Saturday, September 11, 2004
Volar
I've been listening to salsa and merengue while I paint. I'm not a big fan of most "dance" music, but there is something different in both genres, the swirling polyrhythms soon begin to soar and it creates a sensation that reminds me of the expansive horizon above Cartagena. I also begin to hear strains of the music of the Israelites weaving in an out of the African rhythms. The conventional wisdom was that the Spanish roots of Latin music originated in the Moors, but I recently discovered that my spiritual ear was correct not the historians.
The fact that this music has a Jewish origin explains the longing that I feel. King Solomon said that God put eternity in our hearts. The music activates that and deep calls to deep. If you could always savor this taste of eternity, no human hardship would be unbearable.
And during all of this I'm still thinking of the blessed dead of 9-11. I hope that God granted them that grace in their last moments. So for those who fell, instead of their terror terminating in a devastating impact, there was the brief passage, as through a membrane, and then they were soaring up, to a crescendo of majestic music while their eyes opened wide to a most welcome sight.
The fact that this music has a Jewish origin explains the longing that I feel. King Solomon said that God put eternity in our hearts. The music activates that and deep calls to deep. If you could always savor this taste of eternity, no human hardship would be unbearable.
And during all of this I'm still thinking of the blessed dead of 9-11. I hope that God granted them that grace in their last moments. So for those who fell, instead of their terror terminating in a devastating impact, there was the brief passage, as through a membrane, and then they were soaring up, to a crescendo of majestic music while their eyes opened wide to a most welcome sight.
papijoe 12:51 PM
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