With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.
The good life, as I conceive it, is a happy life. I do not mean that if you are good you will be happy - I mean that if you are happy you will be good.
Too much sanity may be madness and the maddest of all, to see life as it is and not as it should be.
I enjoy paying taxes. With them I buy civilization.
January 29, 2008 - 12:47 a.m.
I like to be in bed by midnight on days that I teach. It is now after midnight and I'm just starting to write. That really isn't a big problem as I doubt I ever will actually get to bed that early.
Remember how I went shopping last week and bought tons of chicken and froze it so I wouldn't have to shop so often? Well that works very well if you remember to defrost it. I didn't so I went shopping today. I'm actually glad I did. Last week I didn't buy any steak and I really wanted some. Today the strip steak was on sale as long as you bought the family size so that's what I did. I froze three and cooked one for dinner tonight. This is the first really good steak that I've bought in ages. I didn't make it blackened, I wanted to enjoy it just the way it is. The question was how to prepare it. I have always grilled steaks but now I don't have a working grill. I decided to make them just the way I've been making my blackened steak and chicken, on a skillet. I've tried that before and I didn't like how it came out but I think that was because I put it on a cold skillet. This time I let the skillet get really hot before I put it on then cooked it as fast as I would on a grill. It came out great. It was rare just the way I like it and really tender.
Tonight I went to see The Blind Boys of Alabama. It was a WFUV marquee members concert. I'm not a marquee member but Jim is. His wife Alice, didn't want to go so I was his date. When I told John that on Sunday his response was, "Do you put out?" I of course said, "Yes, Why else would he ask me to go?" Yes I'm not always six years old; sometimes I'm twelve.
The show was at the Cutting room. That's great as it is so convenient, only about a 12 minute walk from Penn Station. I like not having to take the subway at all.
I was one of the first ones there. I know you are shocked. That was good though as it gave me time to hang out with John and Cara. Yes I have seen them both not stop at the station the last three days but I still enjoy their company.
Before the concert we had to wait in the bar. That was fine, it's an easy place to socialize. I didn't know as many people at the show as I usually do. Lots of marquee members volunteer and I know others from other concerts. I think the difference this time was that the Blind Boys are not a band that I've seen before and their fan base is outside my usual circles. I did see Jill and Cliff and of course Jim before the show. I also talked to all the WFUV staff people. There were a load of them there.
When they let us in I didn't take my usual spot in front of the stage. There were a limited number of tables and I didn't want to take one as I always figure I'm in better shape than most of the people there so I might as well stand. Not only that but Jim likes to be in the back so we compromised and stood in the middle of the room.
The Blind Boys were great. Have you ever heard of them? They are a gospel group that formed in the 1930s! These aren't original members but they are all old. None were younger than 70. Yes they really are blind. So what was the Jewish Atheist doing seeing a Gospel group? They aren't just a gospel group, they are among the best. They play great music no matter what you call it. Gospel, the blues, jazz, and rock and roll, all share common roots and you can hear it when they play. This was a rock concert. You heard the music and not only moved you figuratively but it got your body moving too. I think they were reading my mind during the show. I was planning this part of the essay in my head. Thinking how the similar the music in the churches and bordellos was when gospel and the blues were born when they started playing the musical vamp of House of the Rising Sun. Then to prove my point instead of singing the song they sang Amazing Grace to the tune of House of the Rising Sun.
Religion has inspired lots of great art but it works the other way too. When you hear the Blind Boys, when you hear a Bach's religious works, when you hear many kinds of music it makes you feel that you are in contact with the divine. There was a line that Nick Spitzer once used on American Routes that I love. He was tracing the history of boogie woogie music and told the story of Jerry Lee Lewis playing a hymn on the piano at a church service. He turned it into boogie woogie "... and soon all there was nothing left of the hymn but the holy spirit in Jerry's left hand."
While I experience the feeling I don't attribute it to anything supernatural. We don't know what causes it but it is hard wired into our brains. One clue was discovered by that noted mystic, Pythagoras. He discovered that when two strings were plucked together they sounded pleasant if the lengths of the strings corresponded to a ratio of small whole numbers. Math is built into our heads. What else is built in we don't know yet. Perhaps it had survival value. Maybe it led to a sense of community. Maybe it is just a byproduct of something else that was selected for, a byproduct that can give us great joy.
Whatever it is, it works and the Blind Boys have it. The crowd was dancing, clapping, and singing along with the music and I was dancing, clapping and singing along too.
After the show I hung out just a bit too long and saw that it was too late to catch the next train. That meant that hanging out longer as it was more pleasant to wait there than at Penn Station. I got to see some more friends that way too a few volunteers that I had missed before the show.
So now it is a quarter to one. I think I really ought to get to bed now. You should go to the Blind Boys homepage and check out their music.
The International Jewish Banking Conspiracy - October 07, 2008
On the Road to Westchester County - October 06, 2008
Inside the Madison Square Studio - October 05, 2008
I'm a Bosniac and I'm debating like I've never debated before - October 03, 2008
Islands in the Stream of Consciousness - October 02, 2008
Email me: GordonLew at gmail
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License. Horvendile January 29, 2008
