March 20: Palm Sunday, Christ's Passion, Classic Saint Marty

Palm Sunday.

In the morning, it was church.  Lots of church.  There was choir practice, praise band practice, morning worship.  My son had practice for a living Way of the Cross that he's got a part in tonight.  As I said, lots of church.  And it ain't over yet:  in a few minutes we will be leaving for the Way of the Cross program. 

It's the end of the weekend.  Holy Week has started.  The holiest week of the church year.  Maunday Thursday.  Good Friday.  Holy Saturday.  Easter Sunday.  Church, church, and more church.  I have been a liturgical musician for over 30 years.  This time always leaves me a little exhausted.

It's more than all the church services.  It's the whole playing out of Christ's Passion.  It drains me emotionally.

Today's Classic Saint Marty first aired four years ago.  We were in the middle of a heat wave. 

March 20, 2012:  Fairy Tales and Elementary School Concerts

Spent most of the day correcting mythology midterms and reading Grimm fairy tales.  Lots of lovers turning into snakes and evil sorcerers chopping up young virgins.  You know, children's stories.  When I went to teach, it was almost 80 degrees outside.  Sunny with a beautiful warm wind.  I couldn't stay inside.  It was a perfect day to sit on the grass and talk about wicked stepmothers.

Mirror, mirror on the wall,
who's the most bitter one of all?

I've learned something about fairy tales this semester.  Aside from the fact that almost all evil stepmothers or uncles end up boiled in oil or torn apart by oxen, I've learned that the characters most like children (the simpletons, the virgins, the pure and chaste daughters) are going to end up wealthy and happy, usually married to handsome princes, beautiful princesses, or kindly kings.  These characters don't seek out royalty or power.  They're happy with eating shit like cabbage and peas for dinner and sleeping in one-room cottages with diminutive diamond miners in the deep forest.  But, of course, they also have fairy godmothers and magical birds to help them out.  Some even get to live with the Virgin Mary in heaven as children.  They have all the luck.

Perhaps there's a lesson to learn in there somewhere.  Something about being satisfied with the simple things in life, not wanting more than you need, accepting with grace the things God gives you...

Naaahh, I don't think so.

Saint Marty has to go to his daughter's chorus concert tonight.  Did he mention it's 80 degrees outside?