Enjoy Yourself

A song from Guy Lombardo and the Royal Canadians (vocal by Kenny Gardner and the Lombardo Trio) - circa 1950? See below for lyrics and some thoughts...

You work and work for years and years, you're always on the go
You never take a minute off, too busy makin' dough
Someday, you say, you'll have your fun, when you're a millionaire
Imagine all the fun you'll have in your old rockin' chair


Enjoy yourself, it's later than you think
Enjoy yourself, while you're still in the pink
The years go by, as quickly as a wink
Enjoy yourself, enjoy yourself, it's later than you think


You're gonna take that ocean trip, no matter, come what may
You've got your reservations made, but you just can't get away
Next year for sure, you'll see the world, you'll really get around
But how far can you travel when you're six feet underground?


Your heart of hearts, your dream of dreams, your ravishing brunette
She's left you and she's now become somebody else's pet
Lay down that gun, don't try, my friend, to reach the great beyond
You'll have more fun by reaching for a redhead or a blonde


You never go to nightclubs, and you just don't care to dance
You don't have time for silly things like moonlight and romance
You only think of dollar bills tied neatly in a stack
But when you kiss a dollar bill it doesn't kiss you back


Enjoy yourself, it's later than you think
Enjoy yourself, while you're still in the pink
The years go by, as quickly as a wink
Enjoy yourself, enjoy yourself, it's later than you think

It's true that this song pretty much espouses the philosophy of "Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die," (Isaiah 22.13; 1 Cor. 15.32). It doesn't exactly have an eternal perspective. Nevertheless, it seems to embody a Scriptural truth: enjoyment is God's idea.

• Nehemiah said, "Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some to those who have nothing prepared. This day is sacred to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the LORD is your strength." (Nehemiah 8.10)
• Moreover, when God gives any man wealth and possessions, and enables him to enjoy them, to accept his lot and be happy in his work—this is a gift of God. (Ecclesiastes 5.19)
• Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. (1 Timothy 6.17)

The word "enjoy" appears 55 times in the NIV Bible, and almost always in a positive sense. I think God wants us to enjoy life. Of course, enjoyment isn't the only desire He has for us, nor do I think it's the highest, but it clearly seems to be a part of what He has in store for us.


So when you partake of your bowl of yummy pasta, your glass of wine or beer, your cup of coffee, and your cigar, pipe, or hookah, be sure to thank the Giver for the ability He gives us to enjoy them.

It is Finished

21 months ago, I purchased the complete works of Bach. 155 CDs. Yesterday I finished Disk #155.

I'm a little depressed.

Listening through Bach was like reading the entire Bible for the first time, with new discoveries on every page (or track, as the case may be). Bach repeatedly astounded me with his mastery, his variety, his profundity, his energy, his joy. The world was not worthy of him, but we are the richer because he lived.

Toward the end of this collection, I became acutely aware that the joy of discovery was soon to be over. Often, I found myself hitting the "Replay" button, wanting to get every last bit out of the last few disks.As Dingeman van Wijnen put it in the liner notes for one of the CDs, speaking of one cantata's amazing closing chorale:

It is one of those moments in Bach where the first hearing brings us the sad certainty that we will never again be able to hear it for the first time.

Never again for the first time. But a lifetime's worth of depths to plumb.

So what's next? Start over? Move on to the complete works of Mozart (whom I mostly hate, 170 CDs) or Beethoven (85 CDs)? While I mull this over, I think I'll revisit some of my older CDs that got neglected during the Bachfest. Perhaps I'll start with Jacques Loussier, who does cool jazz versions of, ahem, Bach compositions. . .

Can Beauty Exist Without the Transcendent? Sebastian and Fred Duke it Out on the Pianoforte

I recently read a book by James R. Gaines entitled Evening in the Palace of Reason: Bach Meets Frederick the Great in the Age of Enlightenment. This lively book is a fascinating dual biography of two men who lived contemporaneously, met exactly once, and had radically different world views. If you are interested in Bach, Enlightenment history, or philosophy, it's worth checking out.

Bach was what we now would call "old school." He believed there was a God in heaven who governed the affairs of man and was worthy of our worship. He preached sin and redemption in his music, and saw Jesus as the only hope of mankind. As a master composer and performer, the saw the purpose of music as something to glorify God and build up the soul. Even his "secular" works were dedicated to God.

Frederick, on the other hand, was a man of the Enlightenment. He believed that man was the master of his destiny and that science, government, warfare, and art would bring about the best of all possible worlds. As King of Prussia, the forerunner of today's Germany, he captured much territory, began to unite the disparate nation-states of that area, and was arguably the most powerful man of his time. (And you say, "Who?")

Bach and Frederick the Great met each other exactly once, when Bach came to visit his son Carl Philipp Emanuel, who was in the king's employ as a musician. Frederick, himself a musician of modest ability, presented Bach with a theme that he (or Carl?) had written, and he challenged Bach to play a three-part fugue on this convoluted, rather unmusical theme. Apparently this was a taunt and a mean challenge, but Bach rose to the occasion, and according to a newspaper report of the time, astounded his hearers with the fugue he improvised.

Not to be shown up, Frederick challenged Bach further by asking him to improvise a six-part theme. Bach couldn't do it, and Frederick sent him home with his tail between his legs. The tail came out a couple months later, however, when Bach mailed off to Frederick what we now know as "The Musical Offering," which includes not only a six-part fugure on the king's theme, but several other pieces which use the theme as a starting point. Even the title "Musical Offering" is an interesting invention, as it can also be translated "Musical Sacrifice." Every indication is that Frederick's theme was designed to show that Bach wasn't such a wonderful musician, after all...to cut him down to size by presenting a royal theme beyond Bach's compositional or improvisatorial abilities. Bach was "sacrificed" on the altar of Frederick's malevolence (Frederick at this point in his life being a lover of only himself - he came from one messed-up family, that's for sure), but Bach came back to life and wrote something that is still played and listened to today. Few people, on the other hand, bother to read the books Frederick wrote.

All of this is simply excessive set-up to a quote from Gaines's book that draws an interesting distinction between beauty and prettiness. Without religion, can beauty exist?

Bach's Musical Offering leaves us, among other things, a compelling case for the following proposition: that a world without a sense of the transcendent and mysterious, a universe ultimately discoverable through reason alone, can only be a barren place; and that the music sounding forth from such a world might be very pretty, but it can never be beautiful.

Church in Less Than Three Minutes

Thought you might enjoy a 1-minute video of church today:



And here was the scene across town at the Episcopal cathedral (warning: includes profanity. . . you know how those Episcopalians can be):

Cranach Groupies

A friendly reminder: If you haven't yet read my Cranach post from last week, please do. I labored on it for months, just for you.

It turns out that someone beat me to the punch on my post, though. Paul McCain has an entire website dedicated to this painting. So if you haven't had enough yet, please check out what he's put together. More good stuff.

By the way, have you ever wondered what Ein Feste Burg ("A Mighty Fortress") might have sounded like in Luther's own time (1483-1546)? Check out the following YouTube clip - boring video but good audio:



And Bach (1685-1750)? He did several versions of this hymn. Here's one that his son, Wilhelm Friedemann (1710-1784), later augmented with timpani and trumpets. The first photo is a Luther painting by Cranach, the second is believed to be the last painting of Papa Bach only a month or so before his death, and the third is Friedemann:

He Sells Cellphones . . . and Sings Opera For the Queen of England

From the Wall Street Journal of July 27, 2007:

A snaggle-toothed Welsh cellphone salesman is poised to make a splash at some U.S. record retailers next week -- even though his CD of opera solos isn't officially supposed to come out until September. In June, Paul Potts became the ugly-duckling winner of the British TV competition "Britain's Got Talent" with his rendition of the Puccini aria "Nessun Dorma." The victory made the 36-year-old an instant celebrity in the U.K., where his CD, "One Chance," made its debut last week at the top of the British album chart. But footage of his performance has also ricocheted around the Internet -- one clip has been viewed more than eight million times on YouTube, exceeding any other YouTube video uploaded in the last month.

The result: Some U.S. fans appear willing to shell out about $17 for an imported version of Mr. Potts's CD that will be available next week, even though the TV show he appeared on has not aired in the U.S., and his delivery has won him scorn among some opera buffs. "One Chance" has climbed into the top 10 CDs on both Amazon and Barnes & Noble's U.S. Web sites based on presales -- higher on Amazon, a spokesman says, than musicians such as Amy Winehouse and Lily Allen achieved when their albums were available only as imports.

The show Paul Potts appeared on was Britain's Got Talent, an obvious cousin of American Idol. But I've never seen Simon Cowell be so positive the few times I've seen Idol as he is with Paul Potts. OK, maybe Potts isn't "world class." But he's got to be the best singing cellphone salesman you've ever heard.

Listen to him talk about himself in the interviews before and after each performance. Look at the audience reaction to his voice. Something about seeing this guy do well touches me deeply. I can't really explain it, but watch his first appearance here, and perhaps you'll get a sense of what I mean. There's something redemptive going on.

The semi-final is here, the final is here, and the winner is announced here.

Enjoy.

Free Song - No Fine Print

Go to this link sponsored by my church and you can download Laura Story's/Elvington's new song, "Immortal Invisible." (Laura is the author of "Indescribable," if that means anything to you.) No registration, no catch, no strings attached, and it's free - but it might only be available until Saturday night.

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Immortal, yet you once died for me
to pay my debt, to set me free.
Invisible you will not always be,
'cause you're coming to reign as our King,
and the saints will fall down at your feet.

Jesus is Not Your Cute Boyfriend

I really should save that title for a diatribe against today's inane "worship" music in churches. But it is a quote from the article you're about to read, so I'll use it now.

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Anthony Esolen is a professor of English at Providence College in Rhode Island. He was interviewed on the subject of true masculinity (manhood), and I find his thoughts to be not only provocative, but also much healthier than those of John Eldredge (whose Wild at Heart book I despise, as you no doubt already know). Instead of self-indulgent narcissism and the pursuit of vapid "dreams," Esolen speaks of self-sacrifice, the refusal to let feelings turn one from duty, and serving others by leading them or by following loyally. He also encourages us to take another look at the maleness and the leadership qualities of Jesus. And more. You can read the article here. Enjoy.

Context Matters

This linked article from The Washington Post is way too long; the reporter needed a better editor. But the article does raise a valuable point. Context matters.

Here's what happened: Joshua Bell played his violin in a Washington, DC subway station. Joshua Bell is not your standard street musician, however. He's one of the world's most famous violinists. He sells out concert halls where seats go for $100 a pop. His Stradivarius violin was made in 1713 and is valued at $3.5 million+. He gets paid as much as $1,000 a minute for his performances.

He played for 43 minutes. During that time, 1,097 people walked by. How many people stopped to listen for at least one minute? Seven. How much money did the passersby drop into his violin case? $32.17. How many people recognized him? One. How many clapped at the end of each piece he played? None.

Context matters.

We see what we look for, and we accept what we're prepared for. In the process, we shortchange others, and we get shortchanged, ourselves. The implications of this (sociological, anthropological, theological, cultural, relational, . . . ) are endless. Here's just one:

"He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
He was despised and rejected by men,
a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering.
Like one from whom men hide their faces
he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
He came to that which was his own,
but his own did not receive him."
(Isaiah 53.2b-3; John 1.11)

He wasn't recognized. He was out of context. Where do we fail to see him today?

(You can read the complete Joshua Bell story here. The article also contains some good video.)

Happy Birthday, Herr Bach !

Mustn't let the day pass without recognizing that today is J.S. Bach's 322nd birthday. Although I consider my musical tastes to be eclectic, I freely profess that no composer has given me more joy than has Bach.

If you check my "Now Listening To" link off to the right, you'll see that I'm working my way through the 155-CD collection of the complete works of Bach. Although I've been a fan of his music ever since high school, it's amazing how much of what he wrote I've never heard before. On the radio, and even in concerts, you tend to get just the "Top 40." But listening through these discs, I realize how incredibly varied Bach's music really is. This guy was no Vivaldi, recycling the same themes over and over again until everything sounded more or less the same. Rather, he seems to have employed every musical device at the disposal of a Baroque musician - instrumentation, orchestration, styles, etc.

Listening through these 155 CDs reminds me of reading the Bible for the first time. Surprises and pleasures around every turn - and yes, every now and then a boring part or two. But overall, Wow. And I just can't get through these fast enough.

(P.S. How could you not love a guy who wrote a 30-minute piece about coffee?)