Jims of Wyzdom for May 3, 2019

Cinco de Mayo Sunday: This Mexican holiday comes up this weekend, so go get some Mexican food. One or more of our local restaurants will have a small Mariachi band, so call first to find out which it is. My especial Mexican treat is the tamale…but no one locally makes their own. When we lived in Southern California, the local grocery stores all stocked them, and boy, are they good.

However often the thread may be torn out of your hands, you must develop enough patience to wind it up again and again. [Architect Walter Gropius]

Dialogue of the Carmelites: The final performance in this season’s Met in HD series will play at the Regal Hollywood cinema on May 11 at 12:00 PM. I’ve said Poulenc is one of our favorites, but we’ve never been able to see this one, though we’ve heard the story about how it ends…no spoilers here! Isabel Leonard stars.

I get up before anyone else in my household, not because sleep has deserted me in my advancing years, but because an intense eagerness to live draws me from my bed. [Writer Maurice Goudeket]

Bonnie and I are now officially in movie withdrawals, since there has not been a single film we really want to see come to our local cinemas! Watch for the fall announcement about Film Forum. The title is going to be “Coulda…Shoulda…Didn’t!” to reflect movies that should have played here but didn’t. I promise a thrilling line-up.

The once sacred churches have fallen into dust and ashes, yet even now we set our hearts eagerly upon money. We live as though we were doomed to die on the morrow, but we build houses as though we were going to live forever in the world. [St. Jerome]

WOW! The above quote speaks to me of Notre Dame and its recent attempt to be reduced to a large pile of ashes…but that failed. It saddens me to hear about the protests urging the billions it will take to restore this great symbol of France be spent on the poor, definitely a worthy cause for any well-off society, but even though less than 10% of Europeans go to church regularly, still, these great cathedrals are symbols of eternity, faith and love. Here, let me tell you a little story. Many years ago, a crumbling old Catholic church in Los Angeles was to be torn down and a fine new edifice put up. The protests started immediately upon the announcement and carried through the construction. Now this old church, St. Basil’s, was located next door to the Wilshire Blvd. Temple, the synagogue built by Rabbi Magnin for the Hollywood Jewish community. The temple offered to host the masses and other church related events for the two years of construction. So, the diocese’s Cardinal pressed on, the old church was demolished, and the new one went up. We got to be in that new church for the inaugural concert on the fine new organ. The new church was so amazingly designed, that it attracted all sorts of visitors in addition to its own parishioners. What we witnessed was the best of ecumenicism at work, two congregations working together to meet the powerful and, yes, expensive needs of faith. Both of these sacred spaces were on the “Miracle Mile” of Wilshire Blvd, home to more money than anyone can count and yet…and yet…miracles of the heart prevailed, and it inspired the building of one church and then the total renovation of the temple. Can we spend money better than this? Probably, but when so many people immediately stepped up to restore Notre Dame, it seems to me that the money we spend on inspiration, sacred space, beauty, and love should equal the contributions we make to our favorite cause or charity?

I have learned to read the papers calmly and not to hate the fools I read about. [Critic Edmund Wilson]

Until we meet again…

Jim