(not necessarily in that order)
Tomorrow I have an appointment for….a haircut!
There’s nothing like having access to simple, basic stuff just go away — literally overnight! — and then stay gone for over two months to make you appreciate things you used to take for granted.
I’m now feeling properly appreciative and soooooo ready. 😄
The other day I was lamenting how impossible it was to find information from waaayyyy back in the mid-1980’s. After all, it was pre-internet (which I made sound almost like the Jurassic era)!
Well, this evening something made me think of Mr Lynch, my first band teacher. When I was in 6th grade and first learning the flute, we took a field trip to the junior high school to see a musical — complete with orchestra! — which Mr Lynch had composed and produced.
Based on the life of suffragette and abolitionist, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, it was titled, “Never Say No to a Lady” and thrilled me to my core. I was so excited to get to junior high school so I could be part of it myself, playing in the orchestra!
The plan was to perform it in alternating years, so I waited (im)patiently through 7th grade, until finally it was time! Orchestra parts were passed out and auditions were held for the acting roles. But then disaster struck.
One of my fellow students was a pretty black girl named Bridget, and she was upset that she couldn’t audition for the lead role of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, a white woman. There was the equally juicy role of Harriet Tubman, but that wouldn’t do for Bridget.
In retrospect, I realize she had a point, but my goodness! — this was 1968, I was twelve years old, and all I really cared about was getting to be part of the orchestra for a real live musical!
Well, Bridget’s mother lodged some sort of complaint, there was a big ruckus, and the musical was cancelled. They replaced it with “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown”, which was a good show in its own way but didn’t come close to the level of “Never Say No to a Lady”.
Instead of a full orchestra we had a small band. And instead of powerful women characters at a important time in history, we were focused on a cartoon character. A lovable cartoon character, but still…!
Boy, was I upset when the cancellation was announced! It was so unfair and I was ready to rally the troops and lead a protest (yes, I was fairly fiery as an pre-adolescent). Acceptance of “what is” didn’t come naturally to me, that’s for sure!
The final blow? Neither Bridget nor any of the other students of color even participated in the replacement show. Oohhh, that made me mad.
So, for whatever reason I found myself thinking of Mr Lynch, but I couldn’t remember his first name and figured there would be no way I would find anything related to the show. Imagine my surprise when I googled “Never Say No to a Lady musical Mr Lynch” and actually found something!
It wasn’t much, but it was nevertheless quite satisfying to discover that Mr Lynch copyrighted his work, which showed up in the Library of Congress in the Catalog of Copyright Entries: Third series.
Now I’m wondering what it would take to find a copy of the musical itself… 🤔
Last year was a completely new and different experience, what with Ananda’s 50th anniversary and dedicating the Temple of Light. In fact, we didn’t even have our usual “Spiritual Renewal Week”, though we assumed that (of course!) we’d be back to our “usual” SRW this year.
Ha!
As we gear up for Spiritual Renewal Week 2020, we’re once again having a completely new and different experience!
The analogy that occurs to me is trying to pack for a trip when everything is unknown. The weather? Unknown. Staying in the city or the country? Maybe. Going for a week or three months? Not sure. You would stand in front of your suitcase, feeling completely bemused and not knowing where to begin.
Well, that’s kind of how this feels. There will be some live music elements; but “live” no longer means what it used to mean. Now when we think of “live”, we’re pondering how many people can we have. Which depends on the size of the venue. And on what the people are doing: talking or (heaven forbid!) singing? And on how long they’ll be doing it for. And what ages are the people in the room. And so on and so forth.
I don’t even have time tonight to get going about the “pre-recorded” or “virtual choir” elements and what that involves!
But beneath the uncertainty and slight confusion is the sense that wonderful things are poised to happen…that superconscious solutions are awaiting our attunement and receptivity…that awesome creativity is about to be released.
And I have a feeling the end result will be two years in a row of experiencing a heightened energy and flow of divine grace that leaves us awestruck and immensely grateful….beyond imagination of expectancy!
So…let’s go!
Ramesha is riding a wave of growing momentum and increasing interest in the deeply devotional chanting album he’s about to launch.
This is the artwork for the second single, which also has a beautiful lyric video (thanks once again to our resident videographer-extraordinaire, Bhaktan!) that Ramesha will be releasing later this week. He calls it “a song for compassion” and that’s a perfect description of the vibration and message of this chant.
Ramesha’s joyous excitement is contagious! But, really, I’m just super pleased to see all his hard work and focus coming to fruition.
Can you guess what prompted this post?
Yep, the day got away from me and there’s no way I can write anything of substance without going past my 10:00 “turn-off-the-computer” deadline. Which, of course, has me feeling that I fell short of the mark for today.
So I’m choosing to let it be what it is; just staying present and remembering to relax and breathe.
Which is more than enough!
Today I found myself remembering a period in my life when rather than being forced, I was motivated to get to bed early (as in midnight).
It was like this…
While I was finishing up my degree in flute performance at SF State, an acquaintance from the Quaker (Friends) meeting I attended recommended me for a rather particular job: the offices of the San Francisco branch of the American Friends Service Committee were located in a big beautiful mansion in the Inner Sunset, and they needed someone to do light housework and maintenance in exchange for a room and kitchen privileges at only $50 a month rent. Well, even in early-1980’s San Francisco that was like a miracle, so I jumped on it!
I had a sort of attic room on the third floor of the mansion, with a sweet little dormer window. I fixed it up and painted both the room and my bathroom. It was really like a haven to me.
Now, some of you will have never experienced what I’m about to describe — and others will have to think real hard to remember it — but at this time the only options for listening to music were record players, cassette tapes, and radio. And the way radio worked was you listened to what they played, when they played it. Period. No control or interaction whatsoever. Oh, and some stations, at least, weren’t on the air 24/7; they “signed off” at midnight.
That, in fact, was the case with KDFC, the classical radio station that I listened to. But their sign-off music was this wonderful, magical, exquisite piece of music that I loved soooo much that pretty soon I was hurrying to get ready for bed so that it would be the last thing I heard before I went to sleep.
Now I look back on that period of my life and oh! how I wish I could recreate a similar set of circumstances in present time. But it was such a unique and delicate balance…
….of something completely outside of my control, that…
…made me feel so very good and uplifted, that…
…I found it to be so compelling and desirable, that…
…I willingly, and consistently, altered my behavior!
Not only is it impossible to replicate those magical circumstances, I can’t even identify the piece of music that had such an effect on me. Because it was the radio station’s sign-off music, they didn’t actually announce the title or composer. I think it might have been by Stravinsky, and I think it might have had something to do with a fairy or a princess or a kiss (!), but I don’t even know what gave me those ideas.
I’ve tried to research it, but you don’t find that sort of minutiae from that many decades ago any place online. After all, it was probably just handwritten on index cards or typed up on a monthly schedule. But I feel sort of wistful and melancholy when I think of it.
Less than thirty minutes until the wireless gets turned off (aka “computer curfew”), so I guess I’d better write fast!
😂😂😂😂😂
But seriously, I’m kind of looking forward to being “forced” off of the computer. Makes me think about how they say it’s really important for children to have rules and structure, because it makes them feel safe and tells them someone cares. They need imposed boundaries.
Maybe I do, too.
I hate to admit it (Ramesha is going to have to bite his tongue to keep from saying “I told you so!”) but I’m just about ready to agree to turning off the wireless at 10:00 every night.
It’s extreme, but I think it might be the only way to keep from working long into the night…as I’m pretty much doing right now. 😕
I don’t know what I was thinking when I said I was going to “get comfortable” and read through this past year’s blog posts; I mean…that’s 365 posts!
So far I’m only up to October 1, but it’s been quite a process. Especially revisiting all the preparations and excitement of Ananda’s 50th anniversary and dedication of the Temple of Light!
I mean, talk about duality…
We’ve gone from the incredible high of joining together with hundreds and hundreds of devotees from around the globe, not to mention singing as a literal World Brotherhood Choir of over one hundred singers, to “sheltering-in-place” while maintaining physical distance even from fellow Village residents, with choir off limits indefinitely due to the fact that singing is a “super-spreading” activity.
The contrast is almost unfathomable in its intensity. But we’re finding our way in this new “landscape” and actually reaching more people than ever as Ananda throughout the world embraces the new online reality.
But yeah, this little trip down memory lane has been somewhat bittersweet.
I wrote my first “Music. Life. Joy” post on Swami’s birthday last year, so today marks the beginning of year #2. I can hardly believe it…but I wrote something every single day!
In other news, we honored Swamiji with a beautiful event in the Temple of Light, led by Jyotish and Devi. Ramesha and I got to sing! And there was an amazing rainbow!
Now I’m going to get comfortable and read through the past year’s posts.
I did it! 😊