I had an entirely different post written for Thanksgiving but in searching for something else, I found the libretto for "The Promise of Living" from Aaron Copland's opera "The Tender Land." It seems more fitting...
The promise of living With hope and thanksgiving Is born of our loving Our friends and our labor.
The promise of growing With faith and with knowing Is born of our sharing Our love with our neighbor.
The promise of loving The promise of growing Is born of our singing In joy and thanksgiving.
For many a year I’ve know these field And know all the work that makes them yield. Are you ready to lend a hand? We’re ready to work, we’re ready to lend a hand.
By working together we’ll bring in the harvest, the blessings of harvest.
We plow plant each row with seeds of grain, And Providence sends us the sun and the rain. By lending a arm Bring out the blessings of harvest. Give thanks there was sunshine, Give thanks there was rain, Give thanks e have hands To deliver the grain.
O let us be joyful, O let us be grateful to the Lord For his blessing.
The promise of living The promise of growing The promise of ending Is labor and sharing and loving.
****
(While I love the libretto, I actually prefer the instrumental version... I also have a weakness for old home movies... even when they're not my own...)
It's the season of disguises and secret identities and I am thrilled that my not-so-secret alter-ego will be blogging in support of one of my favourite organizations
On October 30 and 31st, with the help of some mad scientists, the Charlotte Street Arts Centre will be transformed into a haunted house. Over the course of the two days there will be events for the whole families from haunted house tours for the kids to a battle of the bands for high school students to a Danse Macabre for the grown-ups.
There's a lot of great stories and people behind this new fundraiser and in the lead up to the event I will be blogging about them here.
Just before we left the orchard yesterday, we heard the roar of a prop engine and saw this strange vehicle rolling across the horizon. And as we were all trying to figure out what it was, it took to the sky... I think every person, young and old, on the hillside stopped and watched in a mixture of awe and delight. My friends' daughter put it best: "It's Chitty-Chitty Bang-Bang."
It was the kind of thing that seemed more likely to happen in the world of Roald Dahl than here in our little corner of the world.
It's hard to be cynical in a world that surprises you with stupendous flying machines.