This has been a very difficult semester for me, but I think things are going to get back on track. You’ve probably forgotten about this blog, but still, we’re going to get back on track very soon. Cheers!
Chris.
Rather than simply ignore her birthday (as I tend to do nowadays) or spend money only on herself, one woman has turned her date de naissance into a saucy party celebrating women’s empowerment and raising money to help those who are trying to leave domestic violence behind them. GOOD FOR HER! Keep up the good work- I don’t have much, but this is one cause I’d definitely send a little money toward. Who’s with me?
Eternal Father, strong to save,
Whose arm hath bound the restless wave,
Who bidst the mighty ocean deep
Its own appointed limits keep;
O, hear us when we cry to Thee
For those in peril on the sea!
Christ, the Lord of hill and plain,
O’er which our traffic runs amain,
By mountain pass or valley low,
Wherever Lord our brethren go,
Protect them by Thy guarding hand
From every peril on the land!
O Spirit Whom the Father sent
To spread abroad the firmament,
O Wind of Heaven, by Thy might
Save all who dare the eagle’s flight,
And keep them by Thy watchful care
From every peril in the air!
Eternal Father, grant, we pray,
To all Marines, both night and day,
The courage, honor, strength, and skill
Their land to serve, thy law fulfill
Be thou the shield forevermore
From every peril to the Corps.
Eternal Father, Lord of hosts,
Watch o’er the men who guard our coasts.
Protect them from the raging seas
And give them light and life and peace.
Grant them from thy great throne above
The shield and shelter of thy love
Creator, Father, who dost show
Thy splendor in the ice and snow,
Bless those who toil in summer light
And through the cold antarctic night,
As they thy frozen wonders learn;
Bless those who wait for their return.
Almighty ruler of the all
Whose power extends to great and small,
Who guides the stars with steadfast law,
Whose least creation fills with awe—
Oh grant Thy mercy and Thy grace
To those who venture into space.
O Trinity of love and power!
Our brethren shield in danger’s hour;
From rock and tempest, fire and foe,
Protect them whereso’er they go.
Thus evermore shall rise to Thee,
Glad praise from air, and land, and sea!
too much family guy before bed makes beau have nightmares
It would appear that SOMEONE coddles my dog and his neuroses more than Yours Truly. Yours Truly did not believe such a thing were possible till now. Sheesh.
It would appear to me that the time for centralized arts districts is either over or will be vastly sparser than we previously imagined, and Nicolai Ouroussoff seems to agree with me. What does it mean when American (or European, or Commonwealth) cities no longer have the money to fund the arts themselves? Where do we as a society- no, as a species, go from here? What happens next?
I think we’ll start to see exactly what happened in Italy during the Quattrocento: the only ones able and willing to commission new art will be those with the Drive To Proselytize. Yes, Renaissance Humanism was originally directed at the populace at large, but it was co-opted very early on by the Church, and used to reinforce a message of total domination and fear. The Middle Ages weren’t truly over in Rome until the forces of the Risorgimento ended the Index of Banned Books and the Syllabus of Errors by overthrowing the rule of the Popes.
What magnificent and life-altering visions Michelangelo could have come up with if his ceiling were over the Sistine Natural History Museum! To quote Richard Dawkins from “The God Delusion,”
Even great artists have to earn a living, and they will take commissions where they are to be had…Its enormous wealth had made the Church the dominant patron of the arts. If history had worked out differently, and Michelangelo had been commissioned to paint a ceiling for a giant Museum of Science, mightn’t he have produced something at least as inspirational as the Sistine Chapel? How sad that we shall never hear Beethoven’sMesozoic Symphony, or Mozart’s opera The Expanding Universe. And what a shame that we are deprived of Haydn’s Evolution Oratorio.
But we CAN and MUST prevent such things from happening in future. We can visit our local museums, and symphony halls, and performance spaces. We can give our time and money to those causes. We can say, definitively and without hesitation, that the purpose of art is a HUMAN purpose, to ennoble and edify ourselves, not to nominally praise a creator while covertly advertising the wealth or power of some church or bishop or prince.
I can’t think of anything more important than preserving and enriching our culture and thereby our everyday lives. But we have to direct our efforts where they truly belong: our fellow men and women. Otherwise, as has so often happened in the past, the rest is silence.
