"Michelle" by The Beatles

A song that has moved me for years, and it's moved millions of people, is Michelle, by The Beatles.  Why does it "get" us? Eli Siegel, the poet and philosopher who founded Aesthetic Realism in 1941, came to this enduring principle: "All beauty is a making one of opposites, and the making one of opposites is what we are going after in ourselves."

Beatles LP

1. Continuity and Change

Michelle begins with that lovely, steady, reassuring guitar introduction. Then you hear Paul McCartney singing, coming in on the same pitch -- but the key seems to have changed, and it feels like a new world, represented perhaps by the mysterious lady of France, Michelle! There's change and continuity, a feeling of wonder and yet rightness, and I think it's stunningly beautiful.  

Isn't this exactly what we are looking for in our lives -- to see the world as fresh, to find sudden new interest, while at the same time to feel there is continuity and security? We want to feel we can count on a friend, or a person we love, and we want to feel we can be counted on too.

This is what I hear in the very first bars of "Michelle." It thrills me every time! Even the guitar intro isn't only steady of course. The high note stays constant most of the way through, while the lower note is descending. 

2. Feeling and Precision 

As to the rest of the song, opposites I hear in particular are sameness and difference, logic and emotion, and strength and yearning; and the individual, represented by the lead singer, and the world, felt through the backup singers, instruments, and the steady beat. Play the song and see what you hear. 

I have to say something about Paul McCartney. His singing is some of the best of rock and roll. He conveys such large, warm, sincere emotion and he's so precise, careful, cultured even in the slower songs such as this one and Yesterday. He's right on pitch yet his voice is alive, vibrant, goes through things, and has you feel it all matters so much.

PS: I love it that it's in English and French. It's a second Entente Cordiale with a better purpose. Or maybe an Entente Amoureuse... 

The Beatles performing

Thomas Tallis & Good Will

This morning at choir we sang two magnificent pieces of music, one by Handel and the other by Tallis. I'm writing about the Tallis piece. I really didn't know Tallis at all, other than his name, until singing in the St. Boniface Choir with Benjamin Niemczyk, but I'm very grateful I do now. This is the third piece we've done of his, I think. Here is the beginning: 

Tallis, first five measures

Tallis is a master choral composer. I'm moved in particular by the way voices join and separate, agree and clash, rise and fall (both chromatically and dynamically). There is a reverence throughout. I'll give just one swift and pretty simple example, and it has to do with why I love choral singing. 

The sopranos begin, singing the word "O" on a. Then the other parts come in, singing the same syllable, "O," but where are the sopranos? They've gone to the next word, "Lord," yet their pitch still agrees with the basses and with what they, the sopranos, began with. However, the altos disagree; they have a different pitch, e, and the tenors have c. There are agreement and disagreement, meeting and leaving, and you feel these opposites as emotion and form as you sing or listen. Together, the four parts form a lovely, strong, somewhat sad a minor chord. The voice parts need each other in order to express this. 

Of course, the big things all the singers and all the parts agree on are the meter and the key. At least, we'd better!

As we were rehearsing, because of my study of Aesthetic Realism, I was consciously trying to match the sopranos' tone and pitch (an octave lower) and to encourage and strengthen them as I did. Choral music is always good will, which Eli Siegel defined as "the desire to have something else stronger and more beautiful, for this desire makes oneself stronger and more beautiful."  People don't know, because Aesthetic Realism is not widely known the way it should be, and I hope they will soon, that choral singing represents how we want to be every moment of our lives, singing or non-singing. That is one reason why I love it.  I am thankful to have learned about this in the class The Art of Singing: Technique and Feeling, taught by Carrie Wilson.  

Here is a link to a rendition I like of "O Lord, Give Thy Holy Spirit" by Thomas Tallis. 

Trees at Sunrise

This morning I was struck by the beauty of trees silhouetted against the sky before sunrise. Unfortunately I missed the few moments when there was a band of pink just above the horizon. (I had to feed some hungry cats!) Still, it was beautiful, and I took the best photograph I could. I was wondering, why did it affect me that way? According to Aesthetic Realism - and this is a principle I love and never get tired of quoting - "All beauty is a making one of opposites, and the making one of opposites is what we are going after in ourselves."   

Tree(s) at Sunrise. 

Three pairs of opposites I thought of are these: simplicity and complexity, point and width, pride and humility. 

1. Simplicity and Complexity

That tree (the main one in the photograph) is one living organism, and as it rises and the branches spreads out, you get a sense of unity developing, growing into many smaller boughs, branches, and twigs, with many directions. Every person is one self, one being, but with how much complexity! I have learned that the unifying principle for life is that our deepest desire is to honestly like and be fair to the world. (See Self and World, by Eli Siegel. Aesthetic Realism describes "the world" in this sense as all that is not ourselves). I like thinking about how I can like the world through all the things I do in a day. It gives both excitement and composure to one's life.  That tree stands for the way I want to be.

2. Point and Width
What affected me was not only the tree, but the tree against the early morning sky. The tree is in the foreground and has specificity, tangibility and immediacy. But the sky behind stretches out wide and away. You can't touch it. The photograph has both point and width. One thing I want to do better with is the way I can get focused on one thing and forget about the rest of the world. In the vista that affected me this morning, one object and the world added to each other's meaning, and this is a big encouragement. I feel so fortunate to know that in the world not me is the answer to the questions of my life. 

3. Pride and Humility
Going back to the tree itself, I love the way it rises grandly, massively, but with delicacy and humility. The way the branches spread out has a reaching quality. It reminds me of the lines by Robert Browning, 

Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp,Or what's a heaven for? 

Now there is a life lesson! 

Jasmine: Delicate & Powerful

I like jasmine very much. This is the jasmine plant that's currently in our kitchen. 

We brought it inside because it wouldn't survive the winter outside. It has a protective cage around it because our cats are most interested in soil from the garden and also in any live plants. 

Jasmine 1

One flower has just bloomed. The flowers of this type of jasmine are small, white, star-like. Here it is, gracefully rising up from the stem, safe behind the netting.   

Jasmine flower - side view

Jasmine shows one can be delicate or subtle and powerful at the same time. Its scent is fragrant and penetrating, spreading out through the room.  I am grateful to know from Aesthetic Realism that beauty is a oneness of opposites, and a guide for our lives. 

Jasmine flower close up 

Multnomah Falls, Oregon

These waterfalls are just thirty minutes from Portland, and they are spectacular. They put together power and grace, rest and motion, as the water hurtles over the edge and falls down hundreds of feet to the pools at the bottom. But it's the same water, whether tumbling pell-mell or eddying around easily at the base! Can we make such a graceful and seamless transition between our intense motion and our calm repose?!

Multnomah Falls 1

Multnomah Falls 2 

People visiting Multnomah Falls 1

People visiting Multnomah Falls 2

People visiting Multnomah Falls 3 

Tiger the Beautiful

Below is a photograph of one of the cats we are fortunate to share our home with - Tiger. I think cats are beautiful, and I think Tiger is particularly so. (Tiger is a girl, by the way). 

Eli Siegel is the person in all of history, culture, thought, who identified the central qualities or components of beauty in any work of art, object, or living thing - and why it matters for our lives. He stated this principle: "All beauty is a making one of opposites, and the making one of opposites is what we are going after in ourselves." 

Cats put together, among other opposites, strength and grace, ferocity and gentleness, domesticity and the untamed, sharp claws and cuddliness. A cat can look so at home curled up on a bed or on a radiator, but you never lose the feeling that you're close to something so wild and untamed.  

Tiger

Swing Boats, Secure & Free

This morning I was speaking via telephone with my 92-year-old mother in the UK. She loved gymnastics when she was a girl, and I remember that when she was well over 50 she would occasionally stand on her head in the living room!

Today she was telling me about "swing boats," which was something she and other girls did during gym class at the Girls Grammar School. It's done on the climbing ropes. (In fact I remember doing it too when I was in school). You grasp two adjoining ropes simultaneously, turn yourself upside down, and "hook" your feet, one around each rope. Then you swing yourself back and forth, still upside down, but holding tightly with those feet and with your arms.   

I asked her whether one reason she liked it was because she felt both secure and free as she did it. She said "Yes!" She said how great it felt to be swinging through space, and meanwhile her feet and to some extent her arms, were holding on firmly.

Smokey Robinson & a Cup of Joe

1. Smokey Robinson
This morning my wife, Ann, and I were drinking coffee in the kitchen when a lesser-known track by Smokey Robinson came on the radio. We got to talking about his voice, and I'm so glad to have a way, through Aesthetic Realism, to ask about why we're moved by a singer.

What is it about Smokey Robinson that affects people? Personally, I love Smokey Robinson's voice. It's silky-smooth; but isn't it also rough, edgy in a good way? If it was just smooth it would be nauseating, and if it were only rough it would be oppressive.

Smokey Robinson & the Miracles

I think Smokey Robinson is a terrific singer. When he sings you feel he really means the words he's singing. At his best - which is a lot of the time - he is passionate, caressing, critical, yearning, forthright. When I hear "The Tracks of My Tears," for instance, I'm struck by how he conveys big emotion eloquently. (And here's a shout-out to the wonderful Miracles!) He puts together the opposites not only of rough and smooth, but also thought and emotion. That's how I want to be in my life! How often do we  shuttle from being coldly calculating to having emotion that's sloppy and maybe self-centered? Like this song, we can have feeling and thought work together when, Aesthetic Realism explains, our purpose is like an artist's: to respect and be fair to the world.  


2. Coffee
As I'm writing this I'm amazed to realize that the reason I like coffee is related to why I think Smokey Robinson is so good!

My cup of coffee!

Coffee with milk, which is the way I like it, is warm, soothing, but also a bit critical, with a flavor that stimulates. Like Smokey Robinson's voice, it has an edge. And there's more to say about both Smokey Robinson and coffee.

Breakfast Has Wonder

Oatmeal is a oneness of opposites: One and Many 

My breakfast oatmeal, like everything else in reality, is a oneness of opposites. For instance, it puts together the opposites of one and many. It is one  meal. It sits there, contained, in the bowl, and it's more or less the same all the way through. But it has many little bits, not just the oatmeal itself, but the other ingredients I put in which add to both the flavor and the texture.

Oatmeal with dried fruit and nuts in a bowl

Sameness and Difference

I like oatmeal with a little brown sugar, and dried fruit, including golden raisins, tart cherries, and cranberries. These ingredients (plus of course the water that went into the oatmeal before it was cooked) are different, but they go together so well. So far we have one and many, sameness and difference. 

The dried fruit expands after you add it to the porridge that's already been cooking in the saucepan. Oatmeal on its own it is fairly chewy, at least it is the way I make it. It's thick and has a steady consistency; but with those golden raisins (sultanas), tart cherries, and cranberries there are sudden, delicious bursts of flavor. Then I add sliced almonds on top. The meal puts together the opposites of rough and smooth, exciting and everyday. 

Oatmeal showing companion jar of sliced almonds. Mmm!

These are the world's opposites. The world is one and many, sameness and difference, the everyday and the notable. New York City certainly is! 

The weather has these opposites. The temperature can seem to be much the same for a while, but then can suddenly dip or rise, and we all notice it - particularly with the worry about global warming.

Our lives have these opposites. We judge ourselves on our integrity, or lack of it. We can feel too scattered, and also too stuck, too much the same. We also to feel flexible, able to welcome a multitude of new experiences; and yet be unified. We want to see excitement in reality and also that there are things we can count on. 

I'm trying to convey the fact that as  you study Aesthetic Realism you come to see the world with more wonder and as making sense in a new way. 

When you see that the ordinary things you have to do with in your daily life put together the opposites that are of reality itself, and that you're trying to make sense of in yourself, this awareness gives your life both excitement and composure. In fact, one definition Eli Siegel gave of happiness is "dynamic tranquility."   

Studying Aesthetic Realism has me see the world itself has more meaning and wonder than I had any idea of before I knew about its principles. And yes, my life is happy. That's why I originally called this blog "Journal of a Fortunate Man." I recommend this study to you too.   

Tomorrow: coffee!