This Is Our Story

This is Our Story

Humanity United in Action,
Driven By Love and Compassion,
Informed by Science and Reason.

MENUMENU
  • Home
  • Read This First
  • About
  • Cycle-of-Life Season
    • 1 Dormancy
      • Week 01: Human Worth
      • Week 02: Universality
      • Week 03: Justice
      • Week 04: Suffering
      • Week 05: Humility
      • Week 06: Avoiding Harm, or Evil
      • Week 07: Engaging the World
      • Week 08: Order
    • 2 Sowing
      • Week 09: Preferences (Desire)
      • Week 10: Autonomy
      • Week 11: Life as a Journey
      • Week 12: Renewal
      • Week 13: Hope and Optimism
      • Week 14: Self-esteem (Self-worth begins)
      • Week 15: Self-confidence
      • Week 16: Independence (Self-competence)
    • 3 Growth
      • Week 17: Our Future
      • Week 18: Honesty
      • Week 19: Obligation in the World
      • Week 20: Duty toward Others
      • Week 21: Awakening
      • Week 22: Obstacles and Opportunities
      • Week 23: Individuality and Community
    • 4 Ripening
      • Week 24: Honoring
      • Week 25: Excellence
      • Week 26: An Ethic of Generous Service
      • Week 27: Openness
      • Week 28: Transcendence
      • Week 29: Wisdom
      • Week 30: Caring
      • Week 31: Courage
      • Week 32: Citizenship
    • 5 Interlude
      • Week 33: Grounding and Well-Roundedness
      • Week 34: Assertiveness
      • Week 35: Restoration
    • 6 Fulfillment
      • Week 36: Creativity
      • Week 37: Truth
      • Week 38: Love
      • Week 39: Faith
      • Week 40: Rebirth
    • 7 Assessing
      • Week 41: Home and the Past
      • Week 42: Vitality
      • Week 43: Self-actualization and Integrity
      • Week 44: Connectedness
      • Week 45: Empowerment
      • Week 46: Equality
    • 8 Harvest and Celebration
      • Week 47: Flourishing
      • Week 48: Focus and Perspective
      • Week 49: Change
      • Week 50: Finding Our Niche
      • Week 51: Accepting / Surrendering
      • Week 52: Living Religiously
      • Week 53: Celebration and Remembrance
  • Weekdays
    • Sunday
    • Monday
    • Tuesday
    • Wednesday
    • Thursday
    • Friday
    • Saturday
You are here: Home / Cycle-of-Life Season / 8 Harvest and Celebration / Being Content

Being Content

Salvador Dali, Portrait of Lucia (1918)
  • Be content with what you have; rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking the whole world belong to you. [Lao-Tzu, Poem 44.]

Being rich is being happy with what you have. My father taught me this as he aged. He would walk out of our farmhouse late in the evening and look at the stars. We had very little money but my father was rich because he could see the stars. I cannot think of a simpler or more important thing that he could have taught me about happiness, and he did not need to utter a word. Occasionally he would comment about how in awe he was of being able to see the universe from his garage doorway. If you live like that, you will live well.

Real

True Narratives

Book narratives:

  • Tony Judt, The Memory Chalet (Penguin, 2009): As his physical health declined from ALS, “ . . . night after night, before the blissful interlude of sleep — before waking in exactly the same position he had assumed hours earlier — he ranged back over his life, shaping little incidents into short, plangent memory-excursions, each tied to a particular place, theme or object. Over the course of the following day or days he would, with increasing difficulty, dictate the night’s mental excursions to an assistant.”

Imaginary

Visual Arts

  • Maxfield Parrish, Contentment (1927)
  • Agostino Carracci, Democritus

Music: songs and other short pieces

  • Bob Dylan, Moonlight
  • Franz Schubert (composer), Der Zufriedene (The Contented One), D. 320 (1815) (lyrics)

Film and Stage

From the dark side:

  • Manhattan, Woody Allen’s “seriocomic dissection of perpetually dissatisfied New Yorkers” pokes fun at us from the dark side of desire

Poetry

Be content with what you have; rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking the whole world belongs to you. [Lao-Tzu, Poem 44.]

Other poems:

  • Robert Frost, “Leaves Compared with Flowers” (analysis)
  • Theodore Roethke, “The Right Thing”
  • John Keats, “Meg Merrilies”

Music: Composers, artists, and major works

Guitar works of Napoléon Coste (Naxos has released five volumes of this music, performed by Jeffrey McFadden: Vol. 1; Vol. 2; Vol. 3; Vol. 4; Vol. 5.)

  • Variations et finale sur un motif favori de la famille Suisse de Weigl, Op. 2
  • Deux Quadrilles de Contredanses, Op. 3
  • Fastaisie sur un motif du ballet d’armind, Op. 4
  • Souvenirs de Flanders, Op. 5
  • Fantaisie de concert, Op. 6
  • Seize valses favorites de Johann Strauss, Op. 7
  • Divertissement sur Lucia di Lammermoor, Op. 9
  • Grand Caprice, Op. 11
  • Rondeau de concert avec introduction, Op. 12
  • Caprice sur l’air espagnol “La Cachucha”, Op. 13
  • Deuxième polonaise, Op. 14
  • Le tournoi, Op. 15
  • Fantaisie on Themes from Bellini’s Norma, Op. 16
  • La romanesca, Op. 19b
  • Grande Serenade, Op. 30
  • 25 Études, Op. 38
  • Feuilles D’Automne Douze Valses, Op. 41
  • La Ronde de Mai, Op. 42
  • Marche Funèbre et Rondeau, Op. 43
  • Souvenir du Jura, Op. 44: Andante et Polonaise
  • Divagation (Wandering), Op. 45

Along the same lines, the solo guitar lends itself brilliantly to the value of being content, especially from Spanish composers. Here are collections of guitar pieces composed by:

  • Alonso Mudarra
  • Luis de Narváez
  • Francisco Tárrega
  • Fernando Sor
  • Miguel Llobet

Other compositions:

  • Beethoven, Piano Sonata No. 27 in E minor, Op. 90 (1814)
  • Gounod, Symphony No. 1 in D Major (1855)
  • Lauro, Venezuelan Waltzes for Guitar
  • Mozzani, music for guitar, including Studies for Guitar, Six capriccios and 18 small pieces
  • Wolf-Ferrari, Cello Concerto in C Major, Op. 31, "Invocazione" (1945)
  • Weinberg, Flute Concerto No. 2, Op. 148 (1987): “When Weinberg wrote his second flute concerto in 1987. The world had changed, and Weinberg had more freedom to write the music he felt. This work has a relaxed feel to it.”
  • Raga Puriya, a Hindustani classical raag often called the king of the night ragas (performances by Shankar, Amir Khan and Desai)
  • Raga Jahasammahini, a Hindustani raag for early evening (performances by Chaurasia, Deshpande and Daruwala)
  • Rudolf Moser, Concerto for Oboe & String Orchestra, Op. 86 (approx. 15’), features warm tones from the oboe and gentle support from the orchestra.

Albums:

  • Peter Ostroushko, “Pilgrims on the Heart Road”
  • Jerry Garcia and Dave Grisman, “Shady Grove”
  • Dave Grisman, “Tone Poems” album I and album II
  • Ballaké Sissoko, “At Peace”
  • Aaron Parks, “Little Big”
  • Daniel Sherrill, “From a Heritage Tree” (2022): simple bluegrass melodies played on a solo banjo made from a 275-year-old claro walnut tree

August 26, 2010

Previous Post: « Forgiving
Next Post: Seeking Enlightenment; Being Enlightened »
  • Email
  • Twitter

Topics

Acknowledging Anticipation Appreciation Belonging Choosing Confidence Focus Honoring uniqueness Judgment Motivation Planning Prudence Remembrance Restraining Retreat Reverie Self-knowledge Tenacity Transcending ego Week 01: Human Worth

Web Developers Studio
© 2023 ThisIsOurStory
About | FAQ