Postponed

The ball machine at Akron Children's

Danny’s eye surgery was postponed.

While we were scurrying around getting children ready for school and dressing the baby, Danny ate some goldfish crackers. We called the hospital (he wasn’t supposed to eat anything) but couldn’t get through, so we drove up to Akron Children’s Hospital, where it was scheduled. And after registering and getting him into a hospital gown with tigers on it, were told that the doctor had nixed the surgery. So we have to reschedule.

But looking on the bright side, we had a dress rehearsal; the hospital is lovely, very kid-friendly.  Danny and Will, his little brother, were particularly taken with the “ball machine”, a huge Rube Goldberg style structure. And they enjoyed the playground, after he had breakfast.

All in all, it will probably make the real thing easier, now that he will be on familiar ground. Thank you all for praying; I’ll let you know when the surgery is rescheduled.

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Music and the Microcosm

If the entire world is a kind of musical harmony whose artisan and creator is God as the Apostle says (Heb. 11:10), then man is a microcosm, an imitator of Him who made the world. The divine plan for the world at large sees this image in what is small, for the part is indeed the same as the whole. Similarly, a piece of small, transparent stone reflects like a mirror the entire sun’s orb in the same way a small object reflects God’s light. Thus I say that in the microcosm, man’s nature, all the music of the universe is analogously seen in the whole through the particular inasmuch as the whole is contained by the particular. The structure of our body’s organs follows this example, for nature has skillfully constructed it to produce music. Observe the tube-like structure of the windpipe and the harp of the palate where the tongue and mouth resemble a lyre with chord and a plectrum.

Since everything natural is compatible with nature, music too is in accord with our human nature. For this reason the great David combined his singing with his teaching on the virtues and sprinkled his lofty teachings with honey’s sweetness by which he carefully examines himself and cures our human nature. This cure is a harmonious life which to me the singing seems to offer through symbols.

St Gregory of Nyssa

 Which reminds me of this:

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