott Fitzgerald. (applause) Here’s what I thought about it.
I liked how the story is told from Nick Carraway’s perspective. Nick plays only a small part in the events of the book, but we experience it as he does. That was neat. I also thought the plot was gripping (once Nick finally meets Mr. Jay Gatsby) and there were some insightful parts as well. My only problem, and it’s not Fitzgerald’s fault, is that the subject matter was of no interest to me. I’m just not all that impressed or amused by high society in the 1920’s. Critics say Gatsby tells the story of the American dream. If that’s the American dream - America’s in trouble!
So, want to know which books from my bucket list I did like? The first ones I read: “The Trees,” “The Field,” and “The Town,” also known as the “Awakening Land Trilogy” by award winning author Conrad Ritcher. These epic novels tell the story of Sayward Luckett Wheeler and her life as an American pioneer beginning in the late 1700’s and into the early seventieth century. Like Gatsby, Sayward went from being a nobody to someone well respected and well off. But unlike Gatsby, she did it with honesty, hard work, and moral fortitude. The books are beautifully written, insightful, and very interesting. I highly recommend them.
Now I’m reading a book called “Eternal Love.” I’m not surprised you haven’t heard of it. It’s not on my bucket list. I’ve found that most of the classics are rather tragic in nature, so I have to read a cheap romance novel or two (or more) in between tackling the classics to sort of cleanse the imaginative pallet, as it were. But after that I think I’ll try “A Separate Peace” by John Knowles. When I finish it, I’ll be sure to give you my opinion. Until then, happy reading!
Step 2. Find those same 9 words in this Seek-n-find.
