The week's early rehearsals had gone marvelously, he continued, speaking with occasional help from a translator. The trouble began on Wednesday during a rehearsal break, when the conductor and his wife took a stroll around Symphony Hall. They came upon a promotional poster that gave the week's soloist, the cellist Lynn Harrell, top billing, both with large print and a photograph. Rozhdestvensky's name appeared in smaller print as part of the program announcement.
Soon afterward, the conductor came across a copy of the orchestra's season brochure, a marketing tool designed to entice potential subscribers. He found a page with the heading "Artists who inspire" and a smaller section devoted to "Distinguished Conductors." That section, while including the names of two little-known conductors, did not mention his name. It appears only in a third section on the page under the heading "The Cello Shines," in connection with Harrell, this week's cello soloist.
"I felt insulted by the actions of the administration," he explained, "I feel not only slighted but I suffered what is called in Russian a moral insult, and I'm free to take any actions to defend myself in public."
Whining, crying, a temper tantrum when he doesn't get top billing. At the ripe old age of 77, I don't see a lot of fruit in this story from the Biblical parable of what to do with our God-given talents. Seems this soul has internalized his talents and used the power as a vehicle for self love, notoriety and fortune.
Talents come with seductions and life is a constant battle of discretion. If you are not in tune with the Holy Spirit, another power is unleashed by the master of seduction.
The decades of religious and clergy teaching and preaching the theology that we are passengers to our own thought processes have come home to roost. A generation unleashed from their moral compass are tricked into believing their concupiscence is god speaking to them. Concupiscence, diametrically opposed to God.
Handing the power of a life to the journey of flights of thought and emotions is a causeway of littered wreckage from the gratification of the ego: The drama and endless pursuits of lavish attention, perceived slights, projections of motives that aren't there, the depression and mood swings caused when one can't get people to feed malignant esteem.
With the "change" of Obama digging up the dead Clinton administration, there will be a resurgence of leadership that empowers by leading into temptation both by omission and commission.
Let's be on our guard. Stay alert for our ego and flight of thought for the devil knows our weaknesses. Neither get baited nor bait others in the feeding frenzies that surrounds our wagons. Be present in every moment and in every situation. Frequent the confessional when we trip and fall and in the void of sweeping our souls clean, fill our internal sanctuaries with the Blessed Sacrament. Pray without ceasing and be a witness to what fills us with hope, joy and the fruit of fidelity to the Lord, surrendering every stumbling block.
Give much gratitude to the laity, priests, Bishops, Saints who shepherd us to the Twenty-Third Psalm.
Shepherd me, O God,
beyond my wants,
beyond my fears,
from death into life.
1. God is my shepherd,
so nothing shall I want,
I rest in the meadows
of faithfulness and love,
I walk by the quiet waters of peace.
2. Gently you raise me
and heal my weary soul,
you lead me by pathways
of righteousness and truth,
my spirit shall sing
the music of your Name.
3. Though I should wander
the valley of death,
I fear no evil,
for you are at my side,
your rod and your staff,
my comfort and my hope.
4. You have set me a banquet of love
in the face of hatred,
crowning me with love
beyond my pow’r to hold.
5. Surely your kindness and mercy
follow me all the days of my life;
I will dwell in the house of my God
forevermore.
UPDATE: Reader sent youtube!
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