The Sound of Hope

This article is certainly worth sharing:

http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=12460

Tonality

Tonality, my friends, is like the circus.

Or, perhaps, I should say that "the evolution of musical language is like the circus."

Musically speaking, there are circus clowns, contortionists, and lion-tamers.

There are the circus-freaks, the ones we oogle at in wonder and pity.

There is the sword-eater, who wonders why we cannot eat swords as well.

There are, of course, the bystanders: they merely sit to the side and clap. After all, the show is for them. (Unfortunately, some composers get lost in this crowd.)

Then there is the trapeze artist. Somewhere along the way, men and women began to defy gravity and hurtle themselves brilliantly through the air, risking it all to create a higher poetry of motion.

The trapeze is probably the highlight of the classic circus: it pushes things to the limit.

Then, somwhere along the line, some trapeze-artists decided to remove the safety net beneath them. We watched in mixed wonder and horror as they tried to defy gravity, oblivious to the ground below.

We clap, relieved when the show is over. When one falls, however, our pity is limited. It's a shame, really, but it was their own pride which removed the net.

Your Pope.

The arrival of Pope Benedict XVI in the United States this week will bring with it a renewed attention, excitement, and criticism of the Church. With the arrival of Benedict, some will rejoice, others will feign indifference, while still others will comment that the Papacy is an irrelevant institution.

If you fall into the last two groups, I will state simply: The Pope matters. Perhaps more than ever.

If the Pope didn't matter, the otherwise anti-Catholic media wouldn't bother covering his arrival with such detail.

If the Pope didn't matter, he wouldn't be meeting with the President of the United States or addressing the United Nations.

If the Pope didn't matter, bigot clubs from Pride to the Westboro Baptist Church wouldn't be there to protest his visit.

If the Pope didn't matter, loony-left spokesmen like Bill Maher wouldn't be spreading lies on the air before his arrival.

If the Pope didn't matter, Rosie O'Donnell wouldn't be so mad.

If the Pope didn't matter, Yankee stadium would not be full for the celebration of the Mass.

The Pope matters, my dear friends. If John Paul the Great gave the Church her humanism back, he did it with an eye to move her back towards her Orthodox roots. Benedict XVI has quietly but surely forwarded this agenda, knowing that only in Orthodoxy is there truth, and only in Orthodoxy does the Church have her true strength.

The diminutive German theologian has confounded those fearing his famed "bulldog conservatism," deflecting their fears with a disarming smile. His work has been anything but indirect, however, and I think that history will reflect his quiet accomplishments.

Lastly, in a fragmented Christian world, only the Catholic Church has maintained an unmodified and uncompromising Christian vision and ethic for the entirety of her existence, regardless of what scoundrels may have occupied her posts. In a time when Churches are losing their moral ground to populist pressure and fragmenting as a result, the Pope stands once again at the helm of the faith. Liberals, bigots, and Church-haters know that if you silence the Pope, you conquer Christianity.

Historically speaking, modern critics and moral lunatics are small-fry compared to the extreme challenges previously weathered by Rome.

Benedict XVI will face his fiercest critics with a calm and assured smile this week. Knowing that his Church cannot be conquered, we can now understand the source of his quiet confidence.

Kane and Toews: April Powers

For the first time in almost ten years, April is exciting. With only two games left in the season, the Blackhawks are alive.

For me, this week has been a hockey party.

Yes, their chances to make the playoffs are slim. Hope abides, however, and the 'Hawks are playing accordingly. For the first time in forever, I can cheer with hope for my favorite team in sports: such is the reward of loyal fandom.

Come Friday night, it could all be over. Come Sunday afternoon, they could be playing for their playoff lives, on national television, against the best team in hockey.

Loyal Hawks fans have outlived the reign of Wirtz, and his successor is proving to be a dream. The future is bright. Caesar is dead. Long live Caesar!

Nothing is more exciting than playoff hockey, and I'm glad to know that whether this year or the next, we'll get to be a part of it again.

This young Blackhawks team is the embodiment of everything that is good about being a professional sports fan, and we can only hope that their honest energy continues as they mature into a more consistent team.

No matter what happens, I'm going to enjoy it. This April has been a long time coming. If anything, this week will be our playoff.

We're Making History Together

It may very well be that when future generations look back on our times, these months may be seen as a major turning-point in history. We're changing society together, and the exciting and far-reaching effects of our mutual collaboration should be clear to all by now.

All thanks to facebook.

Think about it. The internet once was the sole domain of geniuses and uber-geeks. The twin advent of services such as America Online and Prodigy -- along with this interesting little program called a "browser" from Netscape, opened the door to an entire new reality.

For better or worse, the very tech-savvy activities that got poor geeks like me harassed in high-school quickly became part of the dominant social paradigm. Five years ago, who dated on the internet? Ten years ago, how many people even had access to email?

Services like myspace and facebook have opened the door to interconnectivity even further. It struck me today that facebook's "people you may know" feature may be the single greatest networking and reunion tool ever invented. Period.

It seems like everyday that I reconnect with somebody from my past, or link online with a current connection who I did not realize had a facebook account. A very simple bit of algorithmic programming is changing lives.

In the land of media, everything is in a tumult. Walk around New York, and that slight vibration you feel is the record industry shaking in their collective boots. Take the example of jazz artist Maria Schneider, who left her record label, went independent, made more money than she ever did as a signed artist, and proceeded to tour the country and win a grammy. It's only just starting. Thanks to the internet, the previously scoffed-at less-than-2% market share of Classical music is suddenly big business. It turns out that 2% is still a lot to cash in on, and small companies and private individuals are now competing to give musicians the best deal possible.

Caesar isn't dead, but he's on his way to a potentially fatal stroke. You know an empire is about to topple when they become brutal and repressive (thank you, RIAA.)

Your strange favorite band or niche interest is now an international and well-connected community.

Your best friend or crush from grade-school is only a quick away.

With all the moral abuse on the internet, it is wonderful to see that such a simple tool can come around and make the world a smaller, more well-connected place. The end results of such an event cannot be known. We can be certain, however, that this is history in the making. Just imagine: it's only going to move forward from here on out...