All of the Right Things

How about a second offering from Adele for this week's (again, sadly belated) "YouTube clip for a peaceful weekend"?

This week, I've been listening to the talented Brit's "Best for Last."  I'm not co-signing all of its lyrics.  (As I said last week, I'm way too happy these days to endorse a break-up song or an ode to a bad relationship.) But, this tune has a great beat.

So, without further ado, below is "Best for Last."

Peace:

Quite Possible

Food for thought:

" ... the mindsets we form from everyday experience close us off to possibility. It doesn't occur to us to rethink much of what we learn about the world because we tend to learn mindlessly; it's not that we aren't paying attention to whatever it is we are learning, it's that we aren't paying attention to the context in which we learn it.  We don't consider that what's true here may not be true there.  If we don't think to improve our ideas, we can't update or improve them. It won't occur to us to question how we know what we know, what facts we base it on, and whether the science that produced those facts is suspect. The hefty price for accepting information uncritically is that we go through life unaware that what we've accepted as impossible may in fact be quite possible. ... "

- Dr. Ellen J. Langer, from "Counter Clockwise: Mindful Health and the Power of Possibility"

Dr. Langer, a professor of psychology at Harvard, is being honored this Saturday, September 24, by the NYU College of Arts & Science Alumni Association.  (She graduated from NYU in 1970.)

However Far Away

Last week, some of the ladies from my gig made me listen to a few songs by Adele.

Don't know what rock I was living under. How is that I never before took note of this impressive 23-year-old British singer-songwriter with the most sultry and soulful of voices?

For this week's belated "YouTube clip for a peaceful weekend," below is Adele's cover of The Cure's "Lovesong."

Peace:



An aside: Adele's "Someone Like You" may be a stronger tune than "Lovesong." But, I'm way too happy these days to post a break-up song.

Lux Aeterna

Today is the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

For this week's "YouTube clip for a peaceful weekend," below are three clips to help mark this day of prayer, mourning and remembrance.

The clips are the parts of Morten Lauridsen's Requiem setting "Lux Aeterna."

Pax:

Grant them eternal rest, Lord,
and let perpetual light shine on them.