Here are object lessons to priests and servers who make mistakes. We go one. Don’t lose your cool, move on. Deal with it. Keep moving forward.
I saw a video that most of you have seen by now of James Taylor screwing up the beginning of the Star Spangled Banner. He launched into America The Beautiful first and then, realizing he was off, made the switch and continued. Some people think “fail!”. I don’t. Hey! Mistakes happen. You go on. How you handle screw ups is telling.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jM6mFDZsqIA&feature=player_embedded
With a tip of the biretta to Damien Thompson, at whose page I saw this, you have got to watch this video.
To set the scene piainst Maria Joao Pires is set to play for a lunch concert Amsterdam’s Concertgebouworkest conducted by Riccardo Chailly. She is expecting a different Mozart concerto than the the one the band plays! Surprise!
What to do?
Does she panic? No. Well… a little. But then she works like a pro.
After the relevant part, there is a little more on an irrelevant topic, interesting enough but… not ad rem.
We little humans make mistakes. Errare est humanum. How we recover and deal with the new situation on the ground is all.
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Father, I am wondering why the bishop of Kansas City has allowed The National Catholic Reporter to continue to undermine the teaching of Christ’s Church? Do you expect this behavior to continue, or will the bishop have the courage to admit his mistake and inform those at The National Catholic Reporter they must refrain from misrepresenting our Catholic Faith by claiming to be Catholic and in communion with Christ and His One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church?
http://ncronline.org/news/politics/gay-marriage-foes-change-their-tactics-not-their-tune
I actually thought that he meant to do that.” O beautiful” is the natural response to our country and flag. O beautus !
Re: the Maria Joao Pires playing the Mozart concerto: some performers would have burst into tears and left the stage. Some would have thrown a temper tantrum. Madam Pires stepped up like a true pro.
The old expression “this is what separates the men from the boys” (or in this case, “the women from the girls”) comes to mind.
Also, the saying, “grace under pressure!,” an admonition not to lose your cool, or to melt-down, or give up in trying circumstances, but to stay the course and give it your best.
Thanks for the reminder, Father!
P.S. I wish I knew how to say “Grace under pressure” in Latin.
Well, “America the Beautiful” OUGHT to be our national anthem, so he was just trying to set things right, I say.
Yes, I first saw this incident on Damian Thompson’s blog. I have admired Maria Joao Pires as a pianist for a long time now. Her name (Mary John Pires) has always made me wonder if her parents wanted a boy but got a girl instead…but they didn’t call her Maria Jesus!
She is a true professional.
This is true. When I was 10 I was playing a trumpet solo in our provincial music festival. The song was Clark’s “Trumpet Voluntary”. There is a run of 8th notes which is pretty simple to play and I could pretty much play it in my sleep, but for whatever reason my brain, fingers, and tongue stopped working together when it came time for my solo. Ii sounded like someone falling down the stairs while playing the trumpet. BUT! I quickly recovered and kept going. I still came in first and the adjudicator made a point to commend me for not stopping after my error and that I recovered and kept going.
That’s what Pete Kozma keeps telling Matheny.
James Taylor did a very classy save! Very professional.
News from Bombay, India. Not too recent an occurrence, but something I’ve just got to know now. The ordinary here, Oswald Cardinal Gracias, a member of the group-of-eight cardinals appointed by Francis, has taken a leaf out of the Bishop of Rome’s book and apparently written an almost apologetic and conciliatory letter to a gay rights group which took offence to a sermon given at a Catholic church wherein the priest preached about the sinfulness of homosexual lifestyles and opposed ‘gay-marriage’. I direct readers to the links below for the full story:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/13/oswald-gracias-queer-azaadi-mumbai_n_3914868.html
http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-news/Mumbai/Being-gay-not-a-sin-Mumbai-Archbishop/Article1-1119430.aspx
In other news from India, the Vatican has replaced the Bishop of Allahabad Isidore Fernandes (whose resignation had been accepted by Pope Benedict earlier this year). The resignation was under the terms of Canon 401.2 of the Code of Canon Law, which covers “ill health or some other grave cause.”
The bishop along with a dozen representatives from local Lutheran, Methodist and independent churches had in November 2012 ‘consecrated’ an evangelical megachurch leader, R B Lal, ‘bishop’. Pictures of the ceremony were published in a leading national daily leading to scandal and an uproar among the Catholic faithful. HE Bishop Fernandes received an honorary PhD from the Sam Higginbottom Institute of Agriculture, Technology & Sciences, Allahabad a mere 17 days later. The Vice Chairman of the Institute is none other than ‘Bishop’ Lal. This was widely seen as a reward for the RC bishop’s role in the consercration and installation. Pictures of the installation below:
http://www.shiats.edu.in/cons/cons_cerm.htm
Maria Pires is one of my very favorites. No one interprets Chopin’s Nocturns as distinctly or delicately as she.