Music Inside - Nature & Nurture - Revelations of the Heart
As I have already mentioned, I am on a sabbatical at the moment. Time is a precious commodity in all of our lives. And it probably seems like a luxury to too many of us. Priests in parishes generally work 6 days a week at the parish and have one day to step back or out of the way to refresh. This necessitates sometimes putting things on hold.
One of the things I've been doing during my time away without pastoral responsibility is to look up my natural siblings. This has been a whole series of revelations so far. I've met three and God-willing I will be meeting a fourth when I travel at the end of this month.
I have often told people that I was adopted. Sometimes it is because with such an Irish sounding name I should, of course, be Irish. In truth, however, my affinity for the potato is very limited whereas my attraction to good cheese and good wine is noteworthy.
The stories as I am beginning to understand them are long and complicated. People have often asked me whether I have sought out my natural parents or siblings. I can tell you that from my perspective now, timing has been very important and I have felt more ready now. And as I have heard various aspects of their life stories from my siblings I am grateful I pursued it when I had the time and space to absorb it. Tempting as it may be to assume that this is the natural thing to do or that someone on this odyssey may be ready to tell you the details, I would suggest resisting those assumptions.
I can say, however, that meeting my siblings has already been a great blessing. It has been quite amazing to find out the ways that we are similar. One listens to jazz music and has a camera collection. Ditto for me. I used to sell cameras while I was an undergrad student.
Another characteristic often discussed has been the love of music. I was asked by two of my siblings if I sing. Music runs in the family. It is inside. It was wonderful to find out that what I was attracted to really did literally come naturally.
In many ways we are living in a cookie-cutter culture. But I wonder if too many of us run to what seems popular or accepted by our peers without discovering what is inside. And I also wonder what life would be like if we didn't even pursue what is on the inside. There is a soul full of wonder waiting to bloom in all of us. The key may be very different. It may not be music. It could be mechanical dexterity or interest in working outdoors or building things. Or who knows what else?
Are parents struggling with kids sometimes because they are trying to form them in a way that does not fit? What if these kids discovered what is really welling up all on its own? Then they wouldn't need their parents to motivate them or to correct. Instead they would pursue their goals and verify their own results.
This is one reason I am attracted to the artistic world. Some people are willing to break out of the mould. And I don't mean doing simply something that is shocking or that pushes boundaries in what has become a predictable and might I say at this stage a tiresome way. Creative people are just that, creative. They take us to places that broaden our understanding of what it is to live and enable us a little bit more to live authentically.
Classical music has more than its fair share of such creative people whose work providentially has been preserved. Many things that J. S. Bach wrote if orchestrated for a rock band today could sound quite credible. Mozart introduced all kinds of tonal creativity. Personally, I am very attracted to his operas. Beethoven certainly was a giant and had to resist the pressure to produce what was merely palatable and at the end of the life had to fight against even his own limitations. He never heard (except in his head), what is perhaps is greatest work, the Ninth Symphony. Olivier Messiaen had the courage to capture life, lived in nature and on the streets. And yet in stripping away what seems most like music to us, rhythm and melody he reveals to us the music inside -- the music of life itself. And the other half of the story is equally important. Music is merely notes on a page or an idea in someone's head until it is performed. It is not unusual to have a performer reveal in a musical composition layers that probably were not at least part of the conscious acts of the composer. They each perform a creative service for the other.
In jazz, Oscar Peterson stands out in our Canadian music world. James Ehnes is another Canadian today who is plotting a remarkable path of interpreting great music wonderfully. And I really love the talents of Michael Kaeshammer. As composers in the Canadian folk tradition, Joanie Mitchell, Gordon Lightfoot and Stan Rogers. In Quebec, the wonderful fiddle music of Jean Carignan is immediately recognizable and goes right to the bones. You will have your own list.
I discovered in a way I had not imagined that the music is truly inside of me. And it is a gift. I hope you have music inside of you.
One of the things I've been doing during my time away without pastoral responsibility is to look up my natural siblings. This has been a whole series of revelations so far. I've met three and God-willing I will be meeting a fourth when I travel at the end of this month.
I have often told people that I was adopted. Sometimes it is because with such an Irish sounding name I should, of course, be Irish. In truth, however, my affinity for the potato is very limited whereas my attraction to good cheese and good wine is noteworthy.
The stories as I am beginning to understand them are long and complicated. People have often asked me whether I have sought out my natural parents or siblings. I can tell you that from my perspective now, timing has been very important and I have felt more ready now. And as I have heard various aspects of their life stories from my siblings I am grateful I pursued it when I had the time and space to absorb it. Tempting as it may be to assume that this is the natural thing to do or that someone on this odyssey may be ready to tell you the details, I would suggest resisting those assumptions.
I can say, however, that meeting my siblings has already been a great blessing. It has been quite amazing to find out the ways that we are similar. One listens to jazz music and has a camera collection. Ditto for me. I used to sell cameras while I was an undergrad student.
Another characteristic often discussed has been the love of music. I was asked by two of my siblings if I sing. Music runs in the family. It is inside. It was wonderful to find out that what I was attracted to really did literally come naturally.
In many ways we are living in a cookie-cutter culture. But I wonder if too many of us run to what seems popular or accepted by our peers without discovering what is inside. And I also wonder what life would be like if we didn't even pursue what is on the inside. There is a soul full of wonder waiting to bloom in all of us. The key may be very different. It may not be music. It could be mechanical dexterity or interest in working outdoors or building things. Or who knows what else?
Are parents struggling with kids sometimes because they are trying to form them in a way that does not fit? What if these kids discovered what is really welling up all on its own? Then they wouldn't need their parents to motivate them or to correct. Instead they would pursue their goals and verify their own results.
This is one reason I am attracted to the artistic world. Some people are willing to break out of the mould. And I don't mean doing simply something that is shocking or that pushes boundaries in what has become a predictable and might I say at this stage a tiresome way. Creative people are just that, creative. They take us to places that broaden our understanding of what it is to live and enable us a little bit more to live authentically.
Classical music has more than its fair share of such creative people whose work providentially has been preserved. Many things that J. S. Bach wrote if orchestrated for a rock band today could sound quite credible. Mozart introduced all kinds of tonal creativity. Personally, I am very attracted to his operas. Beethoven certainly was a giant and had to resist the pressure to produce what was merely palatable and at the end of the life had to fight against even his own limitations. He never heard (except in his head), what is perhaps is greatest work, the Ninth Symphony. Olivier Messiaen had the courage to capture life, lived in nature and on the streets. And yet in stripping away what seems most like music to us, rhythm and melody he reveals to us the music inside -- the music of life itself. And the other half of the story is equally important. Music is merely notes on a page or an idea in someone's head until it is performed. It is not unusual to have a performer reveal in a musical composition layers that probably were not at least part of the conscious acts of the composer. They each perform a creative service for the other.
In jazz, Oscar Peterson stands out in our Canadian music world. James Ehnes is another Canadian today who is plotting a remarkable path of interpreting great music wonderfully. And I really love the talents of Michael Kaeshammer. As composers in the Canadian folk tradition, Joanie Mitchell, Gordon Lightfoot and Stan Rogers. In Quebec, the wonderful fiddle music of Jean Carignan is immediately recognizable and goes right to the bones. You will have your own list.I discovered in a way I had not imagined that the music is truly inside of me. And it is a gift. I hope you have music inside of you.
