CNS
VIEW FROM THE PEW
Whoo-eee!
Hasn’t February been a raucous month. Deafening decibels of music and challenging, downright belligerent chants. Extremes of bragging and dramatic tears, jeers and cheers. Events demanding conspicuous consumption of sinfully rich food and high caloric sweet treats, days and days of it. Extravagant, expensive clothes flaunted in a discordant contrast with poverty around the world.
Nope, that’s not my neighborhood I’m talking about. The loudest we get around here is leaf-blowers and carport carpentry, although chants are predictable on Superbowl Sunday. And no, that’s not pages from my diary! For a change, I’m not even referencing the political scene or global breaking news.
Pondering the passing of the first half of the month, it’s reminiscent of an Old Testament script leading us to embrace Lent. You know, like the people of Nineveh going into severe penitential mode after the prophet Jonah marched through town warning them to clean up their act.
In fact, we’ve even seen some episodes of prophecy in this tumultuous month.
It is a relief on Ash Wednesday to dial down the outside clamor and enter into a cloister mindset to do Lent right this year. Joining a subdued and silent line of people to get the symbol of our faith sketched in ash on our foreheads can feel like an escape. I’m ready for a reflective frame of mind to prepare to celebrate the greatest event of our Christian faith at Easter.
The quieting hymn we sang, “We Rise Again From Ashes,” gives us perspective on our relationship with God. It will be 40 days before we will sing a jubilant “Alleluia” again in church.
Music is on my mind as I flip through the calendar. February has been a “Stormy Weather” kind of month for millions of mainland residents. But that was a good thing on Feb. 2 when people cared whether a prophetic groundhog would see its shadow. If it’s sunny and the rodent crawls out of its burrow and sees its shadow, that means winter will last long. No shadow this year so spring will come early. One of many ways humans cheer themselves through winter, Groundhog Day is a big deal in the north, but it aroused nary a media mention in Hawaii.
As time rolled by, it was the date of the annual Grammys, ta-DAH. If you expect me to quote the lyrics of the year’s greatest songs, I can’t. A few snatches of the gaga news coverage were enough for me. I know there are meaningful songs being written by thoughtful musicians who tackle gender inequity, racism, bullying, personal struggles with substance and sexual abuse and other urgent concerns. Hooray if those serious concerns lead to awards.
But it seems to me that altruistic musical messages are diminished by the red carpet strollers who perpetuate the negative as they display their bodies like street walkers, albeit in much, much more expensive clothes. I mean, why bother with the clothes at all in some cases! But, of course, what can you do when you have buckets of money? Gotta spend it on something, right?
I can’t help but fantasize about how much good could be done if that money went to the people whose trials and tribulations were topics for their songs.
I’m sure those girls in gilt and see-through mesh and nude pukas would giggle if I programmed the parade sound track with an ancient song that goes, “In olden days a glimpse of stocking was looked on as something shocking. Now, heaven knows, Anything Goes.” Things going in cycles as they do, clothing designers will probably eventually hark back to clothing that covers up, creates an air of mystery, keeps things under wraps for someone special. Think how much more they could charge for more cloth!
Before I leave the red carpet, I can’t help but laugh out loud about how some extremist folks have created a political conspiracy theory around the top Grammy glam girl. Although I can’t recall a line of anything she’s sung, I am a fan of Taylor Swift for what she is saying to her online followers. She is urging them to vote. And in the last presidential election, she backed President Joe Biden, a young voice that can’t hurt an old politician.
Gasp! Her detractors say that it’s all a psychological political plot. I say hooray for any young American exercising her right to free speech to urge her generation to vote; nevermind if I have none of her songs on my mind.
Just a game, right?
Matching the gala about top musicians was finally the finale of the professional football season. The Super Bowl game goes beyond the Grammys when it comes to hype even if it can’t match the couture and coiffure standards. (Translation: wild hair and beards plus sweaty uniforms are not glamorous.)
I’m struggling here to come up with a song that’s not too much warriors-going-into-battle because this is just sports, just a game, right? For sure I would not dream of repeating the battle cry that Kansas City fans chant. My writing deadline comes before the game, but I can safely predict a demonstration by folks who consider the “tomahawk chop” gesture that accompanies the chant to be offensive and demeaning to Native Americans and their history. Not to mention the team name and arrowhead emblems. The team owners have resisted going the route of political correctness that the Cleveland Indians and Washington Redskins have taken. It kind of reflects the confrontational manner of our times.
They’re all singing the national anthem together, Kansas and San Francisco athletes and fans, all part of the same “land of the free and home of the brave.” I just wish we could believe that.
I suppose a halftime singalong with inclusiveness songs would just be too retro. But everyone know the words to “Let There Be Peace on Earth” don’t they? “With God as our father, brothers all are we” is an idea that matters. Wait, is it not politically correct to refer to God? Oh my, speaking of Nineveh.
Now where was I? Moving on through frantic February, we’ve been encouraged by annual events to gorge ourselves on rich, tasty, plentiful food. There’s no empty chairs in Chinese restaurants as people celebrate the lunar calendar year of the dragon. Dim sum and noodles, duck and pork, can’t get enough. It’s grounds for indigestion at the sight of the homeless and hungry people on the streets as we drive through Chinatown.
It’s a holiday which some people view as prophetic. If you’re born in a year of the dragon in the 12-year cycle of the horoscope, you are predicted to be intelligent, confident and successful. That’s the good news. The bad news is that the dragon is associated with the emperor, power and authority; what kind of political prophecy might that be?
Continuing with extreme eats, next came Shrove Tuesday, the day before Lent begins. It originated in a religious frame of mind, time to clear the cupboards of rich foods before entering the fasting and abstaining Lenten observance. Shrove Tuesday evolved into a major exhibition of excess. In Latin American countries it’s celebrated as Carnival. The French brought the observance to New Orleans where it’s the Mardi Gras extravaganza. That celebration seems to assume that all alcoholic beverages should be cleared from cupboards along with oil, butter, sugar, etc. Wearing costumes is part of the partying; I doubt anyone would understand a Jonah costume.
The Portuguese brought the pre-Lent custom to Hawaii where it is celebrated as “Malassada Day,” time to eat the rich, eggy, sugary confections with abandon.
This week has been an orgy of sweet treats, and an ancient Christian saint unwittingly takes the blame. What do you eat on Valentine’s Day? Every food retailer, drug store to high-end confectioner to restaurants has a suggestion.
Patron saint of love
You surely know it but I like the story of St. Valentine, so I’ll tell it again. According to early church chronicles, he was a priest in Rome at a time when Christians were being persecuted. Valentine was killed and beheaded at the order of Emperor Claudius II. The story goes that the despot forbad Christian marriages and the priest continued to conduct the sacrament of matrimony.
Another legend goes that Claudius wanted men to join the army but thought marriage was a threat to that goal because men would not want to leave their wives.
Feb. 14, 270 A.D., was the date of Valentine’s death, according to an account on the encyclopedia Britannica website.
So St. Valentine became the patron saint of love. In the Middle Ages in Europe, his story was romanticized in songs and stories and art which continued to this day.
It is possible there were two men named Valentine from about the same period whose stories got combined, according to historical records. Because of incomplete and unverifiable information, in 1969 the Catholic Church removed St. Valentine from the liturgical calendar of saints’ feast days. That had absolutely no effect on manufacturers of greeting cards and heart-marked gifts, or the people who celebrate the idea of love with gifts and greetings.
But, that’s not the end of the story. Britannica points out that bones and other alleged relics of the saint are held in several Catholic churches, including two in Rome and one in Prague.
One such cache of bones is in Dublin, Ireland. It was brought there by Carmelite Father John Spratt in 1836. An acclaimed preacher in his time, he drew the attention and admiration of Pope Gregory XVI who gave him St. Valentine relics in a reliquary with the pope’s emblem on it. It is the center of attention at this time of year at Whitefriars Street Church in Dublin, according to a Feb. 14, 2023, account to be found on the Irish Post website. I just love finding an Irish connection in tales I read.
I could reach back to the Grammys to find a musical reference to the saint of the month and the holiday we love, but not in the lyrics of the new talent. I’d opt for the memorial tribute to Tony Bennett, with Stevie Wonder singing “For Once in My Life” or “The Best is Yet to Come.”
But I think I’ll go with a grand dame of music, Joni Mitchell, who returned to the Grammy stage at 80 years of age and sang “Both Sides Now” from her 1969 album.
No room here, sorry. But I’m singing it to myself.
