Wednesday October 5 Work-day mid-week — time for dancing
An hour or so ago I was still rubbing sleep around my eyes and looking out my window to the city’s morning traffic and early sunshine. When I heard children chanting somewhere around the campus, I poked my head out the window and, sure enough, a playful, imprecise column of grade school students were dancing along the sidewalk in front of the university’s McNichols front gate. I’m guessing they were kids from the Gesu School across the street, part of the Jesuit parish that is a close neighbor to the university. I kissed my hand to the kids and their teachers; they gave me a playful entrance to this month before the November election that is wearing me out, wearing lots of us out, with anger and anxiety and moral fatigue.
The children’s improbable marching song still makes me smile. I had the children in mind when I went looking back to October posts two years ago for some autumn sounds and sights. Look what I found from two years less 5 days ago? Can’t imagine a better post to remind the “Work Day in a Hard Time” poetry list’s 2207 members (31 countries) of our various neighborhoods’ capacity for surprise and joy, no matter our burdens. While you watch/listen to these 4:53 minutes of dancing, pay attention to the captions naming the places where people dance on the video. I’ve never met “Matt,” but watching him end the clip dancing alongside his partner and their very young child makes me think good thoughts about him.
I almost always end by encouraging readers to read a poem out loud, with pauses. No need for that today. If you can listen and watch the video without dancing and laughing or bouncing in your desk chair, and . . . . well behaving like that irregular column of children were doing in front of our campus about 90 minutes ago, maybe you will want to play it again when you can take another 5 minutes.
Have a blest day,
john sj
Posted Friday, October 10, 2014
To match the two Matisse paintings 1909 & 1910, listen to this 4:53 YouTube “Where the hell is Matt?” Treat it like a poem. Probably an ad you have to click through first.
[jwplayer mediaid=”835″]
Matisse 1909 Matisse 1910
