I’m pretty dumb about Pergolesi. This piece is news to me. The music, the performance, the people and the setting are all very pretty. It’s almost like Lent ain’t that bad.
This being Ash Wednesday I had to come up with something to give up for Lent. Somehow I lit on sarcasm. I’d give up sarcasm for Lent. (Except for Jesuit Watch.)
I was doing pretty well until I tried to get into a check out line at the supermarket, around 3:30pm. As I wheeled my cart into place I got whacked in the ankle and thigh by the cart of a 50-something Asian woman who felt the space in line was hers.
I stopped and she continued and aced me out. There were at least ten people within earshot.
“Oh, you first, don’t mind me,” I said in a voice that commanded attention. The woman turned slightly toward me and I saw a smudge on her forehead.
“Oh, the ashes,” I said loudly. “So you’re a Catholic woman. Of course it’s ok for Christian’s to run you over with their carts.”
“Those Christians,” I said, “they always ask themselves ‘What would Jesus do?’”
Nobody had the guts to look at me. I stood there and glowered at her. I had moved to the next line and I eventually got out before the ash lady.
So my give-up-for-Lent lasted only eight or nine hours. I shouldn’t be too mad at the Catholic lady. I wasn’t going to be sarcasm free for forty whole days, so better to get it over with sooner rather than later.
You know what I do when I fail to live up to a resolution like this? I tell myself that when Lent comes around next year I’ll try to do better. So much for this year, though.
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My old UC Santa Barbara French Professor friend, Jack Murray, gave me an LP for Christmas of the Pergolesi "Stabat Mater" about thirty years ago with a "Don't worry, it's an UP Stabat Mater." And boy, was he ever right!
ReplyDeleteWikipedia says he lived only 26 years. Maybe it's just a "youthful" Stabat Mater.
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