Thought for the Week: Joyful tidings
John Anderson reflects on joyful tidings
In a broadcast Good Friday meditation given by an ex-colleague I was surprised to hear him speaking about the way in which listening to Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos had been the crucial factor in his recovery from a near fatal heart attack. He said that whenever he listened to them, on the Sony Walkman his son had given him, at whatever time of day or night, he could feel the atoms in his body rearranging themselves in response to the glorious order and freedom of Bach’s music. From the moment he began to listen to them his healing had begun…
Jo Farrow, 1994
Quaker faith & practice 21.38
A Friend had just read out the passage from Quaker faith & practice extolling the healing properties of music when recovering from a heart attack. I was not so much overwhelmed by a wave as threatened by an inexorable tide of grief: for I also have clapped out coronary arteries and have suffered heart attacks but, as someone profoundly deaf, music has long since ceased to be any solace to me. This kind of response to being suddenly reminded of a lack or loss is absolutely to be expected but, on this occasion, it was also a shot across the bows of my public persona.
