Every generation has bemoaned that we are on the course to self-destruction and I suppose that it is inevitable that one day we will achieve annihilation.
However, until we do, what makes us human is our ability to hope, to strive for something better. We do horrible, despicable things to each other and the planet but still we struggle onward. Even in the midst of our destructive impulses we manage to create works of art that make one breathless, and music that momentarily transports one to a place of infinite pleasure. We create ugliness but we also create beauty. Perhaps that is what makes us human, the dark and the light.
Tolstoy wrote, "Happy familes are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."[ Anna Karenina] I can't help but think that there would be no great art if we were all happy and harmonious; certainly, there would be far less great literature for it's our foibles and failings that fill the billions of pages written over the generations.
My fellow humans fascinate, repulse, and enchant me. I find myself aghast at the horrors that we are capable of perpetrating upon one another. The recent masacre by a mentally unstable young man leaves me choking on a mix of sadness and anger. It appears that his illness was apparent and had been noted by others but no one engaged in any concrete intervention so he was left to listen to the voices in his head and eventually act upon their advice.
However, I also find myself astounded at our creativity. A poem that makes me affirm, "That's exactly how I feel!" Or a singer heard on the radio who makes me pause whatever I may be doing and engage fully in the performance. A Puccini aria sung by Kiri te Kanawa can literally stop me in my tracks and sweep me off to some land that I've never been except in my dreams. Or it can be something as simple as my two-year-old great nephew scribbling with fat crayons thicker than his fingers on a sheet of paper and then proudly sharing his work with me so that I may look and marvel. My reward is the sweetest smile that I've ever seen and my heart aches with love and I'm content.
This being human is a complex state. Our flaws are many but I would not choose to be anything more or less than simply human.
Dame Kiri te Kanawa singing "O Mio Babbino Caro."
Sheria - what a stunningly accurate portrait of humaness. Listening to Dame Kanawa or Pavarotti, viewing a Monnet or the Cistene Chapel, watching a news clip of every day people helping others and it is hard not to have at least a little spark of hope, feel a warm flame of compassion or a tender caress of love amongst the chaos of our daily lives being bombarded by hate, ignorance and intolerance.
ReplyDeleteThis is a fitting post, a tribute of sorts on the day that the youngest victim and probably most engaged and optimistic person was laid to rest.
I cry for the too, too short life of Christina Green and I rejoice for the continued improvement of Rep. Giffords and I hope these lives will touch others who will work for a better future.
Thank you Sheria for this oasis of beauty in a time of grief.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Sheria for this oasis of beauty in this week of sorrow and reflection.
As a thank you for this renewing post, my gift to you:
Spem in Alium by Thomas Tallis.
Absolutely lovely!!!! Thank you!!! I do so luve Puccini!!!
ReplyDelete@Shaw, I'm listening to Spem in Alium by Tallis at this moment and it is gloriously exquisite. Thank you for sharing this lovely work with me.
ReplyDeleteSheria,
ReplyDeleteWish we lived closer--as I wish this with the other female creatures who live at the edge of the Zone. We could exchange gorgeous music, and I'd love to make you a bitchin' plate of tortellini in panna with porcini mushrooms. And a nice chianti go wash it down.
My bad. I'd want the male Zoners to join us!
ReplyDeleteShaw,
ReplyDeleteSuch an encounter sounds delightful.
Kiri te Kanawa? Pucinni?
ReplyDeleteEver hear me do 15 men on a dead man's chest? Yo ho ho and a bottle of Chateau Lafite.
Really, if we were omniscient and as rational as only a machine can be, we'd be aware how narcissistic our morning and reflection is since on every day this week there have been vastly more horrible tragedies around the world. That's probably true of any day, any week. Australia, Brazil. . .
We can choose to risk having the abyss stare back at us until we fall in or we can do what the lady suggests. I prefer Bach, for what it's worth,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhgA14z_6lg
but there is more music than we'll have time to listen to unless we get started.
Sheria,
ReplyDeleteNicely said. You humans have some merit, I must admit. You don't have teeth as impressive as my kind, but teeth aren't everything. Anyhow, wasn't it trusty old Fred Nietzsche who said that ultimately, life can only be justified aesthetically? I think that's about right -- it's often hard to justify humanity's behavior on any other grounds, and certainly notions such as "inevitable progress" went out of style in the nineteenth century.
There are times, though, when even aside from art, people show what's best in them: the collective response to the Tucson event is one of those occasions when we realize, as JFK said with elegant simplicity decades ago, "we are all mortal, and we all breathe the same air." Or if one likes John Donne's fine prose, "No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main...."
I removed my last comment. Sometimes, we use defenses to distract or shield ourselves from somber and painful moments. My attempt at humor didn’t feel right for this occasion.
ReplyDeleteOcto, I followed the link to the Geico commercial featuring your audition tape and may I say that I found your performance to be quite splendid. One of the qualities that I think is essential to our ability to maintain hope is being able to laugh. Your attempt at humor was successful for me and I had a good laugh. By the way, you are quite photogenic and have a singing voice unlike any other!
ReplyDeleteCaptain, Bach will certainly do!
Dino, Donne's Meditation 17 is among my favorite works and one which I contemplate often.
I have discovered over the years that the only antidote to my sinking into despair is to consciously remind myself that there is beauty and joy in this existence as well as sorrow.
Thank you, Sheria.
ReplyDeleteIn that case …. (prepare to turn up the volume!) … (throat spray: spritz, spritz) …. der-der-do-dah …