Super Bowl Ad

I didn't get to watch the Super Bowl yesterday due to an orchestra rehearsal I was in all evening (I know, lame), but I did take some time this evening to watch the much-discussed Focus on the Family advertisement featuring Tim Tebow that aired last night.

My favorite article I've read about this subtle pro-life ad is actually one written by a pro-choice author, Sally Jenkins for The Washington Post. She delivered a solid defense of the 30-second ad that's both powerful and humorous.

"Tebow's 30-second ad...has provoked "The National Organization for Women Who Only Think Like Us" to reveal something important about themselves: They aren't actually "pro-choice" so much as they are pro-abortion. Pam Tebow has a genuine pro-choice story to tell. She got pregnant in 1987, post-Roe v. Wade, and while on a Christian mission in the Philippines, she contracted a tropical ailment. Doctors advised her the pregnancy could be dangerous, but she exercised her freedom of choice and now, 20-some years later, the outcome of that choice is her beauteous Heisman Trophy winner son, a chaste, proselytizing evangelical."

"Apparently NOW feels this commercial is an inappropriate message for America to see for 30 seconds, but women in bikinis selling beer is the right one. I would like to meet the genius at NOW who made that decision. On second thought, no, I wouldn't."

I appreciate the way the author addresses the role of guys and fathers in the issues surrounding abortion:

"You know what we really need more of? Famous guys who aren't embarrassed to practice sexual restraint, and to say it out loud. If we had more of those, women might have fewer abortions. See, the best way to deal with unwanted pregnancy is to not get the sperm in the egg and the egg implanted to begin with, and that is an issue for men, too -- and they should step up to that."

You know, abortion is an issue that is at once both simple and complicated. Simple if you believe that life begins at conception, and abortion is killing of innocents. But complicated because it is women whose lives are changed forever by unplanned pregnancies - young girls who will never finish high school, never go to college, never be able to provide all they dreamed of for their children should they decide to keep them and raise them. And we are a society without enough support systems in place to help those girls succeed when they make the decision to keep their babies. And it is women who live with the guilt, to a far greater degree, should they decide to terminate their pregnancies. Because women are the ones with uteruses (uteri?). Any article that calls men to step up to the plate and accept a greater degree of responsibility wins points in my book.

"Tebow's ad, by the way, never mentions abortion... It simply has the theme "Celebrate Family, Celebrate Life." This is what NOW has labeled "extraordinarily offensive and demeaning." But if there is any demeaning here, it's coming from NOW, via the suggestion that these aren't real questions, and that we as a Super Bowl audience are too stupid or too disinterested to handle them on game day."

An interesting article, all in all - worth reading.

Pop Music

Me (singing to myself absentmindedly in the kitchen): "Aaaaaaare you in? Living in sin is the new thing..."

Nathan: What in the world are you singing about?

Me: Sorry, it was on the radio and it got stuck in my head.

Nathan: Living in sin? What kind of lyrics are those?

Me: Um, what do you think pop music is about?

Nathan: Oh, right.

Vegetarian...Definitely

Today marks a year since I became a vegetarian, and it's been such a positive change in my life that I thought it merited a post.

I hardly ever get headaches anymore.

I have more energy.

I feel better.

I've become more aware of issues surrounding the treatment of animals, and that awareness has led to more compassion and a greater sense of responsibility as a Christian to care for God's creatures and the planet he gave us.

I've only gotten sick once all year, and that was a mild little cold that only lasted a day or two. (I deal with sick children all the time since I'm a teacher, and not catching all the colds and flus has been fantastic! I used to get sick pretty frequently.)

I've lost weight (if you want to know how much, you can ask me), even though I have less time for exercise now than I used to.

I've learned a lot about nutrition.

And of course, I think vegetarian/vegan food is really delicious.

I actually eat an almost-vegan diet, since I'm lactose intolerant, and I've never liked dairy or eggs anyway. I do think that choosing to be vegan is a really admirable thing, but it takes such a high level of commitment to keep to that kind of diet when you're out at a restaurant or at a friend's. I avoid animal products when I'm cooking for myself at home, but I haven't made the leap to real veganism, although maybe someday I will.

I realize vegetarianism isn't for everyone. My Dad, for example, now adheres to the Specific Carbohydrate Diet for health reasons, and has never felt better. He eats meat but can't eat grains, and rarely eats fruit. So I'm not trying to claim that it's the best for everyone, or that it will work miracles for you like it has for me (although it might).

But I'm a happier, healthier person than I was a year ago, and I think that kind of lifestyle change is worth mentioning.

Military Policy, Foxes, and Chickens

Nathan and I have been talking about Obama's call to repeal current UCMJ laws regarding homosexuals in the military. I said I could understand it as an issue of discrimination - why should homosexuals be prohibited from serving their country because of (from their perspective, although I understand that some religious stances disagree on this) who they are? Conversely, I also understand the position of many in the military who believe Obama's action, should he succeed, would weaken the military or misdirect military priorities to a political agenda in a time of war. Nathan looked at the issue in part from a standpoint of practicality and appropriateness when it comes to the logistics of life in the barracks. We discussed the various scenarios:

Sarah: You could put gay men with lesbian women.

Nathan: But then the gay men are still with each other, and likewise for the women. If heterosexual men and women sharing quarters is inappropriate, then that would be, too.

Sarah: Oh, right. Well, you could put the gay guys with the heterosexual women... No wait... You could put one gay guy... with the men... No... Hmm. I guess you could put one gay guy with one lesbian woman and create hundreds of individual barracks and showers. Man, this is as complicated as that logic problem where you have to get the fox, the chicken, and the grain across the river but you can't leave the fox alone with the chicken or the chicken alone with the grain!

(Nathan cracked up laughing at my comparison!)

Compliments From Students

I always get a kick out of the sometimes cute, sometimes sweet, sometimes hilarious things my students say to me. In the past two days I've received two very charming compliments worth remembering.

Yesterday students in a string quartet I'm coaching asked me if I wanted to be a school orchestra conductor. Their school's string director is retiring at the end of this year, and they practically begged me to apply for her position. I was so flattered!

Then early this afternoon five-year-old Katie came in to her private lesson and the first words out of her mouth were, "You're pretty."

Somehow moments like these make the out-of-tune notes I listen to every day 100% more bearable.

Tribune on Sugary Cereals

The Chicago Tribune says that big cereal companies are not keeping their promises to market healthier products to kids.

"Sugar content may have been reduced, but it is still high. Some cereals are up to 43 percent sugar. And because most people pour more than one 3/4-cup serving into a bowl, the amount of sugar consumed is often at least twice the amount listed on the box.

"Making incremental changes in the ingredients to an unhealthy product doesn't make it healthy," Harris said. "General Mills makes a big deal about whole grain in their cereals, but most of the products have 1 or 2 grams of fiber and more sugar than whole grain. It makes people think the product is healthier than it is."

General Mills stands by its assertion that sweetened cereal such as Cocoa Puffs can be a nutritious way to start the day when served with skim milk."

In addition to talking about the obvious nutritional pitfalls of the cold cereal aisle, the article delves into companies' marketing schemes, and how children are specifically targeted:

"Parents, of course, can say "no" when their children beg for sugary cereal. But it's hardly a level playing field, as there is virtually no marketing of healthy food to kids, said Dale Kunkel, a professor of communications at the University of Arizona and a member of the Institute of Medicine's Food and Nutrition Board.

A child would have to watch 10 hours of television before she saw one ad for healthy food, Kunkel said. "During that same time they'd see 75 other ads, 55 in the poorest nutritional category," he said.

Young children, meanwhile, don't understand that advertising information is biased or that the ads are trying to persuade them to do something, Kunkel said.

"Children hear ads the same way we hear a news reader on CNN," he said."

(Sounds like less T.V. would solve a lot of cereal battles!)

I've mentioned before that the American Heart Association now suggests women limit their added sugar intake to no more than 6 tsp. a day (and 9 tsp. a day for men).

Since 4 grams of sugar is equal to 1 tsp, and many of the cereals in question contain around 12 grams of sugar per serving, even if children were limiting their portions to the serving size, they'd be having at least 3 tsp. of added sugar in their first meal of the day alone - and very little of nutritional value to go along with it. Frightening!

A Poverty Story

Ashleigh posted a link on her charming blog to an op-ed by David Brooks on the subject of Haiti: The Underlying Tragedy.

"This is not a natural disaster story. This is a poverty story. It’s a story about poorly constructed buildings, bad infrastructure and terrible public services."

That quote reminds me of very similar words spoken by my husband when I first told him about the earthquake. He said, with compassion, that when natural disasters strike third world countries, the results are almost always devastating.

There is a bigger problem that needs to be solved than aid for today, although that is terribly important. How can Haiti have safer, more secure tomorrows?

Massachusetts: The Brown State!

Yesterday was certainly an historic day for Massachusetts and for the whole country. My true-blue state elected a Republican to the U.S. Senate! Nathan and I voted in the morning, and then went about our usual day's work. At 8 p.m. we turned on the news to see the numbers start coming in. It didn't take long for Scott Brown to be a few percentage points ahead of Martha Coakley, and since city precincts are usually counted before suburban ones, we figured the numbers would only get better as the night went on. So... we drove into Boston to join the campaign party at the Park Plaza hotel! I had gotten a text message from the Brown campaign saying anyone and everyone could go join the party, and we figured, why not? This was history being made. We arrived in plenty of time for Coakley's concession and the ensuing celebration.

We didn't have our camera, so an iPhone photo of the two of us enjoying the festivities will have to suffice.


We enjoyed hearing Ayla Brown sing, meeting other Scott Brown supporters, and hearing the night's speeches.

After Brown's speech, it was getting late so we headed for home. As we walked out of the hotel lobby and onto the street, who should we see near a curb but Mitt Romney! We stood about three feet away from him, and I looked and Nathan and Nathan looked at me, and we both confirmed that yes, that was him in the flesh.

Sadly, he was talking on his cell phone, and we didn't want to be the kind of people who would interrupt a man's phone call, so we didn't say anything to him. (My brother - a Romney fan - couldn't believe me when I told him that. I think he's going to disown me.)

[Anyway, I didn't vote for him in the primaries, so it might have been awkward to talk to him.]

Of course liberals are saying it all comes down to Coakley's poorly-run campaign (and her campaign was indeed terrible), but I tend to agree with Hugh Hewitt's assessment:

This was not a stealth vote. The Democrat in this deep blue state did not lack for resources. The Senate Democrats provided the money. The president came on demand and cut the ads. The netroots were pulsing with unheeded appeals to voters.

The voters knew exactly what was on the line and they voted, decisively, against Obamacare. "It will raise taxes. It will hurt Medicare. It will destroy jobs. It will run us deeper into debt," Brown declared about Obamacare in his speech. "And we can do better!"

Nathan and I are happy and relieved at Brown's victory. For anyone living under a rock, the New York Times has a good summary of Brown's win and what it means for both political parties, for the Senate, and for our nation.

Haiti

This picture broke my heart:



In fact, all of these did, and they will break your heart, too.

No Pants Subway Ride 2k10

It appears that the ninth annual "No Pants Subway Ride," instituted and organized by Improv Everywhere, was a big success. Supposedly as many as 3,000 commuters participated this year in cities across the globe - exponential growth for an idea that started with just seven people in 2002. Participants climb aboard their morning commute as usual, and then calmly shed their pants. The main requirement is for people involved in the event to act as though nothing unusual is going on; many continue to sip their morning coffee or sit down and proceed to read the day's newspaper.


Most notable was the event's "home base" observance in New York City, but other improv groups organized branches of the event in other cities, such as Capitol Improv's version on the D.C. metro.

Would witnessing such an event make you smile, or shake your head with disapproval?

[I'd smile.]

Scott Brown for U.S. Senate

My Aunt sent me a link to a great article by Hugh Hewitt on the upcoming special election for senator: A Massachusetts Miracle? Hewitt writes,

"...[Scott Brown] is a Republican running for the Senate in Massachusetts. This is the special election to fill the seat held by the late Sen. Ted Kennedy, and the vote is on Jan. 19.

In any other state this year, Brown would be ahead of his opponent, Democratic Attorney General Martha Coakley, a conventional Bay State liberal who supports the failed stimulus bill, the takeover of health care and every other big-government push of Team Obama.

In any other year in this state, Brown would be behind by 30 points.

But he is within single digits and closing, held back only by a lack of funds and the stark reality of the political demographics of the commonwealth.

When Brown appeared on my radio show this week, he was upbeat and energized by an enormous populist surge across Massachusetts, where Obamacare is every bit as disliked as it is everywhere else in the United States.

Massachusetts already has universal care, thanks to the initiative sponsored by then-Gov. Mitt Romney of a few years back, so all of the massive new taxes in the federal takeover will buy Massachusetts citizens zip, even as seniors get hammered by the huge cuts to Medicare. If Brown wins, Obamacare is back to the drawing board, which is tempting many Bay State voters to take a hard look at Brown."

Read the whole article, and then check out Scott Brown's website.

This is the first time since I've lived in Massachusetts that I've felt like my candidate has a fighting chance, and my vote might make a difference.

Heidelberg Pick-Up Line

Says my good husband to me this evening,

"At the end of the day, my one comfort in life and in death is that my wife is a beautiful, beautiful woman."

That's the most romantic spinoff of the Heidelberg Catechism I've ever heard!

Winter Running

I propose a new Olympic event:

Running three miles in twenty-or-below degree weather on snowy, icy sidewalks while leaping and dodging the slippery parts and thereby avoiding falling on one's you-know-what.

I think I would do well in such an event.

Accidental Home Birth

Emily posted a link to Jenny's "Christmas Evie Miracle" story - an unplanned home birth beneath a Christmas tree!

"I am SO not a home birth kind of gal, but the experience was nothing short of life-changing and completely spiritual for me and my family."

On Trapping Small Animals

We have an animal problem in our house. Back when we were first moving in I had discovered a small pile of some sort of nuts in one of the upstairs closets, leading us to suspect that either the former owners liked to snack in dark corners or squirrels had been inside. As we settled in and the weather got colder, we could hear scratching sounds inside the walls at night. And then we started discovering new nut piles upstairs. Nathan, being a sensible fellow, set a Havahart trap. When that yielded no results, he added four spring traps all around the main upstairs room (currently that room is just being used for storage until we refinish the floors). Well, he checked those traps dutifully every night and every morning, but he didn't catch anything. Sometimes they were sprung, sometimes the peanut butter was even eaten, but no luck catching the squirrels.

Well, first on our to-do list upon returning home from our Christmas visit to California was to clean and organize the upstairs and try to find how these pests are getting into our house. We Lysol-ed everything and reorganized all our boxes of stored stuff. We really got a lot done!

Then, as I was going through a final box of clothes, I discovered that I had unwittingly done what Nathan could not do.

There was a dead animal in that box of clothes. (I may or may not have shrieked upon the discovery. Ahem.) Well, it was my box of clothes, and I was the one who found the critter, so I think it's fair to say that I trapped that animal with a cardboard box when Nathan could not do it with five elaborate traps - a situation I find quite humorous.

We aren't quite sure what this little fella is. (Or rather, was.) It's not one of the gray, fluffy-tailed squirrels I'm used to seeing, but I'm not sure it's uniformly red enough to be a red squirrel either. It's tail is quite skinny (although that could have something to do with being dead) and the hair on it's ears is not long. I don't think it could be a chipmunk, unless there are varieties of chipmunks with less defined stripes on their backs. For now I'm thinking it must be a red squirrel (a conclusion reached in part thanks to this helpful website), although it doesn't look like most of the red squirrels a Google image search turns up. If it is a red squirrel I feel rather badly, because apparently red squirrels are classified as endangered species, and here I went and killed one with a cardboard box.

Any thoughts on this guy's identity, friends?



(Apologies for the graphic images.)

And now, I'm off to launder everything that was in that box at least three times in a row.

NYC

You never know what you'll find when you decide to finally download the last four months of photos from your camera to your computer.

Our friends Dustin and Erica got married in October. Here's a fun picture of Nathan with Dustin - these two grew up together in Erie and then ended up at the same college.

After the (utterly fantastic) wedding reception, we spontaneously decided to stay in NJ for the night rather than driving home, and then go to NYC (my first time in the city) the next morning.

Our friend Marissa came with us:

It was a Sunday morning, so naturally, we wanted to go to church. We decided on "Smokey Mary's," and we enjoyed their service very much!

After church we wandered around to see the sights. Marissa has been to NYC lots of times, so she was a great tour guide.

Marissa is the dramatic soprano with a taste for Broadway flair:

I'm the straight-laced one with a violin strapped on my back. (I had played at the wedding the day before, so I had my violin with me. Yay backpack straps that make carrying that thing around all day a lot easier!)

New York City, you're so exciting.

Poor Marissa probably hadn't counted on the fact that Nathan and I are kind of ecclesiophiles (I may have made up this word), and we really love going to churches. So after lunch and some sight-seeing, we dragged her along to Evensong at St. Thomas church on Fifth Ave. It was glorious. Nathan took this picture because he loves pipe organs:

Marissa was a good sport about our unique choices in things to do in NYC.

What an enjoyable trip!


Being spontaneous is fun.

December Dreaming

Nathan, his brother Andrew, our friend Lisa, and I drove out to Erie, PA over the weekend to take part in a wonderful Christmas concert at my father-in-law's church. We had a great time visiting Nathan's family, but unfortunately we all picked up a bit of a cold bug to varying degrees, and started feeling under the weather as we were driving back to MA on Monday night. I'm particularly annoyed at this turn of events, because I had almost made it to February without getting sick, which would have marked a full year since becoming a vegetarian and given me all sorts of additional health-based veggie propaganda to add to my arsenal. Oh well.

Last night I went to bed with a sore throat and a stuffy head, only to have the night made worse by a vivid and lengthy dream of myself giving a violin lesson to my absolute worse student. The dream was all too real, and I seemed to hear clearly the wrong notes, missed accidentals, and poor bow control that are so characteristic of this student's lessons. I dreamed about teaching my worst student while I'm on vacation. As if being sick right before Christmas weren't bad enough.

Dude, dream gods, don't hit a girl while she's down.

"Stand for Christmas"

Have you heard about Focus on the Family's "Stand for Christmas" campaign? Their website boldly proclaims,

"We're asking YOU to decide which retailers are "Christmas-friendly." They want your patronage and your gift-shopping dollars, but do they openly recognize Christmas?"

The site allows users to leave comments on individual retailers, as well as ratings on a given store's degree of "Christmas-friendliness." These comments frequently use the word "offensive" to describe users' feelings upon being wished "Happy Holidays."

Here are a few charming comments left regarding American Eagle:

Comment Date: Dec 9 2009 4:34 PM
Rating: Christmas-Offensive
Comment: With a name like "American Eagle," one would think the company owners would be more AMERICAN-FRIENDLY. ...

(Wait, so Christmas is an American holiday? Silly me, this whole time I thought it originated in Bethlehem!)

Comment Date: Dec 8 2009 9:47 PM
Rating: Christmas-Offensive
Comment: ...No mention of Christmas. I don't shop there anymore.

(You're offended by not having Christmas mentioned? Honey, it would be offensive if they cursed the name of Jesus, but if you get offended by not having someone wish you a "Merry Christmas," you need therapy.)

Comment Date: Dec 14 2009 9:54 AM
Rating: Christmas-Offensive
Comment: Shopping in there this Christmas season was like shopping there any time of year....

(Some people are never happy. I bet this same person frequently complains about the over-commercialization of Christmas.)

Here are some comments about Old Navy:

Comment Date: Dec 14 2009 10:32 AM
Rating: Christmas-Offensive
Comment: I shopped both the Old Navy website and catalog for my family of 5 and presents for my 6 nieces and nephews. I found the blatant lack of Christmas to be completely offensive. I will actually not only NOT shop at Old Navy this season, but will not do so in the future as well.

(All it takes is a lack of overt Christmas-y-ness to offend you? Get a life.)

Comment Date: Dec 11 2009 3:03 PM
Rating: Christmas-Offensive
Comment: The "do-what-you-wannaka" ad was very offensive...

(Seriously? You're offended by a reference to Hanukkah? I could see how a Jewish person might find the seemingly flippant reference offensive, but you seem to be offended simply because it was an inclusive ad campaign!)

Comment Date: Dec 9 2009 4:02 PM
Rating: Christmas-Offensive
Comment: [Clerk]told me that they are told to say Happy Holidays...I will find a Christmas friendly store

("Happy Holidays" is such an unfriendly phrase.)


Comment Date: Dec 7 2009 11:01 AM
Rating: Christmas-Offensive
Comment: ...lack of Christmas spirit (i.e. advertising). I will be spending my Christmas dollars with your competitors. Merry Christmas!

(Of course, we all love being manipulated by faith-based advertising campaigns.)

Comment Date: Dec 8 2009 5:32 PM
Rating: Christmas-Offensive
Comment: I didn't see any mention of Christmas. which is sad because we used to really liked Old Navy. We won't be shopping there anymore.

(This is so absurd I can't even think of anything to add.)

Comment Date: Nov 30 2009 2:52 PM
Rating: Christmas-Offensive
Comment: I logged in to this sight to leave a positive feedback for Old Navy because in my local store I noticed the Merry Christmas tees and also gift cards with Merry Christmas on them, but I was unaware of the add including Christmas with Kwanza/soltice. So sad that they took one step forward and two giant leaps back.

(Yes, how offensive of them to include Christmas with Kwanzaa and solstice! Or excuse me, Kwanza and soltice. Whatever those are.)

Comment Date: Nov 30 2009 9:15 AM
Rating: Christmas-Offensive
Comment: Without the birth of Jesus Christ, there would be no "holiday." It's CHRISTMAS. So, MERRY CHRISTMAS

(Actually, I'm pretty sure it wasn't the baby Jesus who kept the oil lamp burning in the temple for eight days...)

Had enough of those crazy comments yet? I think I have.

Why are so many Christians intolerant towards the idea of wishing someone "Happy Holidays"? What's so wrong with being inclusive in how we celebrate the season? (And since when do we want the birth of a Savior to be some marketing ploy, anyway? Christians are always complaining about the commercialization of Christmas!)

Let's look at the facts. Sure, many people celebrate Kwanzaa, but I think it's fair to venture that the primary two holidays we're talking about when we wish someone "Happy Holidays" are Christmas (whether of the Jesus variety or the Santa variety) and Hanukkah. Do we really want to be intolerant of our Jewish brothers' and sisters' right to celebrate an important event in the history of Israel? Jesus was Jewish, and Paul tells us that as Christians we are "grafted" into that faith. It is our spiritual heritage. When we consider that, why aren't more Christians celebrating alongside Jews as they remember the rededication of the temple in Jerusalem and commemorate how God kept the oil lamp burning for eight days? This is not an "anti-Christian" holiday, and we shouldn't be offended by those who celebrate it, nor should we be offended by an inclusive clerk wishing us a "Happy holiday season." Hanukkah is a celebration that is pre-Christian in nature, but whether or not you believe that Judaism found its fullness in Christ as the Messiah, you should be able to sincerely wish your Jewish friends a Happy Hanukkah.

I have several Jewish violin students, and each year they complement my beautiful Christmas tree, give me Christmas gifts, and wish me a "Merry Christmas" this time of year. It would be unbelievably rude of me to not extend the same graciousness to their traditions and beliefs, and I'm glad I can sincerely and joyfully wish them a "Happy Hanukkah!" I enjoy hearing how they celebrate and love seeing their excitement when they talk about lighting the candles on their menorahs. Can you imagine if I insisted on wishing them a "Merry Christmas," simply because that's the holiday I'm celebrating this time of year? Yes, I may believe that Advent and Christmas are a time of celebrating the coming of the Messiah, but forcing it down peoples' throats isn't the best approach I can think of to celebrate this season.

When clerks wish you "Happy Holidays" this time of year, they're simply acknowledging that they don't know you personally and can't be sure of which holiday (or holidays!) you and your family choose to celebrate. But whatever you're celebrating, be it Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, or even winter solstice, they hope it's a happy one.

I'm okay with that, Focus on the Family. If you merely want Christmas to be included in how retailers acknowledge the season, then perhaps you should recognize that phrases like "Happy Holidays" and "Season's Greetings" are already inclusive and respectful of Christmas. (And the majority of America is celebrating Christmas, so you're not exactly left out of any festivities this time of year.) And if you insist that everyone acknowledge or celebrate your holiday specifically, then perhaps you're the ones giving offense - not the well-meaning people wishing you "Happy Holidays."

Marylou Speaker Churchill

I've been meaning to write a few words about Marylou Speaker Churchill ever since I found out about her death on November 11, the day after she passed away. I didn't know Mrs. Churchill well, but I studied with her for three weeks at a summer festival several years ago, and she was the kind of person who left an impression, no matter how briefly you knew her.

She was a member of the Boston Symphony Orchestra for 30 years, and principal second for 23 of those years.

I have a spiral bound collection of music she gave me that summer, with a yellow cover bearing the title "Basics, Opus 2" and her name at the bottom. The title and her name are printed, but the rest of the front cover is covered in words, too - her own writing. A few phrases stand out to me each time I look at this little booklet, but especially the words written across the top of the page: "Start with JOY!" You didn't have to know Mrs. Churchill long, or very well at all, to realize that that was how she approached not just the violin, but all of life - with joy.

Inside the front cover are about 15 pages of exercises excerpted from various violin methods - Schradieck, Korguoff, Dounis, Yost, Galamian, and a little Simon Fischer. There's also a page of charts covering frequencies, ratios, cents, decimals, etc. for complete chromatic scales in Pythagorean, Just, Mean-tone, and Equal-tempered systems of intonation. (It's quite complex and gives me a headache just to look at that page.) Every page in the book, every exercise, is the sort of thing that can kick your butt whether you're mediocre or excellent (actually, I don't know anything about being excellent, but I can imagine).

There's an excerpt from a presentation she gave to young musicians once that seems to sum up her personality and beliefs well - her deep faith, her personal conviction in all that she did, and her vibrant love of music and of people:

"It appears that the greatest concern of the young musician seeking an orchestral position is the belief in stage-fright or nerves. Assuming proper preparation and a good attitude (I have nothing to lose, I don't have the job so I can't lose it), the manifestation of a loss of control is simply fear; fear of not doing as well as you can. There is a law of this universe which is so simple and so powerful and it literally wipes this fear out of your being, and it is this... "perfect love casts out fear." If you are actively engaged in loving your instrument, loving the music, loving the audience, loving the committee, loving your enemies, then there is simply no room for fear of any kind, and you will find yourself playing better than you expected. To love is to live, and breathe, and sing, and play. Love then."

The New England Conservatory, where Mrs. Churchill taught, has a nice tribute to her life and work on their website, which you can read here.

Midway through that yellow-covered collection of music is the last movement from Messiaen's "Quartet for the End of Time." This movement, "Louange à l'Immortalité de Jésus," or "Praise to the Immortality of Jesus," is only for violin and piano, and she included it in a book otherwise consisting of exercises as an opportunity to focus on tone, bow distribution, vibrato, phrasing... well, there are endless things to think about with this piece. But I think she also just loved the piece and wanted to share her copy of the music with her students. [Edit to add: you can read Michael's musings on an impromptu collaboration with Mrs. Churchill on this very piece at his blog.]

At the top of the Messiaen, penciled in just below the title are two words written in large cursive: "all love."

You can listen to a recording of Mrs. Churchill playing this movement with pianist Veronica Jochum here. It's an incredibly moving performance that vividly demonstrates that love - of music, of people, of life - that she spoke about.

Olan Mills and Church Directories

The church where Nathan is employed is in the process of making a new church directory, complete with photos of those who belong to or attend the church. Olan Mills is taking all the photographs and has been calling us for weeks in an attempt to get us to schedule an appointment for a photo session.


Last night I sent the following email to the generic church email address:

Dear staff members at [church name],

I am writing to express my concern at the way contact information of church attendees has been shared with Olan Mills. Tonight marked the sixth phone call to our home phone during dinner hours.

I find it problematic for the church to give out our personal contact information to any company soliciting our time and business.

Thank you for your understanding,
[my full name]

(This was considerably toned down from my first draft, incidentally, which included words like "outrageous" and "unacceptable" and phrases like "I have told them on several occasions and in no uncertain terms that, had I wished to schedule an appointment, I would have done so.")

There's no way I'm the only person who finds this approach irritating, right? Right? But I got a reply from the church which essentially said, not, "We're so sorry we gave out your contact information to a solicitor and you've experienced this irritating situation," but instead (and I paraphrase), "We're sorry you have a problem with it, but we have no idea why, since church directories are THE BEST THINGS EVER and EVERYONE SHOULD WANT TO BE IN THEM."

Part of the email read,

"Olan Mills is only making calls to either confirm appointments or to schedule appointments so that our entire church family can participate in the new directory."

Right. I KNOW. That's what my email was about, their numerous calls to try to make me schedule an appointment. Why are you reiterating the problem as though it's a solution or explanation?

The announcements in the church bulletin every week for the past two months, and the announcements made from the pulpit in Sunday mornings have all made it clear to me that a directory is being made. Six phone calls crosses the line from nice "church family on Sunday morning" stuff to harassment. I get enough sales calls in the evenings without having to worry about having a church give out my personal contact information.

Seriously, am I the only person who finds this outrageous?