Redtree Times

Desire’s Passage– At Principle Gallery

Happiness is not a matter of intensity but of balance and order and rhythm and harmony.

–Thomas Merton, No Man is an Island (1955)

Some mornings I need to be electrified or kick-started into motion. I guess that would qualify as a sort of intensity as referred to in the words above from the estimable Thomas Merton. And as he points out, those mornings seldom bring any more satisfaction than those when I find myself in a state of calm and harmony.

So, for this morning, I am going to keep it simple. Minimalist, as it were. Just Merton’s observation, a painting from the current Small Works exhibit at the Principle Gallery and a song selection for this week’s Sunday Morning Music.

The song is Music For a Found Harmonium from the Penguin Cafe Orchestra, who are considered an avant-pop group whose music is often called minimalist which fits today’s theme. This song was composed in the early 1980’s when guitarist/band leader Simon Jeffes was staying in Kyoto after the  band’s tour of Japan in 1982. He came across an abandoned harmonium (a pump organ where air produced either by a foot or hand bellows moves over the reeds of the organ) on the street and moved it into the apartment in which he was staying. He often experimented with it during his time there and this piece resulted, reflecting his enchantment with his time in Kyoto. This tune has been used in a number of films, most notably in Napoleon Dynamite.

A harmonious way to start your Sunday.