Discussion about this post

User's avatar
Montecito93108's avatar

Politic is a nasty business requiring thick skin and lots of money. It’s understandable why too many Americans hate politics, choose to avoid participation and their civic duty. To go public as an activist or politician at any level puts a target on your back, especially in single party controlled, retaliatory CA. It takes courage. Retirees are needed as ACTIVES on the front line outside of our comfort zones. The ‘Bubble Life’ is wonderful, but the future depends on our willingness to be called names. Simply consider the source; then stay focused on policy issues that matter.

Expand full comment
Polly Frost's avatar

Thank you, Brent, for another terrific column. As my Methodist granny used to say when things were rotten “Oh joy.” My ex's Jewish mom used to say “Oy veh.” They were saying the same thing.

Joy. It's interesting that in later life, Friedrich Schiller was down on his “Ode to Joy” poem calling it “detached from reality.” Interesting, too, that it's Beethoven's melody from his 9th Symphony that was adopted by the EU, not Schiller's poem. Was that because the poem is unabashedly religious in its last stanza, whereas with the music you can try to pretend it's not about God. Accent on “try.”

Be embraced, all ye millions!

With a kiss for all the world!

Brothers, beyond the stars

Surely dwells a loving Father.

Do you kneel before Him, oh millions?

Do you feel the Creator's presence?

Seek Him beyond the stars!

He must dwell beyond the stars.

The Ode to Joy is not about joy independent of the Creator. It is not about humans being able to dictate joy. It's about the fact that joy is only possible through surrender to the Higher Power. Joy does not belong in the Communist dictionary.

Shortly after Trump was elected my husband and I were at a dinner party. Everyone at the table was upset about Trump. Everyone was upset about Brexit. Except me and my hubby. But we had refrained from wearing our MAGA hats and we kept sombre faces. A lovely elderly woman stood up, took out her harmonica and played “Ode to Joy.” The other people at the table brushed away tears.

I wanted to start a conversation about Beethoven. I wanted to talk about a couple of things. About how Beethoven was prone to changing his mind - for example, at first he hero worshipped Napoleon, then hated him. Would Beethoven have approved of the EU using his aria? I've played (badly, I'm a lousy pianist) through and studied a lot of his music, especially the late works, which sublimely call upon both JS Bach and romanticism. I also read a great deal about him as a person. He didn't like group think. He was one perverse guy. And I doubt he'd have liked these people bemoaning the EU. I think Beethoven would have liked the EU at first, but would have felt betrayed as it became more interested in its own power as an organization than in saving Europe from tyranny.

But there's something else I wanted to say. Beethoven's “Ode to Joy” is one of the most beloved melodies ever written. Yet Beethoven was not an easy melody writer like Mozart or Handel. As Igor Stravinsky said, he struggled with writing melodies. And that's what makes the “Ode to Joy” so moving. The melody starts and stops. And then it soars. It's a heroic melodic journey to achieve joy. And when it breaks out, it is God who Beethoven is channeling, and suddenly the struggle is over and Beethoven allows us to feel the presence of the divine.

I kept myself from starting a fight and said none of those things. But what is meant by “joy” in Beethoven's music is that struggle to be in the presence of the divine. And the Communist Democrats who have renounced the divine will never own that word.

Expand full comment
31 more comments...

No posts