Gratitude

There was a blind girl who hated herself because she was blind. She hated everyone, except her loving boyfriend. He was always there for her. She told her boyfriend, "If I could only see the world, I will marry you."

One day, someone donated a pair of eyes to her. When the bandages came off, she was able to see everything, including her boyfriend.

He asked her, "Now that you can see the world, will you marry me?" The girl looked at her boyfriend and saw that he was blind. The sight of his closed eyelids shocked her. She hadn't expected that. The thought of looking at them the rest of her life led her to refuse to marry him.

Her boyfriend left in tears and days later wrote a note to her saying: "Take good care of your eyes, my dear, for before they were yours, they were mine."

This is how the human brain often works when our status changes. Only a very few remember what life was like before, and who was always by their side in the most painful situations.

Life Is a Gift

Today before you say an unkind word, think of someone who can't speak.

Before you complain about the taste of your food, think of someone who has nothing to eat.

Before you complain about your husband or wife, think of someone who's crying out to GOD for a companion.

Today before you complain about life, think of someone who went too early to heaven.

Before whining about the distance you drive, think of someone who walks the same distance with their feet.

And when you are tired and complain about your job, think of the unemployed, the disabled, and those who wish they had your job.

And when depressing thoughts seem to get you down, put a smile on your face and think: you're alive and still around.

Ruht wohl

Remember when ... St. Norbert & UWGB performed the St. John Passion, J. S. Bach?

I have to say that it was on of those first choral works for me that really helped grow as a singer. The second last Chorus, Ruht wohl, No. 67, is perhaps one of my favorite pieces ever. It means, Rest well. It's a lullaby to Jesus as he is laid in his tomb. It has long sweeping lines and the melody is haunting. It's in c minor and Bach does something truly astounding musically with the violin melody in measures 8 - 11 (this theme repeats often throughout). The melody is haunting because Bach goes from the tonic to the V and then rips open the iv chord (iv with a lowered 6th), like one of the wounds of Christ, and then slowly back down using vii and vii diminished.

The point of this whole complicated musical explanation is that from a theoretical standpoint it takes hours to truly understand how Bach put together what is really something quite whimsical. My question is whether or not Bach was truly conscious of how he put together this melody, or whether or not it was just such a talent and strength of his that it just sort of happened naturally and logically as he moved along on the keyboard.

Even if from a theoretical standpoint, Bach consciously understood the nuts and bolts behind his melody, then it is an even greater testimony to his strengths, both as a person and a musician. Bach created a melody that sticks with me because he realized that you can't lay Christ to rest with just anything, it has to sound like the heavens from which it came.