Tonight We Sang Goodbye to Ted

Tonight about 21 of our Temple choir gathered at Ted Cron’s house to sing goodbye. Ted was a member ot The TM choir for 40 years and now he is dying of ALS. He really wanted to hear the choir once more and we were only too happy to oblige.

Our music director, Teddy, had put together a short set of music – Asher Yatzar/Elohai N’Shamah¹; Modeh Ani/Lo Alecha²; Elohai N’tzor; and the 23rd Psalm³ by Bernstein, which is one of the most beautiful pieces of music ever written. Jennifer jumped right in and did the soprano solo magnificently.

And talk about a joyful noise! I don’t think the choir has ever sounded better. We may not have hit all the notes, but we hit absolutely the right note. When you sing with such emotion, it is awesome and I know Ted felt it. His face shone with joy, tenderness and thanks.

We even did an encore – Od’Cha by Stephen Glass, a wonderfully uplifting praise to God. Then, finally, Yism’chu, version 118A, for which Ted was famous for his schmaltzy but heartfelt solo rendition of the 3rd verse. And, would you believe it? He sang that verse tonight, weakly of course, but recognizably, as we all lowered our voices so he could be heard. And in the background, tears rolled down the face of his wife Suzanne.

Tonight our heavenly music gave us all a glimpse of choir heaven. And, let us hope that someday we’ll all gather again there and Ted will be singing Yism’chu as only he can. Amen.

¹ With divine wisdom you have made our bodies,….Source of our health and strength, we give You thanks and praise. The soul that you have given me, O God, is pure! You created it and formed it, breathed it into me, and within me You sustain it.
² I am grateful to You, living and enduring Sovereign, for restoring my soul to me in compassion. You are faithful beyond measure. You are not required to complete the work, but neither are you at liberty to abstain from it.
³ The Lord is my shepherd;
I lack nothing.
He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me to water in places of repose;
He renews my life;
He guides me in right paths as befits his name.
Though I walk in a valley overshadowed by death,
I will fear no evil, for You are with me.
Your rod and Your staff—they comfort me.

Poetry, Music or Both?

I have never understood how my wife could not LOVE really good folk music. After all, the good stuff is terrific poetry set to great music. And in an epiphany it came to me yesterday. Her brain shuts out the words—she’s lyric-blind, or, more appropriately lyric-deaf! "Too much work" she says. Of course that explains everything. For me, music without words is like watching a silent movie—boring and lifeless. Or, like looking at paintings in only 1 color. Perhaps wordless music is good for background noise when your brain really has to fully concentrate. Or, it can be used as background to a good massage, when your brain likes to shut down anyway. That’s about it for me.

My brain soaks up lyrics. To me, the best folk music—e.g. Bob Dylan, Stan Rogers, Steve Goodman, John Gorka, Peter Yarrow and Beth Nielsen Chapman—is poetry set to hauntingly beautiful melodies and harmonies. Can you imagine “Puff the Magic Dragon” without Puff? Or, “Forever Young”, “Where Have all the flowers Gone” or “Give Yourself to Love” with no words? Unimaginable! The poetry in such songs moves me powerfully; it makes me think and question things. It hits me in the face with ponderings about the basics: love, hate, death, life, sorrow, joy, fear, etc. Yet, I appreciate and am moved by this poetry so much more when it’s set to music than when it’s just spoken. My wife, however, likes her poetry without the music and her music without the poetry.

My wife likes classical music – in no small part because it’s just music and no words. I OTOH fall asleep in any classical music concert within 5 minutes. My brain is not engaged; it’s not asked to think or ponder life’s mysteries. I think this is one reason that classical music has such a miniscule audience these days. It’s BORING for most of us who like our music with words.

But, I’m still a little mystified. How come she likes the Beatles or the oldie music in the movie, “Big Chill”? Last time I looked, there were lyrics. Guess I haven’t totally solved this mystery.

Anyway, I just discovered this next amazing and wonderful music. But, please get and listen to the actual song with the beautiful music. The whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

“Sand and Water”, by Beth Nielsen Chapman. Do yourself a favor and check out her music.

All alone I didn’t like the feeling
All alone I sat and cried
All alone I had to find some meaning
In the center of the pain I felt inside.

All alone I came into this world
All alone I will someday die
Solid stone is just sand and water, baby
Sand and water, and a million years gone by

CHORUS:

I will see you in the light of a thousand suns
I will hear you in the sound of the waves
I will know you when I come, as we all will come
Through the doors beyond the grave

All alone I heal this heart of sorrow
All alone I raise this child
Flesh and bone, he’s just
Bursting toward tomorrow
And his laughter fills my world and wears your smile

CHORUS

All alone I came into this world
All alone I will someday die
Solid stone is just sand and water, baby
Sand and water, and a million years gone by

What Makes a Movie Great?

I just saw "Million Dollar Baby" last night. I thought it was magnificent. While leaving the theater, I was surprised/shocked to hear some people were not as enthusiastic as me. I overheard remarks like "overrated", "ok - good, not great", "contrived ending". Hello? This film is a masterpiece! Are we from different planets or what? Sometimes I wonder if people are reluctant to jump on the "everyone says this is a great movie" bandwagon? Or, maybe other people just enjoy panning films that everyone else likes and prefer raving about those that no one else really understands. Being different, heralding the underdog, whatever. But, I petulantly digress.

What I really want to talk about is why I loved this film and more generally what makes a film great? First, "Million Dollar Baby" is NOT a boxing movie. Boxing is just the backdrop used to explore the most basic of human feelings, longings and relationships. Enough beating around the bush (no pun intended). Here's my list of qualities that make a film great:

• It stays in your head long after the last reel. Often for days or weeks or years. An example is one of my all time favorites - "The Hustler". If you somehow missed this classic with Paul Newman and George C. Scott at the top of their game, please rent it. You won't be sorry. It's a bit premature to judge "Million Dollar Baby" by this criterion, but it's certainly still on my mind the day after - witness this long blog by an infrequent blogger.
  
• It's riveting. Never for a moment does your mind wander from what's happening on screen. That was true in spades for me and this film.
• It makes you cry. Well, in my case, that's not all that hard to do. But, this film moved me and touched me more deeply than any in a long time. Perhaps, in part, because I could empathize so well with the last portion of the film. I won't give away the plot, but Eastwood nailed it!
• You forget the actors are actors. Clint Eastwood, Morgan Freeman and Hillary Swank are stars and magnificent actors. I forgot that right from the first reel. They became Frankie, Scrap, and Maggie.
  
• You can't imagine any other actors playing the major roles. I defy anyone who has seen this film to suggest any actors who could have done as well as Eastwood, Freeman, and Swank.
• It deals with strong human emotions and hard questions. "Million Dollar Baby" scores a 'knockout' here:
  
• What makes a life worth living?
• Is self-fulfillment enough?
• Striving vs attainment
• Personal relationships vs. success
• Love
• Guilt
  
• and many more
• It feels real (sorry no pun intended here either). And, boy does this film feel real, reagrdless if we're in the boxing gym, boxing ring, a restaurant, or Maggie's mother's trailer.
  
• It makes you laugh.

Was "Million dollar Baby" a perfect movie, without any flaws? Of course not. For example, it leaves you wondering about the problem between Frankie and his daughter. But, it comes pretty damn close to perfection in my book.

If anyone actually reads this, please comment! What great film characteristics did I leave out? Which would you delete?

From Kaballah to Jesus

What a wild and fantastically interesting day today was. This morning's Kaballah class discussed feminine aspect of God (Shekinha)and the role of sex in the unification (it's a long Kaballah story) of God. Tonight's class on Jewish history focused on the time period of the essential Christian story - Jesus's birth , preaching, miracles, death and resurrection. He certainly crammed a lot into a short life. Incidentally the early Christian views on sex sure differed from the Kabbalists'. With the early Christians, if you wanted to be celibate that was ok - after all, wasn't Jesus going to return pretty soon anyway and then the whole world would change? Good thing for them that they figured out that would be a hard sell. In contrast, the Kabbalists saw the sexual union between married man and woman as an important part of achieving God's reunification and "sexual" union between his masculine and feminine aspects. (I'm sold - where do I sign up?)

When Jesus lived is the time period in human history I find utterly and completely fascinating. If there was a time machine and I had a "ticket to ride", I would unhesitatingly pick this time period. Can you think of another time period which had a greater influence. on the the course of history? And, in which so much was going on?

I also keep thinking about this question: How would the course of human history have changed if Constantine had decided he really couldn't buy the Jesus story and instead really liked the Jewish one? And, so he declares Judaism as the official state religion of the Roman Empire in 313 C.E. Now what?

What would be different? What would be better? What worse? Would we have persecuted Christians as they persecuted us? Or, would we be more tolerant and let them live in peace? Would there have been a different kind of religious holocaust? Is it human nature to prey upon the minority? Would the world be a more peaceful place? Would Christianity have survived as Judaism has survived against incredible odds?

Of course, we'll never know. But, I think it's fascinating to contemplate and speculate. Someone should write a book!