Wonderland or Not

No “best of” list here. No loo­king back.

The inte­lli­gent among us (you dear rea­der, myself inc­lu­ded), look back often enough throughout the year to prec­lude the need for a spe­cial end of the year analy­sis. We reflect end­lessly, and not in sel­fish iso­la­tion. Whether it be at lunches, din­ners out, con­fe­ren­ces, or family gathe­rings, at cof­fee with friends, or in our blogs, we con­gruently reins­pect the hap­pe­nings, news, music, and the horrors of each and every day. It is redun­dant, if not boring, to attempt to revi­sit them again due to the obli­ga­tion of tradition.

It was a good year with bad points. Here’s to back room extor­tion, and bri­bery on the golf cour­ses of con­gress, and to 2000 pages that should be bur­ned. A new year should be new.

I drink Laga­ria Mer­lot 2007 at my favo­rite Leba­nese res­tau­rant for 8 bucks a glass, or 28 dollars a bottle. I finally found someone to order it for me for 10.99 a bottle. A case more inex­pen­sive still. I want to thank the liquor store that finally agreed to spend an extra few minu­tes loo­king up the small dis­tri­bu­tor. I hit ten sto­res before someone took the time. I love you guys.

“New Year’s Eve“

“I have finished another year,” said God,
“In grey, green, white, and brown;
I have strewn the leaf upon the sod,
Sea­led up the worm within the clod,
And let the last sun down.”

“And what’s the good of it?” I said.
“What rea­sons made you call
From form­less void this earth we tread,
When nine-and-ninety can be read
Why nought should be at all?

“Yea, Sire; why sha­ped you us, ‘who in
This taber­nacle groan’ -
If ever a joy be found herein,
Such joy no man had wished to win
If he had never known!”

Then he: “My labours – logic­less -
You may explain; not I:
Sense-sealed I have wrought, without a guess
That I evol­ved a Cons­cious­ness
To ask for rea­sons why.

“Strange that ephe­me­ral crea­tu­res who
By my own orde­ring are,
Should see the short­ness of my view,
Use ethic tests I never knew,
Or made pro­vi­sion for!”

He sank to rapt­ness as of yore,
And ope­ning New Year’s Day
Wove it by rote as the­re­to­fore,
And went on wor­king ever­more
In his unwee­ting way.

Tho­mas Hardy

Yo Yo Ma and Friends, Dona Nobis Pacem

Enjoy.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Pla­yer (ver­sion 9 or above) is requi­red to play this audio clip. Down­load the latest ver­sion here. You also need to have JavaSc­ript ena­bled in your browser.

PS — sadly something hap­pe­ned — I dele­ted the post by mis­take and though I was able to get the post back the com­ments did not come back — I apo­lo­gize. The com­ments, as always, were the best part of the post.

Tags: Bach, Music, New Year, poetry, Thomas Hardy, wine, Yo Yo Ma

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 31st, 2009 at 1:04 am and is filed under Cooper Culture, Music, Society. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.