[Beth Curran]

Matt, you may be the only person on this list ever to use the phrases
"Christmas carols" and "Redneck Wonderland" in the same sentence.

With regard to the marriage analogy, I'm the child of two widowed people
- my birth mother was terminally ill when I was born and lived only a
few weeks afterwards, and my father, thank goodness, married a widow 9
months later who had lost her husband fighting a house fire.  I was
brought up to consider remarriage as a tribute to the love you had for
your first spouse.  All of us children were taught to remember 4
parents, the two who had lived, and the two who had died.  Who's more
likely to remarry - one who hated, feared, or didn't respect their first
partner, or one who loved dearly and feels the lack?  Neither of my
parents ever forgot their first spouses, we all understood that they
loved them very much and that they wanted to have that relationship
again, not to replace the first, but to experience it again.  After all,
we don't say the love we feel for our first child is diminished when the
second comes.  Why on earth would someone say that about their spouse?
- Beth



-----Original Message-----
From: powderworks-bounces at cs-lists.cs.colorado.edu
[mailto:powderworks-bounces at cs-lists.cs.colorado.edu] On Behalf Of
Matthew Mesina
Sent: Tuesday, December 02, 2003 1:53 PM
To: powderworks at cs-lists.cs.colorado.edu
Subject: [Powderworks] (powd) the aftermath

Esteemed Listees,

     It has been a year since I was left numb with the realization that
Midnight Oil as I knew it was no more.   The horrible knowledge created
a void that I felt would never heal.  So I turned to the only thing I
could.  Other music.
     Whereas in the past I used to listen to the Oils almost daily,
often several times daily, I now only listen to them on occasion.
Yesterday was one such occasion when, needing an stark alternative to
the Christmas Carols I've been playing since first snowfall last week, I
threw on "Redneck Wonderland".   Indeed, this was the first Oils I'd
played in over a week, and, as usual, I felt a renewed sense of why I
loved them so much.  There's some special, ineffable quality about that
music that I don't believe the passage of time will ever diminish.
Moreover, listening to the Oils on a less frequent basis really serves
to bring that into sharper than ever focus.  It's like there's
everything else, and then there's the Oils.
     Yet still I fell like a traitor.  I've barely been listening to the
Oils anymore.  Am I like the survivng spouse that remarries within
months of the loved-one's death?  This time spent with other musc has
been a blessing to me; I've rediscovered classics from my record
collection, explored jazz, and just generally started to appreciate
OTHER, not Oils,  music more.   (For instance, my Starflyer 59 records
have been getting much play this week.  I used to kinda scoff at how
simplistic the lyrics were, but now I truly appreciate the clarity and
pinpoint accuracy these "emotional snapshots" of melancholy have to
offer.)  Does anyone else feel like this?  Am I alone in this, and does
it constitute a 'betrayal" of sorts?

 Dealing with the consequences of a bad sound,

Matt

the

Soberman

"Be sober and vigilant.  Your enemy the devil prowls around like a
roaring lion, looking for someone to devour." -1 Peter 5:8

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