I’m slowly reading -and loving- Mary Beard’s “SPQR” while also perusing a theologian’s take on desire. Also watched a couple good movies: “Les Miserables” (1998 version) and “Dick Johnson Is Dead.” Both are worth a watch, but good heavens “Dick Johnson Is Dead” is a moving tribute by his filmmaker daughter. Dick is a widower, retired psychiatrist, God-loving, present-inhabiting, devoted father who is losing his memories to dementia. It’s an offbeat documentary, but it inhabits Dick’s ceaseless love of life and family. It is proof that the world is populated by extraordinary people. We just need to do a better job of being present to that reality…like Dick.
Two good things for the ears:
- Jimi Hendrix’s long-lost, but now found, recording of a Joni Mitchell concert, which can be read about & listened to HERE
- The Choir of King’s College Cambridge singing “Ubi caritas et amor,” which can be listened to HERE
I had the privilege of celebrating this Ash Wednesday at King’s College Chapel. It is a grand place to kick off the Easter season. I arrived early hoping to get a seat on the choir-side of the chapel, and as luck had it I was seated just a few feet from them. The choir and clergy processed in, incense and all, and broke into song, departing from evensong’s customary liturgy. The service was a sliver of God’s grace as people from around the world took part in the solemn service. The choir sung “Ubi caritas,” a hymn dating to 796. Translations vary, but my favorite is, “Where charity and love are, God is there.” I can’t imagine a better summary of Easter’s promise than that.
Long live Dick Johnson.
