The Civil Rights movement
in this country was a national event which forced many white American's to become somewhat aware of the pain that racism had caused for centuries among Black folks in this country. Listen to some of Martin Luther King's historic "I Have a Dream" speech and consider the pain he had contemplated and was working to transform. Then listen to the hymn "Lift Every Voice and Sing" often called the Black National Anthem and listen to the transformation in the words and the music.Take a look at this art which contemplates a variety of pain.
- Picasso's Old Guitarist--the crippling pains associated with arthritis and aging
- Van Gogh's Self Portrait--the pain associated with depression and mental illness
- Titian's St. Sebastian--the pain inflicted on other persons through torture
- Picasso's Guernica--pains of modern warfare (you may read about the images in the painting here.)
These next two items are the result of experiences of great loss in a fire. Turner's observation of one the most historically significant fires in British history changed his life and his way of painting. Thomas Merton's experience was less historically significant but moved him greatly as well. Think about how tragic experiences in your life have moved and changed you.
- Joseph Mallord William Turner The Burning of the Houses of Parliament (note that the link to two of his pictures of that title are near the bottom of the linked page.)
- Thomas Merton "Elegy for the Monastery Barn"
These compositions are expressions of loss and of growth through that loss. How do they move you?
- Imagine the isolation of working in Antarctica in frigid temperatures in the dark half the year and thousands of miles from your family and friends. Take a look at this photo collection and imagine yourself in such a place
- African-American Blues is music for people who are feeling "blue." (click on the word "blues" in the paragraph) Some of us only think of the blues as transitory times of sadness but now remember that as a musical genre it is a response to lifetimes of discrimination.
- This site contains contemporary versions of several hymns. I suggest you listen to "Be Thou My Vision Version 3" It is a joyful hymn but one that also recognizes a certain pain of separation and distance from God. It craves connection with God. If you don't know the words you can read them here but be careful not to let your machine open two midi files at once.
- Puccini's La Boheme (from Laura's Midi Heaven) is an opera telling the story of people in love yet so poor as to struggle to obtain food, medicine, and heat. as you may know the 1996 Broadway show Rent is a retelling of the story of this 1896 opera.
The preparation for the joy of Easter Sunday requires Christians to contemplate the pain of separation, loss, and death associated with Jesus' betrayal and crucifixion. For a guided meditation on this pain go here.
Each of the following is a reaction to close observation of death. The first is a personal reaction. The second is a historic way of leading a group to bring their personal pain into positive focus.
- Walt Whitman "To One Shortly to Die"
- From the Book of Common Prayer , "Ministration at the Time of Death" (note that this section continues over pages 462-66)
While in a Nazi prison awaiting execution, Lutheran Minister Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote about the pain of separation from those we love. from Letters and Papers from Prison.
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