The Wine of Blessedness

“And all the host laughed and wept, and in the midst of their merriment and tears the clear voice of the minstrel rose like silver and gold, and all men were hushed. And he sang to them, now in the Elven-tongue, now in the speech of the West, until their hearts, wounded with sweet words, overflowed, and their joy was like swords, and they passed in thought out to regions where pain and delight flow together and tears are the very wine of blessedness.”

— J.R.R. Tolkien

The Wine of Blessedness

Recommended reading and listening

A gazillion years ago this book was assigned reading for a short round of couples therapy. I read it and had huge ah HA! moments. The therapy didn’t go very well but I found it personally successful. Since then, I’ve recommended the book to people over the years, along with a couple others by the same author.

I had a few Audible credits to use up and for some reason this turned up in recommendations so I took a chance on it. I also found an Audible version of The Art Spirit by Robert Henri (pronounced Hen-rye) and I got that too. Previously I’d listened to a a handful of recordings from the Dalai Lama.

The Art Spirit was good in audio form. Reading it is like reading a lot of quotes and snippets stirred together. The narrator really did a good job and made it sound like a kind, knowledgable and skilled art instructor and mentor, talking to and instructing his students. I came away with a lot to think about, not how to apply paint, but what to aim for and a lot of whys about being an artist.

Today I started the Albert Ellis book, How to Stubbornly Refuse to Make Yourself Miserable about Anything, Yes, Anything! and it is even better than I remember! If you want to work through the exercises it comes with a PDF version you can download. I also had a moment of being wildly excited as the basic precepts of buddhism snuck in during the introduction. Guess all the time spent with the Dalai Lama was well spent. Also guess I might pick up the new edition after listening to it.

Recommended reading and listening

Sunday Concert – or All About Lyrics and Music

This morning I squeezed in a little time with a couple fountain pens. One, the Pineider Avatar TTT needed cleaning so I could move it from blue to red ink (Diamine Poppy Red) and the other, my Sailor Pro Gear – Stellar Black Hole needed a refill. All successful and writing well and minimal mess!

Then I put on “real” clothes after some reinforcing coffee and breakfast and picked up Mom for an afternoon concert at Troy Music Hall.

The program was “Music for Peace in a Time of War” with two pieces. The first was Franz Joseph Haydn’s Missa in Tempore Belli, which was written in 1796 in the period of war in Europe following the French revolution. I found it interesting to have parts of a mass in waltz time but it did make for very lyrical parts. After intermission the baritone soloist Philip Lima read a poem by Charles Anthony Silvestri, Peace is Fire! Then “Dona Nobis Pacem” by Ralph Vaughn Williams began.

Afterwards I looked up what had been mentioned, that Williams had served in World War One (in his 40’s!) and then was very affected when the signs of a second world war were apparent. This was written and first performed in 1936. It is written around three Walt Whitman poems, a mass, the bible and a political speech.

Both pieces were well received by the audience who gave a standing ovation at the end.

Afterwards Mom and I took ourselves to Dinosaur BBQ for a delicious dinner. Brought her home, came home myself to the delightful music of Paul Simon:

Peace like a river ran through the city
Long past the midnight curfew
We sat starry-eyed
Oh, we were satisfied

And I remember
Misinformation followed us like a plague
Nobody knew from time to time
If the plans were changed
Oh, if the plans were changed

You can beat us with wires
You can beat us with chains
You can run out your rules
But you know you can’t outrun the history train
I‘ve seen a glorious day

Four in the morning
I woke up from out of my dreams
Nowhere to go but back to sleep
But I’m reconciled
Oh, oh, oh, I’m gonna be up for a while
Oh, oh, oh, I’m gonna be up for a while
Oh, oh, oh, I’m gonna be up for a while
— Paul Simon

still a little damp and unflat, but it will get there:

But seriously folks – Paul Simon…

…One and one-half wandering JewsReturned to their natural coasts
To resume old acquaintances
And step out occasionally
And speculate who had been damaged the most
Easy time will determine if these consolations
Will be their reward
The arc of a love affair

Waiting to be restored
You take two bodies and you twirl them into one
Their hearts and their bones
And they won’t come undone
Hearts and bones
Hearts and bones
Hearts and bones

Sunday Concert – or All About Lyrics and Music

Gathering encouragement and inspiration

We all need some encouragement and ideas on how to proceed. From when I was in high school, I wanted to make people pause and see small beauty in the every day world. That sort of fit in with the environmental movement of the seventies, but it wasn’t exactly what forestry college was ready for so I spent a lot of time at college taking photos and keeping on.

Recently listened to a six hour or so audio book interview with Paul Simon about his long career and his work and his process – how he ‘follows his ear’ and isn’t too worried about what will be next. He said you need to have a problem to fix and the problem better be interesting so you want to keep working at fixing it. He had one colossal flop – a Broadway musical. He had no experience with that genre going into the project. Some people loved it. Critics hated it. It ran for sixty-eight shows. Then he had to think – what do you do after that?

After The Capeman, Simon’s career was again in an unexpected crisis. However, entering the new millennium, he maintained a respectable reputation, offering critically acclaimed new material and receiving commercial attention. Simon embarked on a North American tour with Bob Dylan in 1999, with each alternating as the headline act with a “middle section” where they performed together, starting on the first of June and ending September 18. The collaboration was generally well-received, with just one critic, Seth Rogovoy from the Berkshire Eagle, questioning the collaboration.

He went on to collaborate with others and kept recording and trying new things. Like working with Herbie Hancock in 2005, reimagining I Do It For Your Love.

And so when people, artists you admire, talk about their work and lives, take a moment and listen. And like Ted Kooser says – throw a lot of horseshoes.

Passing Through from Straw Hat Visuals on Vimeo.

Gathering encouragement and inspiration

The Purpose of Art

The purpose of art is not the release of a momentary ejection of adrenaline but rather the gradual, lifelong construction of a state of wonder and serenity. — Glenn Gould

The Purpose of Art

A Reminder to Hope

I’m deep towards the end of Lord of the Rings on audiobook right now and at last, this oft-quoted here reminder that light prevails.

…the night-sky was still dim and pale. There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach. His song in the Tower had been defiance rather than hope; for then he was thinking of himself. Now, for a moment, his own fate, and even his master’s, ceased to trouble him. He crawled back into the brambles and laid himself by Frodo’s side, and putting away all fear he cast himself into a deep untroubled sleep.

~~J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King, Book II, The Land of Shadow.

I’ve been struck this time at how Sam and Frodo fit together – Frodo has the unasked-for, crushing burden with which he doggedly carries on, not knowing the end; Sam just as doggedly keeps hope for both of them. Hope that they will come out of this and there will be an afterwards, and that the world will survive, because light and goodness are forever above the passing evil.

A Reminder to Hope

Martians

I just finished listening to the Audible version of Ray Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles. I remember how much it grabbed and moved me when reading it but this was a great version. Plus, I had the deep satisfaction of anticipating some of the moments I love.

Given that it was started in the later 1940’s… it still felt fresh today.

If you haven’t read it (or listened) – just DO it.

Martians

Whew I Found It

You know when you get a song stuck in your head and it’s really bothering you because you can’t remember all the words? These days you can go to the vast interwebs and search for whatever shred of lyric you might have.

The past couple days I’ve had a freaking INSTRUMENTAL piece without a title playing inside my head. Now folks that’s a hard search but I pulled it off with “top instrumental songs of all time” after “guitar instrumental song hits” didn’t turn up anything of note. So here I am, putting my maggot to rest and putting this into everyone else’s ears.

First the acoustical version which was what came into mind first, then the more known version.

In other news, I’ve finished listening to the Audible book version of The Silmarillion and now I’m ready for something else (like I have no other reading material LOL)

Whew I Found It

Keeping Pete’s Light Alive

Thanks to John McCutcheon and the fine folks at the Eighth Step for giving us all a welcome shot in the arm by remembering and letting us all sing along to some great songs of hope and resistance.

Well May the World Go
Pete Seeger
Well may the world go,
The world go, the world go,
Well may the world go,
When I’m far away.
Well may the skiers turn,
The swimmers churn, the lovers burn
Peace, may the generals learn
When I’m far away.
Sweet may the fiddle sound
The banjo play the old hoe down
Dancers swing round and round
When I’m far away.
Fresh may the breezes blow
Clear may the streams flow
Blue above, green below
When I’m far away.
Well may the world go,
The world go, the world go,
Well may the world go,
When I’m far away.
Songwriters: Peter Seeger
Well May the World Go lyrics © The Bicycle Music Company

The Tales of Middle Earth

Those tales are drawing to a close as our small party have just arrived back in Bree on their journey home.

Tonight a group of us went to see the new Star Wars film, Solo, and I think we all enjoyed that tale too. Much in the Star Wars of hero’s journey, travels bent by trust, trouble and luck, it had a few surprises at the end. Before the movie, my co-worker Rich and I were talking about things LotR and I mentioned this quote from Treebeard aka Fangorn, the Ent.

‘Will you really break the doors of Isengard?’ asked Merry.
‘Ho, hm, well, we could, you know! You do not know, perhaps, how strong we are. Maybe you have heard of Trolls? They are mighty and strong. But Trolls are only counterfeits, made by the Enemy in the Great Darkness, in mockery of Ents, as Orcs were of Elves. We are stronger than Trolls. We are made of the bones of the earth. We can split stone like the roots of trees, only quicker, far quicker, if our minds are roused! If we are not hewn down, or destroyed by fire or blast of sorcery, we could split Isengard to splinters and crack its walls into rubble.’
From: The Two Towers, Chapter Four “Treebeard” by J.R.R. Tolkien

So there you have it, as also told in the Silmarillion, of how Evil tries to overcome the Light by copying its strengths, but it never succeeds because its purpose is not whole and good. So darkness and anger taint and distort and weakens all it touches, and the goals, which is only to pull down what it is most jealous of, fail and fail every time.