Inauguration thoughts; Simple Gifts

One of the advantages of my time of "enforced leisure" is that I was able to watch the entirety of the presidential inauguration from about 7:00 am (PST) until noon or so.

There were many moving moments that have already been commented upon at length in the media.  I think that the choice of Rick Warren and Joseph Lowery to give the invocation and benediction was right on, both of them unashamedly affirming our Christian and cultural heritage and at the same time recognizing that the diversity, even unbelief, that is the essential constituent of our free society.  

However, for me, there was also something that went almost unnoticed by many, yet I think it is one of those symbolic moments that speaks volumes about the kind of change that will deeply affect the spirit of our nation.  President Obama chose to precede his moment of swearing-in with a wonderful little piece of serious classical music, composed for the occasion by John Williams, "Air and Simple Gifts, " played by violinist Itzhak Perlman; cellist, Yo-Yo Ma; clarinetist, Anthony McGill; and pianist, Gabriela Montero.  (Click on the names for more information about the music, the composer, and the artists.) Here it is:

In itself this choice is significant.  However, the delicious symbolic value of this four-minute performance is that it began at 11:59 am, and so approximately one minute into this piece, at just about the time the "Simple Gifts" theme was first played, Barack Obama actually became the President of the United States. 

We have a President who not only knows the value of symbol but also has a real understanding of and appreciation for the importance of the arts, including classical music, for our cultural and social well being as a people. Whether or not that translates into funding is, in my opinion, less important than the renewal of a social and cultural atmosphere that values and promotes our traditions of beauty.  So many things of timeless value have been allowed to simply drop off the "radar screen" of popular awareness, often for crass economic reasons.  I hope we can recover something of what is on the verge of being lost.  

This four-minute piece of music marked not only the most significant moment of the day--indeed the moment that gave meaning and purpose to everything else that day, including the Oath of Office--it also encapsulated a microcosm of America itself.  The four players were an Israeli-American violinist, a Paris-born Chinese-American cellist, a Venezuelan-born pianist, and an African American clarinetist from Chicago.  The piece itself, composed by a New-York-born musician equally at home (and equally respected) in both concert hall and movie theater, is based on a traditional American hymn tune.

You can't get much more quintessentially American than that!

Hear a really neat interview with Yo-Yo Ma from a few days ago (unfortunately you'll have to put up with a 30-second commercial first):

And as I was watching the ceremonies, a memory came back to me of the last (and only) time that I stood on the Capitol Mall for a historic event.  Chance (or Providence) put me in Washington DC on July 4, 1976, for the Bicentennial celebration.  I was on my way back from Rome, having just completed studies in liturgy, and was staying for a few days with Bob Hovda, one of my mentors, who lived just a few block away.  We went there for the evening fireworks and concert, but I remember very few details, except that no tickets were required and there seemed to be a lot of very ordinary folks around enjoying what seemed like a big Independence Day party.

I was also very impressed with the letter that Chicago's  Cardinal Francis George, who is President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), sent to President Obama, as well as the message from Pope Benedict XVI.  If you haven't seen them, please click on the links and read them.  They are both wonderful and very significant documents to help chart the role that we as Catholic faithful can and must play in this administration that presents both hope-filled opportunities and signficant challenges to us.

Finally, it was wonderful that I never once, thoughout the whole day, heard the expression, "kick ass."  I hope it, too, gets permanently retired from our national vocabulary.