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Uplifting Thoughts for the Isolated and Depressed in Times of Plague

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I think I've posted this somewhere here before, but I ran across it this evening and just had to do it again. The Iko song is just so much fun that it always uplifts me. And the dancing girls are a lot of fun, too! That's me dancing a cameo as the Joker!

Then there is the original video by Captain Jack. Filmed on a small Caribbean Island, called Providencia (@windar )

You might prefer the performance by the group that made the song famous, the Dixie Cups

Or really go back to the original version, Jock-O-Mo (1953) by Sugar Boy Crawford on Checker records. Listen to the pure, smooth, R&B sound!
 
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Aaron Copland conducting the London Symphony Orchestra in his Academy Award-winning "Our Town Suite."

A reporter once asked Copland if he understood "what music is?" Copland, without a pause, answered, "Yes."
"Could you explain it to us in a few words," the reported followed up. Copland, without a pause, answered, "No."
 
It doesn't have to be music to be uplifting

tree-cloudy-sky.jpg
The Gardener, Looking
By Jessica Hornik

There — a ruby-throated hummingbird
in the raspberry beebalm, like a word
just now on the tip of your tongue.
The square inch of air it hovers in
is shirred, and when it flies, is bare.
Minutes later a hummingbird moth,
its wings like the froth of tiny waves.
Bird soul in insect body: an asterisk
on the summer garden’s beauty.

*

Now it’s November,
the beebalm and all
its company cut down,
the sky white,
the only iridescence
a blue Mylar balloon
caught in the crown
of the black maple.
 
Christopher Morley was a prolific writer. He founded the "Baker Street Irregulars." His novel, Kitty Foyle, was made into an Academy Award-winning film. When he died he left the following last message to his friends:

Read, every day, something no one else is reading. Think, every day, something no one else is thinking. Do, every day, something no one else would be silly enough to do. It is bad for the mind to continually be part of unanimity.
 
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Your quotation of Christopher Morley just reminded me of this "song" (?), which has some of the best advices I had ever heard in English on a German radio station:

Very Good. Of all his advice, the first was the most questionable. Today, many question the overuse of sunscreen as the importance of Vitamin D is seen to increase.
 
The iconic performance by Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash of Dylan's early work, "Girl From the North Country." The title always makes me wax longingly for the radiant @Eulalia from the Northern Forest. Largely borrowed from older folk tunes and songs, it is a simple, yet touching torch song about lost love.
The video is nice clips from "Silver Linings Playbook", a quirky movie about two damaged souls trying to connect. It features the gorgeous Jennifer Lawrence and several scenes in the Llanerch Diner, a place I knew well in my youth.
 
It is the Season for Most Uplifting Thoughts

The full lyrics by Christina Rossetti,

In the bleak mid-winter
Frosty wind made moan;
Earth stood hard as iron,
Water like a stone;
Snow had fallen, snow on snow,
Snow on snow,
In the bleak mid-winter
Long ago.

Our God, heaven cannot hold Him
Nor earth sustain,
Heaven and earth shall flee away
When He comes to reign:
In the bleak mid-winter
A stable-place sufficed
The Lord God Almighty —
Jesus Christ.

Enough for Him, whom cherubim
Worship night and day,
A breastful of milk
And a mangerful of hay;
Enough for Him, whom Angels
Fall down before,
The ox and ass and camel
Which adore.

Angels and Archangels
May have gathered there,
Cherubim and seraphim
Thronged the air;
But only His Mother
In her maiden bliss
Worshipped the Beloved
With a kiss.

What can I give Him,
Poor as I am? —
If I were a Shepherd
I would bring a lamb;
If I were a Wise Man
I would do my part, —
Yet what I can I give Him, —
Give my heart.
 
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I’ve just heard, it seems beyond doubt we’ve lost our Brother of the Quill, @Praefectus Praetorio . And I have little in the way of uplifting thoughts to share.
Perhaps just a piece of music, which I hope he would not have found distasteful.
“Come In” by Vladimir Martynov (b.1946)
“The staircase to heaven is inside you: it exists secretly in your heart.. All our deeds are but a timid knocking on a mysterious door. All our hopes are to hear, one day, perhaps, a voice that would respond: Come in!” ~Vladimir Martynov
 
Jauchzet, frohlocket!


A joyful Christmas to all our friendly family on the Forums!

And gratitude for having had the ever encouraging and uplifting company of our dear Praefectus Praetorio.
 
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