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There's a Certain Slant of Light

11/30/2012

Winter is here (sort of). We have received a fair amount of snow although it is supposed to go above 0 degrees Celsius tomorrow. They are also calling for rain but should dip below zero again by Monday. In anticipation of the rain tomorrow, I went skiing this evening. I completed 12 k which brings me to a total of 24,5 k for the season so far. This seems like an appropriate time to share one of my favourite poems by Emily Dickinson. I find this poem more fitting for those crisp cold winter afternoon in later December or January but I include it now as a reflection for December.

There's a certain slant of light,
On winter afternoons,
That oppresses, like the weight
Of cathedral tunes.

Heavenly hurt it gives us;
We can find no scar,
But internal difference
Where the meanings are.

None may teach it anything,
'Tis the seal, despair,-
An imperial affliction
Sent us of the air.

When it comes, the landscape listens,
Shadows hold their breath;
When it goes, 't is like the distance
On the look of death.

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Abraham Lincoln, Depression and Spirituality

11/29/2012

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There is a new film on the iconic an arguably greatest of all US presidents, Abraham Lincoln. I have not seen the film nor seen many reviews but I will likely see it. Certainly Lincoln's Gettysburg address ranks as on of the finest examples of political rhetoric and leadership. It was composed to commemorate the last battle of the Civil War. The full text reads:

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

One reviewer noted that the movie Lincoln could be appropriately titled the Thirteenth Amendment since much of the film focuses on that constitutional change. The thirteenth amendment outlaws slavery and Lincoln is attributed with the emancipation proclamation that led to the adoption of the thirteenth amendment by the states. According to many historians, however, Lincoln was a late convert to the abolitionist movement and the civil war was less about abolition of slavery than it was about federalism. Still, once he became committed to abolition, that value became an important aspect and justification of the war.

There are many biographies of Lincoln and many of them comment obliquely on his temperment which was by most accounts on the melancholy side. While the clinical categories and criteria for major depression did not exist in the 1800's, the article linked below argues that Lincoln struggled with what would now be termed clinically as major depressive episodes his entire life including thoughts of suicide.

Interesting, Lincoln had a deep spirituality that assisted him in providing purpose to his life and assuage the demons of his own depression as well as the darkness of the history that surrounded his presidency.

Lincoln's greatest virtue, I think, was humility. Humility is not well understood but Shenk does a good job explaining it in the context of Lincoln's spirituality.

HUMILITY. Throughout his life Lincoln's response to suffering—for all the success it brought him—led to greater suffering still. When as a young man he stepped back from the brink of suicide, deciding that he must live to do some meaningful work, this sense of purpose sustained him; but it also led him into a wilderness of doubt and dismay, as he asked, with vexation, what work he would do and how he would do it. This pattern was repeated in the 1850s, when his work against the extension of slavery gave him a sense of purpose but also fueled a nagging sense of failure. Then, finally, political success led him to the White House, where he was tested as few had been before.

Lincoln responded with both humility and determination. The humility came from a sense that whatever ship carried him on life's rough waters, he was not the captain but merely a subject of the divine force—call it fate or God or the "Almighty Architect" of existence. The determination came from a sense that however humble his station, Lincoln was no idle passenger but a sailor on deck with a job to do. In his strange combination of profound deference to divine authority and a willful exercise of his own meager power, Lincoln achieved transcendent wisdom.
...

Throughout history a glance to the divine has often been the first and last impulse of suffering people. "Man is born broken," the playwright Eugene O'Neill wrote. "He lives by mending. The grace of God is glue!" Today the connection between spiritual and psychological well-being is often passed over by psychologists and psychiatrists, who consider their work a branch of secular medicine and science. But for most of Lincoln's lifetime scientists assumed there was some relationship between mental and spiritual life.

Lincoln, too, connected his mental well-being to divine forces. As a young man he saw how religion could ameliorate life's blows, even as he found the consolation of faith elusive. An infidel—a dissenter from orthodox Christianity—he resisted popular dogma. But many of history's greatest believers have also been its fiercest doubters. Lincoln charted his own theological course to a living vision of how frail, imperfect mortals could turn their suffering selves to the service of something greater and find solace—not in any personal satisfaction or glory but in dutiful mission.

Lincoln's Great Depression

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Miles Davis - Sustained Intensity

11/26/2012

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The clip below is a very interesting analysis from the documentary "The History of Jazz". Excuse the few seconds lag just before the beginning - editing problem. The segment by Wynton Marsalis explains Miles' style perfectly. Marsalis describes and defines Davis' style as soft but intense. The combination of these two polarities Marsalis refers to as sustained intensity. Another term for sustained intensity is ecstasy; a fitting description of the work and style of, especially, the early Miles Davis.

The documentary features some Miles Davis' earliest recorded work in "Birth of the Cool".

The History of Jazz is a very good documentary on the subject of American jazz and there is much more to see, listen to and learn through the whole series.

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Sunday Funnies - Family Guy

11/25/2012

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Cross Country Skiing Season Begins

11/24/2012

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About 10 cm of snow fell last night. Conditions at the ski centre are good and there are, apparently, 15 k of trails open for skate skiing. I am going later this morning and am eager to begin the season. My overall goal for the season is 800 k. For those interested you can check out the conditions at: Kamview Nordic Centre. It is a facebook page but you do not need to be on facebook to access it.

I went out this afternoon and conditions are good. Soft in some spots but overall very good conditions. Picked up my skis at the place I go to get them waxed and was informed that they many need to be stone ground as the wax was not adhering that well After this first ski, they are still black with no white spots...so far so good. I did not go out at all last year so it has been awhile since I have been out. Busy winter coming up but i hope I can find the time to get in my 25 k a week. I will update here just as an accountability to me. Today I completed 12. 5 k which is not too bad for the first time out in a long while, I will try for 18 k tomorrow and time myself but we will see how I feel. Nice to be out. Not too cold. A pretty good sized crowd there today but the trails always seem quiet which is nice.

Happy Winter All!!!

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Happy Thanksgiving - Wednesday Adams

11/24/2012

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Happy Thanksgiving! In honour of the holiday, I am sharing this clip from Adams Family Values. As Wednesday says, "the gods of my tribe have spoken. They have said do not trust the pilgrims, especially Sarah Miller.." enjoy.

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The Legacy of Mary Lou Williams

11/22/2012

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A great piece in Commonweal on the legacy of Mary Lou Williams. I have included a video of her playing "My Blue Heaven" and an interview with her in 1976.

She says that jazz is such a great art that it cannot be taught through a book. She touches on the spiritual and healing element of jazz as an art. It does not, she says, put someone in a box. In that sense, jazz is the natural art form for an out of the box thinker. She says that other music makes one nervous but jazz calms a person. As a result, peace, ensues as a result of listening to jazz. It is, therefore, a healing art and this feature of jazz was something that she spent her life perfecting and giving herself over to. And it is this healing dimension of jazz that gives it a "spiritual" flavour.

I was not aware of her attempts to insert jazz as an art form into Catholic liturgy. This piece by Ian Corbin is a very good analysis of art in the Catholic imagination and in particular the American form of art, jazz. A Jazz Mass?

Her attempts to have jazz included in the Catholic liturgy were not realized and Corbin describes some of the potential reasons for this. Part of it relates to the problematic aspect that Catholicism has of individualism. It is precisely this kind of American individualism (recall that jazz is an American art form) that jazz seems to extol. However, this is, according to Corbin, a misunderstanding of jazz as an art form.

Briefly put, a great jazz performer like Mary Lou Williams is an exemplary specimen of the artist as heroic individual. This individualism is not of the isolating sort bemoaned by all serious observers of Americasince Tocqueville, but rather a more romantic and ultimately communal sort. Joseph Conrad, in his celebrated preface to The Nigger of the Narcissus, put forth a vision of the artist as one who descends to the "lonely region" within himself, in order to study and then speak to our capacity for delight and wonder, to the sense of mystery surrounding our lives; to our sense of pity, and beauty, and pain; to the latent feeling of fellowship with all creation—and to the subtle but invincible conviction of solidarity that knits together the loneliness of innumerable hearts: to the solidarity in dreams, in joy, in sorrow, in aspirations, in illusions, in hope, in fear, which binds men to each other, which binds together all humanity. The chief healing power of jazz, as recognized and demonstrated by Williams, is a power of precisely this sort. It emerges when an artist feels the ugliness and beauty of life and translates the feeling into melody, harmony, and rhythm. The sensitive listener hears all this and feels that she is not alone. But for all the deep fellow-feeling that jazz can inspire, it is always, at its best, individual and personal. We are moved not so much by the composition of "My Funny Valentine" as by the spontaneous, particular, irreplaceable overflow of feeling and expression that it can occasion in the performances of Miles Davis, Mary Lou Williams, or John Coltrane. The listener takes in this overflow and allows it to resonate, but it always remains irreducibly Davis's, Williams's, or Coltrane's. Jazz that lacks this personality feels stilted and contrived; it is not, in other words, great jazz

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There's a Certain Slant of Light

Abraham Lincoln, Depression and Spirituality

Miles Davis - Sustained Intensity

Sunday Funnies - Family Guy

Cross Country Skiing Season Begins

Happy Thanksgiving - Wednesday Adams

The Legacy of Mary Lou Williams

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