The beautiful English carol 'Tomorrow shall be my dancing day'

We attended an Advent concert yesterday, which was very nice--always a special way to usher in the Advent season. The choir sang this traditional English carol, which made such an impression on me that I wanted to share it with you. Beautiful to listen to. Ingegjerd Bagøien Moe was the soloist, and Uno Alexander Vesje the harpist who accompanied her; they were wonderful, as was the rest of the Tryllefløytene choir.

I went on YouTube to see if I could find the song, and happened upon a number of different renditions of it. This rendition particularly touched me, since it's a children's choir that performs it. I'm including the lyrics as well. The choir does not sing all of the verses; none of the different renditions seem to. Enjoy!

TOMORROW SHALL BE MY DANCING DAY  

Tomorrow shall be my dancing day;

I would my true love did so chance

To see the legend of my play,

To call my true love to my dance;

Chorus

Sing, oh! my love, oh! my love, my love, my love,

This have I done for my true love

Then was I born of a virgin pure,

Of her I took fleshly substance

Thus was I knit to man's nature

To call my true love to my dance. Chorus

In a manger laid, and wrapped I was

So very poor, this was my chance

Betwixt an ox and a silly poor ass

To call my true love to my dance. Chorus

Then afterwards baptized I was;

The Holy Ghost on me did glance,

My Father’s voice heard from above,

To call my true love to my dance. Chorus

Into the desert I was led,

Where I fasted without substance;

The Devil bade me make stones my bread,

To have me break my true love's dance. Chorus

The Jews on me they made great suit,

And with me made great variance,

Because they loved darkness rather than light,

To call my true love to my dance. Chorus

For thirty pence Judas me sold,

His covetousness for to advance:

Mark whom I kiss, the same do hold!

The same is he shall lead the dance. Chorus

Before Pilate the Jews me brought,

Where Barabbas had deliverance;

They scourged me and set me at nought,

Judged me to die to lead the dance. Chorus

Then on the cross hanged I was,

Where a spear my heart did glance;

There issued forth both water and blood,

To call my true love to my dance. Chorus

Then down to hell I took my way

For my true love's deliverance,

And rose again on the third day,

Up to my true love and the dance. Chorus

Then up to heaven I did ascend,

Where now I dwell in sure substance

On the right hand of God, that man

May come unto the general dance. Chorus

(written for St. Paul's by the English composer John Gardner)

Bits and pieces

The Christmas season is upon us, in a big way. The stores in Oslo were already decorated for Christmas in mid-November this year. My impression is that the Christmas season starts earlier with each year that passes. People need to have some ‘light’ in the midst of darkness; the sun sets earlier now and the darkness is like a smothering blanket at times. Luckily, we’ve had wonderful autumn weather this year, so it makes the drastic loss of light easier to bear. I attended the annual ‘customer evening’ in late November at my favorite department store in Oslo—Glasmagasinet; this is a gathering of (mostly) women who are VIP customers (those who spend a lot of money there during the year—like me!). It’s essentially a ploy to get us to spend even more money, by inviting us to share some tapas and wine on the store’s dime. Always an enjoyable evening and a good way to start my Christmas shopping. Glasmagasinet is a great store if you need to buy wedding and Christmas gifts. I shop at many other places, but Glasmagasinet has a special place in my heart, probably because it’s the first department store I walked into on my first trip to Oslo many years ago--December 1989 to be exact. The store, like Oslo, was decorated for Christmas and was very cozy. And despite its many changes during the past twenty-odd years, it still is a cozy store to wander around in. 

The stores in Oslo have also discovered ‘Black Friday’, and are marketing it for all it is worth, although the manic intensity of the American Black Friday will never be matched. They ‘celebrate’ it on the same day as in the USA, minus the holiday that precedes it though. I’m waiting for the Thanksgiving holiday to make its way into this culture. It would be fine with me, since the meaning of the holiday is not necessarily American in the sense of having a day to give thanks for the bounties and blessings that fill our lives. And since this country is filthy rich, it has a lot for which it should be thankful.

The nicest part of the day was my visit to a convent called Katarinahjemmet in Majorstua (an Oslo neighborhood), that was having a Christmas bake sale and bazaar. The reason for my visit was to spend some time with a young woman who works in my hospital department; she is in her mid-thirties and has decided to become a Dominican nun. Since we are both Catholic, she shared her decision to change her life with me some months ago, and was eager for me to visit what will be her new home as of January. She has quit her job at my hospital and will be starting as a novice at the convent in January. She was very glad that I visited her, and we agreed that I will visit again in January, and perhaps take a few co-workers with me, to get a tour of the convent and listen to a short talk about the founding of the convent and the daily lives of the nuns. Interestingly, the Nobel-prize winning Norwegian author Sigrid Undset, a Protestant who had converted to Catholicism, was instrumental in recruiting the Dominican nuns to Norway and in founding Katarinehjemmet. She was often a visitor to the convent and enjoyed being there. I must say that I too enjoyed being there; the convent has a nice air about it—bustling in some respects, but quiet and conducive to meditation as well.

On my walk back from the convent, I passed the building that formerly housed the Showtime video rental store where I used to rent DVDs; I wrote a post some months back about the closing of the store and how I would miss it. I still do. It is now an espresso café called Espresso House. I walked in, bought myself a cappuccino, sat down, and took a real good look around the place. I must say that they’ve done a good job at renovating the locale and creating an attractive coffee bar that is sure to become quite popular. It provides free wi-fi and plenty of seating. I look forward to just hanging out there for a few hours someday soon.

Finally, an update on Disqus and the impostor situation: I have notified Disqus and described the problem to them. They said that they would look at the situation. We will see what they aim to do about it. Frankly, I have little to no hope that anything will come of my complaint. What I have managed to do is to stop my impostor from commenting as rabidly as she or he had been doing before I found out that this charade was going on. That makes it easier for me to track her or his movements on the net. I have kept my cool so far and not gone ballistic. There would be little point in doing that anyway, even though I feel like behaving that way at times. Nothing will come of it. The world is such that one person does not matter an iota. One person’s problems do not matter an iota. And there are a huge number of people out there whose problems are life-threatening. Mine are not. So I have not lost my perspective about where my situation fits into the scheme of things overall. 

A beautiful song by Michael Kiwanuka--Tell Me A Tale

Here are the lyrics and video to one of my new favorite songs these days:

Tell Me A Tale

Tell me a tale that always was,

Sing me a song that I'll always be in,

Tell me a story that I can read,

Tell me a story that I believe.

Paint me a picture that I can see,

Give me a touch that I can feel,

Turn me around so I can be,

Everything I was meant to be.

Lord I need loving,

Lord I need good, good loving. [x2]

Show me some strength that I can use,

Give me a sound that I won't refuse,

Tell me story that I can read,

Tell me a story that I can believe

Tell me a tale that always was,

Sing me a song that I'll always be in,

Turn me around so I can be,

Everything I was meant to be.

Lord I need loving,

Lord I need good, good loving. [x4]

Songwriter(s): Paul James Butler, Michael Kiwanuka, Michael Samuel Kiwanuka

Copyright: Chrysalis Music Ltd., Warner/Chappell Music Publishing Ltd.

Education and Indoctrination---what Doris Lessing thought about them

Very interesting viewpoints from Doris Lessing, who passed away yesterday at the age of 94. Nobel Prize-winning novelist, short story writer, poet and playwright. Her 1988 book, The Fifth Child, was an unforgettable portrait of a family that ends up having to deal with a very unpleasant fifth child. It's a book that will stay with you for a long time afterward. 

“Ideally, what should be said to every child, repeatedly, throughout his or her school life is something like this: 'You are in the process of being indoctrinated. We have not yet evolved a system of education that is not a system of indoctrination. We are sorry, but it is the best we can do. What you are being taught here is an amalgam of current prejudice and the choices of this particular culture. The slightest look at history will show how impermanent these must be. You are being taught by people who have been able to accommodate themselves to a regime of thought laid down by their predecessors. It is a self-perpetuating system. Those of you who are more robust and individual than others will be encouraged to leave and find ways of educating yourself — educating your own judgements. Those that stay must remember, always, and all the time, that they are being moulded and patterned to fit into the narrow and particular needs of this particular society.”

― Doris Lessing, The Golden Notebook

Gratitude

We celebrated Thanksgiving early this year. It’s usually not possible to celebrate it on the same Thursday as in the USA, since Norway does not celebrate the holiday. Even if I wanted to celebrate it on the same day, I’d have to take that Thursday off from work, as would any of the guests who might want to join us for the festivities. So for the past twenty-three years I’ve usually celebrated on the weekend following Thanksgiving in the States. But since we already have plans for the next two weekends, today (Sunday) was our celebration. Just my husband and me this year; all our usual guests had other plans. I asked my husband how he would feel if I stopped celebrating the holiday, and he said he would miss it. It’s true; he would miss it, because it’s become a part of our annual holiday repertoire. He’s appreciative of the gestures I make to share my culture, as I am grateful for the gestures he makes to share his. Since I moved here, I’ve made it a point to keep on celebrating the holidays I celebrated when I lived in the USA---Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s, Valentine’s Day and Easter. Norwegians celebrate Christmas, New Year’s and Easter, so there’s pretty good overlap in terms of food and drink; in recent years Halloween and Valentine’s Day have become a part of their society, albeit on a much smaller commercial scale than in the USA. The Norwegian postal service offers some really nice Valentine’s Day stamps; I’ll have to scan in some of the first day covers for Valentine’s Day that I own and present them in a future post.  

It’s nice to have the holidays to look forward to and to prepare for each year. I might even say it’s become necessary for me to celebrate them. Doing so breaks up the long darkness that is winter here. I am grateful for the opportunity to be able to celebrate them. The winters are not much worse weather-wise than they were in New York; it’s the short days and the black darkness that get to you after a while. So the holidays are a way to get me through each dark month of winter. By the time Valentine’s Day is over, the darkness has lifted, and the promise of spring, summer and long sunlit days is in the air. In that sense, I am grateful for all the holidays each year; each holiday has its special charm. Thanksgiving especially is a holiday for reflection on all those things that we have to be grateful for. It is not about shopping or bargains or football, even though it may seem that way sometimes. It is about family and the ties that bind, about being thankful for them and for good friends. I remember when we were in our teens, our friends lived right around the corner, and after dinner, we hung out at each other’s houses or went for walks around the town. We always stopped in to say hello to our friends’ parents at some point. Those friends are still my friends today, my oldest and dearest friends, and I am grateful for their friendship. I couldn’t imagine my life without them. Thanksgiving is also about being thankful for the bounties that America enjoys. In that sense, Norway has much to be grateful for as well; its oil wealth is certainly a bounty. We don’t always realize that we are blessed; often we are too busy kvetching or constantly on the lookout for the next new thing that will better our lives. We actually have all that we need; we just need to appreciate our lives more, and appreciate the life around us.  

Quotes about meanness

I was thinking about meanness today, about how the world seems to have gotten much harder and meaner. How workplaces have also. Or have they always been so and it's just me whose eyes have been opened for good? It's best to focus on the positive in life, and I try to for the most part. But I cannot ignore the suffering and pain I see around me and much of it is the result of unkindness on the part of mean-spirited people who do not wish others well. The reasons for their meanness are no doubt many. I'm sure there are many explanations and excuses for their not aspiring to be kind people. So as I was reflecting on this topic today, I found these quotes about meanness. The first one especially is just as true today as when it was written in 1945 (from the book Cannery Row by John Steinbeck), perhaps more so now. Steinbeck is spot on with his description of the traits of success that we claim to detest, but oh how 'successful' individuals in society who possess these traits are held in awe. We tend to forget (or perhaps we just want to forget) that ‘making it’ in terms of success may involve behaviors that are not very nice at all. The last quote is one of my all-time favorites. 

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It has always seemed strange to me... the things we admire in men, kindness and generosity, openness, honesty, understanding and feeling, are the concomitants of failure in our system. And those traits we detest, sharpness, greed, acquisitiveness, meanness, egotism and self-interest, are the traits of success. And while men admire the quality of the first they love the produce of the second.

--John Steinbeck

Guard well within yourself that treasure, kindness. Know how to give without hesitation, how to lose without regret, how to acquire without meanness.

--George Sand

I consider nothing low but ignorance, vice, and meanness, characteristics generally found where the animal propensities predominate over the higher sentiments.

--William John Wills

Empathy is really the opposite of spiritual meanness. It's the capacity to understand that every war is both won and lost. And that someone else's pain is as meaningful as your own.

--Barbara Kingsolver

All the meanness, all the revenge, all the selfishness, all the cruelty, all the hatred, all the infamy of which the heart of man is capable, grew, blossomed and bore fruit in this one word, Hell.

--Robert Green Ingersoll

False greatness is unsociable and remote: conscious of its own frailty, it hides, or at least averts its face, and reveals itself only enough to create an illusion and not be recognized as the meanness that it really is. True greatness is free, kind, familiar and popular; it lets itself be touched and handled, it loses nothing by being seen at close quarters; the better one knows it, the more one admires it.

--Jean de la Bruyere

In a lifetime of observing and participating in political debate, I have seen a lot of meanness.

--Dennis Prager

Like the Earth, the Web is a less appealing place than it used to be. If I want attitude and arguing and meanness and profanity and wrong information screamed at me as gospel, I'll get in a time machine and spend Christmas with my family in 1977.

--J. R. Moehringer

Be nice to those you meet on the way up. They’re the same folks you’ll meet on the way down.

--Walter Winchell

Some pretty cool Halloween pumpkins

From the Street Art in Germany Facebook page---some great Halloween pumpkins that I didn't get a chance to post yesterday, but am posting today. Jean, check out the minions!!!

Post by StreetArt in Germany.

Post by StreetArt in Germany.

Post by StreetArt in Germany.

Autumn leaves

The trees in the park at Kjellands plass have shed a lot of their leaves, so I was out today with my camera and took more photos of the lovely autumn trees and leaves.....

The Headless Horseman leads the way

I’m sharing a pretty cool photo with you today; for those of you who grew up in Tarrytown or North Tarrytown (now Sleepy Hollow) New York, you’ll understand why I was so taken with this photo. It shows the Sleepy Hollow High School (SHHS) football team being led onto the field by the Headless Horseman (of the The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving fame). The Headless Horseman is apparently their mascot, and this photo was taken right before a recent game against their arch-rival—Ossining High School. They beat them 41 to 32, so that was good news for SHHS fans.

I grew up in Tarrytown as most of you know. My parents were big fans of the SHHS football team when we were growing up, so many Saturdays during the autumn found us in the bleachers watching the team play its season games. What I remember was the excitement and electricity in the air—that sense of life or death that can only be understood by die-hard sports fans. A bad call by a referee that led to our team’s defeat was the worst that could happen and was talked about for hours after the game. I remember the sounds of the players hitting and tackling each other, and the cheerleaders who led us in chants and songs. But what I also remember was freezing my butt off sitting in the bleachers in early November; I was dressed for the cold weather, but it’s tough to sit outdoors in the cold and rain, as often happened, for hours at a time. I remember feeling miserable and just wanting to go home on some occasions, which of course was what happened if it got too unbearable. But mostly, we were loyal supporters and a win by our team could make our day. The cold and rain were forgotten when our team won. I guess that’s how it should be; after all, the players and the cheerleaders were also cold and wet, but kept right on doing their jobs. There’s something to be said for that kind of dedication, and for that kind of loyalty on the part of the supporters. 

This photo was taken by photographer Patrick Tewey; check out his website at http://www.patricktewey.com/

Be the Best in Business: Managing Change: Does Urgency Create Resistance?

Did you ever wonder why some companies manage to change what needs to be changed within their organizations without alienating their employees, while others fail miserably, losing the respect and trust of their employees in the process? This recent post from the blog--Be the Best in Business: Managing Change: Does Urgency Create Resistance?--provides some really good insights about how change can be managed successfully in a business. The author says that a company that views change as an urgent issue will create stressed and resistant employees and is not the way to get those most affected by change--'employees in the trenches'--on board or on your side. As the post says 'Guiding change may be the ultimate test of a leader, since no business survives over the long term if it can’t reinvent itself. But human nature being what it is, fundamental change is often resisted mightily by the people it most affects: those in the trenches of the business. Thus, leading change is both absolutely essential and incredibly difficult'. 

Finally, an article that tells it like it really is, that considers change from the perspective of employees but that also discusses how a company can get its employees to understand that change is healthy and a part of business development. Well-done. I wish I had read this a few years ago, when urgent and immediate change (for the sake of change) was the predominant operative in my workplace. The sense of 'crisis and urgency' was palpable on a daily basis and did not lead to either productivity or job satisfaction. It merely created employee dissatisfaction that has persisted to this day. There were definitely better ways to approach the idea of change, but leadership at that time failed to find them. 

A new favorite song--Safe and Sound by Capital Cities

Just what we need sometimes--to let go, dance and be happy..............




Safe and Sound

Songwriters: Ryan Merchant and Sebu Simonian

I could lift you up
I could show you what you want to see
And take you where you want to be
You could be my luck
Even if the sky is falling down
I know that we'll be safe and sound
We're safe and sound

I could fill your cup
You know my river won't evaporate
This world we still appreciate
You could be my luck
Even in a hurricane of frowns
I know that we'll be safe and sound

(Safe and sound)
We're safe and sound
(Safe and sound)
We're safe and sound
(Hold your ground)
We're safe and sound
(Safe and sound)

I could show you love
In a tidal wave of mystery
You'll still be standing next to me
You could be my luck
Even if we're six feet underground
I know that we'll be safe and sound
We're safe and sound

Safe and sound
Safe and sound
Hold your ground
Safe and sound

I could lift you up
I could show you what you want to see
And take you where you want to be
You could be my luck
Even if the sky is falling down
I know that we'll be safe and sound

I could lift you up
I could show you what you want to see
And take you where you want to be
You could be my luck
Even if the sky is falling down
I know that we'll be safe and sound

We're safe and sound
We're safe and sound
We're safe and sound
We're safe and sound

(Safe and sound)
We're safe and sound

(Safe and sound)
We're safe and sound
(Hold your ground)
We're safe and sound
(Safe and sound)
We're safe and sound
-------------------------

10 Risks Happy People Take Every Day

Just another really good blog that I have recently begun to follow. I am learning something (or relearning something) every day. Usually the things I've relearned are the things I forgot were important. Like being happy about who I am and not trying to please everyone else. Why haven't I learned this by now? Because the reality is that there is no pleasing everyone. The answer is--just because we are adults doesn't mean we've reached the summit of learning and understanding. We're still climbing, still reaching for knowledge and insight, all of us. Here are some good tips on living each day as it comes, taking risks, and being happy.

10 Risks Happy People Take Every Day

Be the Best in Business: Just How Confusing Can We Make Leadership?

I follow this blog--Be the Best in Business--here on Blogger, and this particular post spoke to me, since I am very interested in the behavior of workplace leaders. It highlights much of what is wrong with the modern workplace in terms of its leadership, and does so in a clear and straightforward manner. Absolutely worth reading.

Be the Best in Business: Just How Confusing Can We Make Leadership?: Daniel Goleman asked the question that many people have; "what do effective leaders do?" and you'll hear a host of answers...

San Francisco and the year of living wonderfully

San Francisco was our home for one year in 1993. It’s hard to believe that twenty years have passed since we lived there. We have not been back since, although a return visit is on my bucket list. I wrote a long post in March 2012 about our time spent in this beautiful city (http://paulamdeangelis.blogspot.no/2012/03/my-heart-and-san-francisco.html), and how privileged we were to have had the experience of working and living there. I did not include any photos in that post. To commemorate the 20th anniversary of the year we spent there, I am including some photos of us and the different places we experienced, as well as of the guests who visited us in our apartment that we rented in the Victorian-style house on Carl Street. It was the first apartment that we looked at, and it was the one we wanted, despite having seen larger ones. We got it, even though we had to wait a month for renovations to be finished so that we could move in. Looking back on the year we spent there, I’d have to say it’s one of the most special and memorable years of our married life. We did so much together in SF—forever memories. It was a city of unknowns for us, unexplored territory that we explored and tackled together—a joint adventure—a good thing for a marriage. 

Golden Gate Bridge

Golden Gate Bridge shrouded in fog

261-B Carl Street--the tall grayish building in the center of the photo--our apartment was on the top floor to the left

driving through Mt. Tamalpais state park

'The skylined beauty' is how my husband's uncle Åke described me in this photo that he took

my husband standing next to our rented Thunderbird

my stepdaughter and a friend

Trond's aunt Gunvor and her husband Åke, visiting us in San Francisco, a wonderful memory and nice photo of them

friends visiting--Gisele and Celia

rollerbladers dancing in Golden Gate Park

October 1993--a pumpkin patch in time for Halloween

the wine country in the Napa Valley--truly heaven on earth in my opinion--just beautiful

autumn comes to the wine country 

Autumn comes to the Oslo fjord

Autumn has been exceptionally lovely this year. The colors of the leaves--the reds, oranges and yellows--bold and pretty. The blue skies, warm temperatures; yesterday the temperature at midday was about sixty degrees Fahrenheit. Pretty good for Oslo. In previous years, it has been cold and gray already by mid-October. So in addition to a warm and sunny summer, I am grateful for this autumn, for the gradual transition from warm to cold. We were out on the boat yesterday for a few hours, and I took some photos of the trees and the foliage. My husband and boat captain Trond drove the boat around to the places I've photographed, before the boat decided that it had had enough for the day (motor problems). Enjoy!

Frognerkilen harbor

Oscarshall castle on the Bygdøy peninsula, Oslo, Norway

restaurant on the island of Gressholmen

Gressholmen

sailboat off the island of Hovedøya

Hovedøya foliage