PBS DOCUMENTARY ON SACRED HARP
As a cradle Catholic growing up in the Midwest, my Fundamentalist Baptis motherr and I shared many an exchange about our religious beliefs. We were doing this long before Ecumenism was brought into Catholic lay perspectives. More precisely, we were doing this long before the Church encouraged it. Some might even say discouraged it This did not prevent me from attending many a tent revivial right there on the Mason-Dixon line. It was my exprience as a child that folks were filled with Christian talk and Christian goals but also overt racial prejudice.

Fortunately for me, Mom told me over and over again that she was wrong about how she felt and knew it but couldn't seem to find a way to accept people different from herself. She always said "don't be like me". I never have been.

It was in this context that my ears became attuned to Protestant Revival Music. Mom died this year and it, of course, hurts my heart to think of her as gone. Imagine my surprise when I was channel surfing when I heard a sound I remembered from all those years ago. Not a song...a sound.

I stopped to watch this PBS documentary to learn it is the sound of my mother humming Sacred Harp music. Sacred Harp has nothing to do with harps. It is born of poverty and illiteracy (which is not anything like my mother though she came from poverty but had a wonderful public school education)

Sacred Harp is what the vocals are considered. Meaning God's harp is in one's vocal chords. There are to be no nuances of tone (loud and soft). It is intended to be shouted. People still gather all day to just sing one song afer another in acapella as a group. This goes on for as much as 8 hours. Then, many have a picnic or dinner outdoors together.

This kind of music is faith filled because illiterate people can write the music just like a musician would. That's bec. there are only 4 sounds and no notes. By no notes, I mean this music can be writtien in triangles, squares, and rectangles. The idea often is to talk to God and reduce your conversation with Him into a song that anyone can sing even if they can't read notes.

It was in learning and listening more to Sacred Harp music on PBS, that I came to learn that Amazing Grace was first written in Sacred Harp's four tones. A wonderful way to find out we can all talk to God and let the world know through our Sacred Harp sounds.

Gone Fishing short film
I recently had the pleasure of seeing this short film from Britain at festival in Los Angeles and met the director Chris Jones. He is so lovely. This film is very inspirational because, while it seems to be about the one that got away, there is a deeper meaning.I strongly encourage people to seek it out or buy a copy from his website http://livingspirit.typepad.com

CHERRY BLOSSOMS
This is one of the best movies I have ever seen. As Fred & Mary Ann say, the spiritual practices of beauty, being present and love are found in this film.

http://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/films/films.php?id=18751

Awakening occurs in one of the characters in a very unexpected and extremely delightful way. Some others are too busy or too set in their ways to appreciate the magic of the moment. I hope I can be one of the awakened ones.

It is a German film and it is filmed in both Germany & Japan. I love to see the world through the eyes of people in different cultures and this mkovie definitely does that. The subtitles stop when the German man and the Japanese woman speak to each other
in English.

love, john + www.abundancetrek.com + "The day will come when, after harnessing space, the winds, the tides and gravitation, we shall harness for God the energies of love. And on that day, for the second time in the history of the world, humankind will have discovered fire." -- Teilhard de Chardin

A Serious Man ...
This afternoon I saw "A Serious Man" and I highly recommend it .... it's the most profound fictional movie i've ever seen. it's also funny and brilliant, but often in ways that are deep or subtle.

The movie opens with a quote from Rashi, a medieval Talmud scholar: "Receive with simplicity everything that happens to you."

The film is set in a Minneapolis suburb in the 1960s and the main character, Larry, is a physics professor whose life is falling apart. i won't tell you the details, but here's one of the more profound moments ...

Larry is meeting with a rabbi and asks: "Why is this happening? What is Hashem trying to tell me?" The rabbi says, more or less: "How does Hashem speak to us? We can't know." And Larry responds: "But why does Hashem make us feel the questions if He's not going to tell us the answers?"

I love the way that's phrased: not why does He ASK us the questions, but why does He make us FEEL the questions ...