Kreitsauce's Musings

If you are in the least bit sane, you probably saw the title of this post and had a few questions for me. No worries; it’s just that there’s a story here that has to be shared. This year my wife and I decided to give each other a Christmas gift that we could really enjoy: a night at the symphony and a nice dinner. We don’t go out for culture and class very often, so we were both pretty excited. I donned my nicest attire and even threw on some cologne. No khaki slacks for me!

After an amazing dinner at our favorite (nearly) high-end restaurant, we went to the symphony. The music was absolutely beautiful, and it’s safe to say that we had an enjoyable time. There was only one major glitch in the whole night. Ten minutes into the concert, the guy next to me whipped out a bottle of beer and a Fun Dip package. Now, I’m a huge fan of Fun Dips. Some of my fondest childhood memories involve taking a sugar stick, dipping it into a fruit-flavored powder, and enjoying a nice, refreshing sugar high. Could he have enjoyed the music while enjoying his “snack”? Sure. But it was obvious that he wasn’t tuned into the concert at all. No doubt, he was simply there because his wife wanted to go.

I was irritated and maybe a little sad because this guy missed out on something of the Eternal. And that, I think, is what irked me so much. The truth is, I enjoyed the experience regardless of what the bozo next to me was doing. What drives me nuts as I sit here writing at 12:45am is that, while hundreds around him partook of a Sacred experience, he exercised his free will in wallowing in amusement (a term which originally meant the absence of thinking.)

Tonight, in the middle of this repository of passion, skill, and intelligence (classical music), this glorious cultural- or perhaps hypercultural- experience, sat one man who couldn’t perceive what was going on around him. There he sat, eating his Fun Dip and sipping his beer, while music- some of it written hundreds of years ago- stirred the emotions and the minds of those around him.

“How,” you may ask, “is the symphony Sacred? And what in the world do you mean by hypercultural?” When I say “hypercultural,” I simply mean that there are things that in their essence transcend culture. Beauty is one of those things. Music- true music- is a potent expression of the Law of Beauty- a transcendent reality. It is proof that beauty is not simply in the eye of the beholder. Classical music isn’t classical just because it was written a long time ago. It is a classic because it speaks across generations, languages, and cultures. It has survived the test of time. In a sense works such as classical music and classical literature are not merely beautiful works. They are the incarnation of the Law of Beauty. Something in the thought put into their creation, the passion summoned by a rational mind, has a soulish quality that speaks to the listener.

If the music played at the symphony is indeed soulish, if it communicates something deep and real to the mind and heart of a human being, if it awakens the listener to a higher reality (in this case transcendent Beauty) than himself, then it is in fact Sacred. I don’t mean that it is Sacred in the sense that it reveals God’s Word or is a substitute for Christian music or that a person could come to God by listening to it. I mean that it stirs within the listener (or at least a listener who isn’t dulling his senses with beer and Fun Dip) a desire for Beauty, it tantalizes the Soul which was breathed into Man at Creation, it causes him to turn from himself and ponder the existence of a deeper, broader, more intricate reality than he can perceive with the senses. Something as simple as enjoying Christmas music in a crowded theatre can be just one movement of the Anthem of the Ages orchestrated by a loving God. How sad would it be if we missed Him because we traded the Sacred for Fun Dip!