KIDS ON BIKES (From the whine and complaint department)

Spring is here and soon, all the kids who don't have Xbox, Nintendo, the internet or other assorted electronic-static loading-tendonitis creating devices will be out on the streets riding their bike. 

The law states that cyclists are to ride on the right side of the road which is with traffic.  Most kids and adults alike do not like riding with their back to traffic, however.  They like to see what is coming toward them.  When they do ride on the wrong side of the road, some will pull off onto the shoulder when they see a car coming at them.  Unfortunately, many will exercise their "right of way" and play chicken with the two ton vehicle approaching them. 

The "pedestrian right of way" is a dangerous law.  Many pedestrians and especially children are maimed or killed each year because they are taught as pedestrians they have the right of way over a vehicle.  Whether they do or not, my parents taught me to stop, look and listen.  Then look again, then look as I am crossing.  When it comes to a 4,000 pound hunk of steel barreling toward me and my well-being, I'm gonna let the car go by without challenge and give up my legal right to stare it down.

A woman and her two year old child, in the city of Troy, NY, were recently killed when she exercised her right of way and stepped in front of a moving vehicle at an intersection.  The city is now trying to figure out how to make the intersection more safe and are considering lowering the speed limit.  Nobody is talking about attempting to educate people that the act of dueling with a car is a risky battle which could result in death. The right of way is a right I won't risk my life on, unlike some people.

Anyway, there are two reasons for teaching your kids to ride on the right side.  When a car is coming up behind you, the driver has more control over the situation because he can easily judge your speed and trajectory and, he can safely go around you.  When you are facing him, you are adding a direction and speed that he can't compensate for.  Also, if your kid is facing oncoming traffic, he may see that the car is yielding to the center of the road and the child will most likely remain on the white line. This is very dangerous because now the driver is calculating oncoming traffic and your kid's assertiveness and may try to squeeze between both cyclist and whatever is in the other lane.  The driver certainly doesn't want to risk a head on collision and being unlikely to slow down, he will risk the squeeze.  Again, a child with his back to traffic is most likely to ride on the shoulder and this lemon squeeze situation will not present itself.  An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

The biggest reason to ride on the right side is because when a cyclist is riding on the wrong or left side, because he feels more safe when he can face traffic, a car pulling out of a driveway or side street whose intention is to make a right turn is not looking to the right.  As he is approaching the main street he is concerned with traffic coming from the left.  As your child is approaching from the right, the driver of the vehicle most likely will not see him, especially if the driver of the car is not coming to a complete stop and merely yielding to what is on his left.  Your child, who knows he has the right of way will ride in front of the car while the driver is looking in the opposite direction.  An unhappy union will occur if the driver doesn't turn his head to the right in time to see your little soldier.  If you don't understand this explanation, get on a bike, ride on the left side and pull in front of cars which are turning right.  You'll figure it out real quick.

Of course any driver who runs over your child will be ticketed or arrested for manslaughter, but, take comfort in knowing that your child was exercising their right of way.  Good for them for standing their ground.

You can't take for granted that every driver is conscientious, aware of their complete surroundings or even paying attention.  Teach children to stop, look and listen.  And, never mention that they have the right of way.  What they know, can hurt them.

Prayer of St. Francis

This is another way I play POSF.
The sheet music for a more simplified arrangement may be found at:

https://www.wlp.jspaluch.com/3100.htm

Kremser, We Gather Together

This is a cocktail setting of the hymn KREMSER, better known as "We Gather Together."   The sheet music may be found at GIA's Website:
https://www.giamusic.com/products/P-Instrumental-piano.cfm

Hymn Meter and Tune Names

I am often asked what those numbers mean which are often found somewhere on the pages of our hymns.  They are often written as as 8.6.8.6 (86.86) or other variations. Some may instead have capital letters after them such as "CM" or "LM."

Those numbers represent the hymn's meter.  It indicates the number of syllables in each line in the hymn.  This provides the means for an organist to mix and match the text of the hymn with a different "tune." 

Let's take the hymn "Amazing Grace."  Say the words and count the syllables for each line:

Amazing grace, how sweet the sound (8)
that saved a wretch like me. (6)
I once was lost, but now am found  (8)
was blind but now I see. (6)

So, somewhere on the page of "Amazing Grace" will be the numbers "8686."  That is also known a "Common Meter" and can be written as "CM" instead. 

Now that you have that metrical information, you can look at the metrical index in the back of the hymnal and look for the meter "8686" or "CM."  All the hymns listed beneath CM or 8.6.8.6 have the same meter which means you can sing the text of "Amazing Grace" to any of those other songs.

Now, you may notice that under the numerical listing, each of the hymns are listed by a name which may be unfamiliar.  Those are the "Tune" names.  "Amazing Grace" for instance, its tune name is the same as its title.  The tune "St. Agnes is to the hymn "Jesus the Very Thought of Thee."  "Joy To the World" is known as "Antioch."  "O Come All Ye Faithful" is "Adeste Fidelis." "How Great Thou Art" is "O Store Gud." "Holy, Holy, Holy" is "Nicaea."

Back in late sixteenth century England and Scotland, when most people were not musically literate and they learned melodies by rote, it was a common practice to sing a new text to a hymn tune the singers already knew which had a suitable meter and character.

Again, this is a valuable tool for the person planning the music to mix and match melodies and texts.  If you don't like the music for a certain text or if your congregation doesn't know a particular melody, you can check the metrical index and find another hymn tune that the congregation will know from another hymn and sing the desired text to that alternate melody. 

The composer usually gives his tune a tune name.  He (since many composers in the old days were men) would often name the tune for the city, town or church where he was residing at the time he wrote the tune.  If I were to write a hymn, I'd probably name it "East Podunk."

If the hymn doesn't have numbers listed as its meter, it will have letters which are a shorthand;
CM means Common Meter, 8.6.8.6;
LM means Long Meter, 8.8.8.8;
SM means Short Meter, 6.6.8.6;
DCM (or CMD) means Doubled CM, 8.6.8.6.8.6.8.6.
8787D is equivalent to doubled or two verses of 8.7.8.7.

I am of the school of thought, “If it isn’t broke, don’t fix it.”  The original hymn tune, MARION, is an easy, joyous and well known melody which is most often married to the text “Rejoice, Ye Pure in Heart!”   I don’t believe in confusing text and tune.  When you hear the melody “Veni Emmanuel” you know it is Advent.  When you hear the melody “Stille Nacht” you know it is Christmas Eve.  When you hear “Passion Chorale” you know it is Lent.  Everyone knows what Lent feels like, what Advent feels like, even the Feast of Christ the King or Palm Sunday.  You could tell these days by the opening hymn in many churches.  Old Roman Catholics can even tell the difference between the Second Sunday of Easter or any Marion Feast day by of the music alone. 

Seasons, music and text all evoke feelings, emotions, moods and memories which is, or should be part of our DNA.  I think it is a dangerous thing for the church to mess with tradition and ritual, especially as it pertains to our hymnody.  New music is good if it fills a hole. 

When we go to a birthday party, we wouldn’t sing a new melody to “Happy Birthday”  because the melody  we currently sing is traditional and part of our birthday ritual.  Everyone knows it.  When you go to a ball game, the stadium organist has the power to get the crowd to stomp their feet or entice them to yell “charge,” full throated and in perfect unison with only a few music phrases.  That is the power of tradition and ritual.  A stadium organist who tries to change those musical cues would be fired the day he starts.   That is because we care about our ball games and the full and active participation of our “audience” at our ball games.   Also, many of the text writers of our hymns intended for the words to go along with a certain melody. 

If I were to sing a new melody to “How Great Thou Art,” that would be nice.  But, if I were to just play the first two bars of “O Store Gud,” the melody alone would reduce my grandmother to a puddle of tears because she associates that melody with the text of "How Great Thou Art."  Go into a nursing home full of elderly people who can’t remember the name of their own children and start to play the melody to “Amazing Grace,” “How Great Thou Art,” or “Jesus Loves Me,” and they will know every word.  It's in their memory DNA. 

Did you know that the text to "Amazing Grace" can be sung to the theme of "Gilligan's Island?"

Malcolm Kogut

The Old Violin

I thought I would share an old favorite poem Fr. Bill used in his homily this morning.

'Twas battered and scarred,
And the auctioneer thought it
hardly worth his while
To waste his time on the old violin,
but he held it up with a smile.

"What am I bid, good people", he cried,
"Who starts the bidding for me?"
"One dollar, one dollar, Do I hear two?"
"Two dollars, who makes it three?"
"Three dollars once, three dollars twice, going for three,"

But, No,
From the room far back a gray bearded man
Came forward and picked up the bow,
Then wiping the dust from the old violin
And tightening up the strings,
He played a melody, pure and sweet
As sweet as the angel sings.

The music ceased and the auctioneer
With a voice that was quiet and low,
Said "What now am I bid for this old violin?"
As he held it aloft with its' bow.

"One thousand, one thousand, Do I hear two?"
"Two thousand, Who makes it three?"
"Three thousand once, three thousand twice,
Going and gone", said he.

The audience cheered,
But some of them cried,
"We just don't understand."
"What changed its' worth?"
Swift came the reply.
"The Touch of the Masters Hand."

"And many a man with life out of tune
All battered and bruised with hardship
Is auctioned cheap to a thoughtless crowd
Much like that old violin

A mess of pottage, a glass of wine,
A game and he travels on.
He is going once, he is going twice,
He is going and almost gone.

But the Master comes,
And the foolish crowd never can quite understand,
The worth of a soul and the change that is wrought
By the Touch of the Masters' Hand.

- by Myra Brooks Welch

Cleanliness is Next to Godliness

A Gallup poll whose statistics were released yesterday stated that out of 189 U.S. metropolitan areas which Gallup surveyed in 2012, it was found that in Provo, Utah,  77% of its residents were classified as very religious.  In my City of Albany - 26%. 

Well, on the bright side, if this was the third century, we Albanians would probably out live them due to the "high cost of holiness." 

Back in those "biblical times" it was required of Christians to ritually purify themselves in the ritual baths either before they participated in any holy activity or after they did their, uhm, "Christian-duty."  

Their latrine area was secluded plot about 700 yards from the baths where they would dig shallow holes, squat, then cover over their deposits.  They would then go down to the baths to clean themselves.  Cleanliness is next to Godliness. 

Archeologists have performed soil samples of the bath areas and found high concentrations of intestinal parasite eggs such as whip, round and tape worm.  The area was a toxic waste dump of disease.  The Christians would get this matter on their hands and feet, then walk back to the pools to cleanse themselves but in actuality were sharing their germs with hundreds of other people which would get in their eyes, mouth, nose and cuts by bathing in this soup.  Each Christian was literally a walking time bomb.

Leprosy was a catch-all term for a multitude of skin diseases and infections such as Tzoraas and various rashes born from infection which were unknowingly caused by bathing in germ infested water.  Back then, a simple cut could kill you.

Christians were more concerned about privacy and cleanliness while the Romans were less concerned with privacy and humility, and more concerned with efficiency.  The Romans had no problem with men, women and children "raising robes" (dropping trou) in front of one another while that act was seen as sinful to the Christians.  Here are a few pictures of the toilet area in Bet She'an where the person performing the act of voiding would sit with one cheek on each rock in full and open public display while a channel of water beneath them carried away whatever was deposited.  This was as natural and normal to the Romans back then as people sitting on a park bench having a conversation about the weather today. 

While the Christians were concerned with spiritual health with a focus on healing from their physical ailments, the Romans were concerned with keeping their cities clean and keeping out the Christians who seemed to be plagued with copious amounts of disease.  The Christian, yearning for holiness and healing was the cause of their own plight. A vicious circle and downward spiral.

This was at a time when knowledge of germs and infection was practically nothing.  Remember, a "doctor" during this time was predominately anyone who owned sharp tools such as barbers, butchers and people like Jesus - carpenters.  If you needed something removed or cut off, these were the people you went to see.  It was either them or people who who performed magic spells.  There were a lot of people who were using plants, rocks and mud for healing, too.  These were often charismatic healers who would send those with inflictions to bathe in water where unknowingly, germs didn't survive or fester such as in moving water or - water with a high concentration of salt and minerals where nothing could survive, such as the Dead Sea.  Even today, thousands of people flock there for healing in the higher than normal oxygen levels, filtered sunlight and purifying water. 

Jesus was on to something.  No to diminish his healing power, but a lot of what he did and prescribed back then has medical efficacy today.  And, it was not beneath him to make referrals.  When the ten "lepers" approached him, he sent them to see the priest.  Priests at that time saw so many people who were seeking to be healed that they become experts at diagnosing rashes, infections and other diseases such as true leprosy. 

Even the deer yearn for flowing streams.

Prayer of St. Francis, arranged by Malcolm Kogut