Life's Good; Life's Ugly
Seraphim, the community chorus in which I sing, performed last night for a small but appreciative crowd made up of members of the National Guild of Organists. Although we sang well at the performance, the rehearsal beforehand was magnificent. The venue was a big, modern Catholic Church with acoustics that made the music soar. It was the best we have ever sounded.
Outside, the edge of the Nor’easter that has plagued the east coast, was blowing wind, rain, and snow. It was probably the most extended period of bad weather this area has had in a long time. The weather people said the winds were gusting at about 48 mph. Not where I was. It was much, much worse. At times I thought my car was going to flip over. It was difficult to open the car door to get out, and when I did, I thought it was going to blow off the hinges.
When the show was over, we had to go out into the blowing rain. Driving home I thought how wonderful it is that in the of midst this really bad weather, I had been given the chance to sing Pergolesi’s Glory to God in the Highest, music I have sung in choirs since I was 14 years old, one more time. It was an affirmation of the balances of life’s good and life’s ugly.
As I turned onto my street, it became apparent that there was a problem. My side of the street was completely black, indicating to me that the power lines that snake through the woods in the backyards, were down again. I drove around to try to locate the trouble, and found, to my dismay, that it was in my backyard. One medium growth tree had snapped in half, and an old growth tree, a mammoth tree, was totally uprooted and fell diagonally across my neighbor’s yard, taking down every service line that went through the neighborhood in addition to yanking out all of the lines attached to several houses. Thankfully, the only real damage was to some landscaping and the intake power poles on the houses.
I don’t take to inconvenience well, and I knew this was going to be a biggie. After talking to the electric company and the cable company and the telephone company, and most importantly, my insurance company, my family settled in for a siege. We lit all of the fireplaces, and I poured myself a bourbon. We own little television that runs on batteries. On that tiny, flickering black and white screen, I saw the local news report about a gentleman who, while driving down a road I drive down every day, very close to my house, was killed when a tree blew over on his truck. Then I watched the horror of the Virginia Tech massacre, those unfortunate families having to deal with such a tragedy.
My neighbor has a Madonna placed midst the pine trees in his flower bed. As I stood outside in the cold and rain talking to him last night, he pointed to the statue and said: “I don’t know what’s going on, I thought Mary was looking out for me.” After watching all of the ugly on television, maybe she was looking out for all of us. And I hope she is looking out for the murdered students at Virginia Tech, and for the man driving down Shields Road.
Outside, the edge of the Nor’easter that has plagued the east coast, was blowing wind, rain, and snow. It was probably the most extended period of bad weather this area has had in a long time. The weather people said the winds were gusting at about 48 mph. Not where I was. It was much, much worse. At times I thought my car was going to flip over. It was difficult to open the car door to get out, and when I did, I thought it was going to blow off the hinges.
When the show was over, we had to go out into the blowing rain. Driving home I thought how wonderful it is that in the of midst this really bad weather, I had been given the chance to sing Pergolesi’s Glory to God in the Highest, music I have sung in choirs since I was 14 years old, one more time. It was an affirmation of the balances of life’s good and life’s ugly.
As I turned onto my street, it became apparent that there was a problem. My side of the street was completely black, indicating to me that the power lines that snake through the woods in the backyards, were down again. I drove around to try to locate the trouble, and found, to my dismay, that it was in my backyard. One medium growth tree had snapped in half, and an old growth tree, a mammoth tree, was totally uprooted and fell diagonally across my neighbor’s yard, taking down every service line that went through the neighborhood in addition to yanking out all of the lines attached to several houses. Thankfully, the only real damage was to some landscaping and the intake power poles on the houses.
I don’t take to inconvenience well, and I knew this was going to be a biggie. After talking to the electric company and the cable company and the telephone company, and most importantly, my insurance company, my family settled in for a siege. We lit all of the fireplaces, and I poured myself a bourbon. We own little television that runs on batteries. On that tiny, flickering black and white screen, I saw the local news report about a gentleman who, while driving down a road I drive down every day, very close to my house, was killed when a tree blew over on his truck. Then I watched the horror of the Virginia Tech massacre, those unfortunate families having to deal with such a tragedy.
My neighbor has a Madonna placed midst the pine trees in his flower bed. As I stood outside in the cold and rain talking to him last night, he pointed to the statue and said: “I don’t know what’s going on, I thought Mary was looking out for me.” After watching all of the ugly on television, maybe she was looking out for all of us. And I hope she is looking out for the murdered students at Virginia Tech, and for the man driving down Shields Road.
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