A POEM FOR THE FIRST DAY OF WINTER

The secret

Is to learn to love

All kinds of weather

Because they say there is no bad weather

Just bad perspective

And my perspectives have been poor

On this broken world

With its broken inhabitants

And I was the worst

And I was the offended

And I was the one

Who dreamed of living my days

In climate controlled environments

Of isolating my self

From any days

Who weren’t a mirror

To my perceptions

To my opinions

To my dry sense of humor

But this year

For the first year

I celebrate the bone cold

Of winter

And the secret is

I am not really talking about

the weather

TRIBUNAL RESEARCH PART 1

Here are some of the books I read in preparation for writing tribunal and some of my thoughts on them

The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins - This book clearly advocates a rationality/logical approach to creating our beliefs about the world. I was surprised how clear the author was in making the point that emotions and faith should not be apart of answering these type of questions. At one point in the book he makes the statement that he believes that every thing that there is to know, can and with enough time, will be knowable. Which makes sense as a prerequisite for a logic only built belief system. If not it means there would be things you would never have access to and would need a different kind of tool to get there. Reading this made me happy. I felt like a lawyer who had just found all the evidence I need.

Also reading this book with an emotional/logic/faith lens made for a very interesting experience. Every argument some one makes in a book can be put in one of these categories. I was shocked how much of what he was saying came from an emotional argument, not logical.

Making sense of God, The reason for God by Tim Keller - Tim Keller is a person of faith (he is a pastor) but most of his content comes from a logical perspective. You hear a lot of repackaged C. S. Lewis in his writings. One concept that really stood out to me was him talking about what the post modern belief system means. This idea rejects any meta narrative, any all encompassing story that explains everything (Albert Einstein was not a post modernist) The irony is the rejection of a meta narrative becomes the new meta narrative. This influenced part 2 “there is a new story there is a new mono explanation”

The Abolition of Man, Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis - Lewis is another person of faith commitments, who mostly talks and writes in the realm of logic. In reading his books I sense Lewis perceives logic as a purer substance than I personally do. What ever is most logical is the truth kind of idea. I see logic as more fluid and even subjective. All that said, I love his books. The first half of Mere Christianity is this amazing point my point, if a is true, then b must also be then you get to c ect. In part two there is a section of axioms being built on one another in like manner. “number one I exist, number two I am myself, number three I know what I feel….

Fear and Trembling by Søren Kierkegaard - To be honest I did not finish this book. I don’t know if I had a wonky translation or it is just hard to follow. Probably some of both. The one bit I remember is it talked about Abrahams faith transcending ethical reasoning. Which to be honest, feels really uncomfortable.

DAILY RITUALS

I love Mason Curry’s book daily rituals. If I was in it this is what it would say.

7:00-8:00 wake up

8:00-9:00 breakfast and coffee

9:00-9:30 time with kids

9:30-10:00 prayer

10:00-12:00 compose/write

12:00-1:00 lunch

1:00-3:00 time with kids/practical/clean

3:00-4:00 Feka

4:00-8:00 teach piano lessons

8:00-10:00 eat/family time/read/tea/listen to music

THE ADVENT OF RECORDED MUSIC

It is strange how recorded music has forever altered our experience and relationship with music. We are saturated with it more than ever before and in equal and inverse proportions listening with less and less attention. If feels as if we have traded an in person conversation for a long distance phone call, that is going on all day, while we are trying to cook, clean, talk to other people, drive, work, ect.

For me it’s defiantly something I am thankful for as 98% of the music I have listened to and enjoy is recorded but it has its hidden curse. And the curse is this, when supply is plentiful it drives down the value, less value equals less attention, with less attention comes less hearing, till some point in the future we will no longer have the capacity to hear it any more.

YOU HAVE TO LIKE BACH!!!!!!

Bach is the only musician I honestly think every person should listen to. Its so rich, its so right and beautiful and logical. His music is dense and gentle, brainy and sweet, complex and approachable. When I listen, its a music I have to let wash over me, there is just so much melodic activity you cant sort it all out (strangely thats the same way to listen to ambient music which is almost its polar opposite) It just keeps coming and coming. Its music that feels healthy to listen to, like being in the sunshine, or talking a walk. He is the mother river that so much music has come from. His admires include Bill Evans, Bud Powell, Stravinsky, Schournberg, Steve Reich, Joe Harley (points if you know who this is), Dieter Rams (points if you know who this is) and Steve Jobs. For me his contrapuntal writing (melody on melody) I find hugely fascinating, and opens up a whole new worlds of musical possibilities. It seems to me an area in music that has largely been underdeveloped (especially out side of the world of classical music).

It blows my mind that in his life time Bach was only regionally famous and that mostly due to his keyboard and improvising abilities. Also in Bach’s lifetime the trends in music were already beginning to shift to a more pared down less cluttered texture and he was becoming out dated and out of fashion. But here we are 300 hundred years later still talking about and still listening to his music.

Suggested listening

Brandonburg concertos

Cello suites

The Goldburg variations