and i felt his voice take the sword from my hand
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christmas is nearly upon us / annie has been busy decorating and wrapping presents and baking / the house is warm and is filled with the sounds and scents of the season…
annie’s daughter kara is home / they are both huddled around the tv upstairs laughing and watching the grinch that stole christmas..
i am the grinch / down here in the basement in my radio room sanctuary / my tv is tuned to turner classic movies / they are running ben hur…
it is one of my favorite motion pictures of all time / i clearly recall my father taking me to the drive in to see it / i was very young in 1959 when it came out / it won a record of 11 academy awards including best picture / a feat only equaled by titanic and the lord of the rings / i guess it could be considered memorable film making…
what most people remember about this epic is the chariot race / filmed at a time before computer effects / the action sequences are still spine tingling to watch / it has stood up well…
but what i remember is the music / miklos rozsa received an academy award for his score / my father owned the sound track on lp which survives today in my library / when i hear this work i hear rozsa employing multiple leitmotifs / musical themes which represent important characters or ideas in a way that is often reminiscent of richard wagner’s ring cycle / another musical work of which my father was immensely fond…
and now i sit and think and wonder / i think about the paradox / my father was a militant atheist and yet was drawn to scores for epics which glorified spirituality / the very music that could bring him to tears / was written to glorify the idea that there is a supreme spirit which transcends everything we can know / and the only way to accept it is by virtue of faith…
so it comes full circle i guess / what my father thought or did not think is lost to the ages / unknowable / and the idea of a supreme spirit or intelligence or whatever term you prefer is also similarly unknowable in any way that can be verified…
but this i can tell you / sitting here on the verge of another christmas celebration / i find myself certain that the universe is vast and we are small and if we were to simply be nicer to one another / peace can be more than the dream that was said to have come into the world two millenia ago…
happy holidays to all my friends here…
Ben Hur? I was so tempted, but did a Gone With the Wind moment when I stumbled upon Ben and just could not do it again after watching Gone… Old classics are my comfort. I’ve watched Gone… too many times in my early youth; 10 yrs old perhaps? Looking back… it reminds me of dragging my girlfriend when we were 14 yrs old to the theatre/it was on BIG PICTURE SCREEN! A film from 1939. And big picture viewing. She mocked me. She watched and loved it, wanted to go back for the 2nd showing. Yep = 14 yrs old.
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PS – Peace
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Maybe the music was written to make a living – to seek fame – not that those aren’t legitimate things in themselves. Happy holidays……
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ryn: Sometimes the shower is the only solitude I have all day, so it’s a good place for thinking.
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You ever see Patton? I wonder what you’d make of his speeches about other battlefields.
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i have the King of King’s LP and book in a boxed set from seeing it way back when.. it was on tonight too…that actor, jeffrey hunter? was married to a soap opera star and died young of cancer i think….such is the trivia in my head.
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simply be nicer to each other. i think i will use that for my new years mantra happy holidays to you, it warms my heart to think of you and annie and the rest of the family, it is a beautfiul thing you two have created!
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Amen. Little steps bring great results when calculated together. Merry Christmas to you and Annie and your family.
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