Welcome to Letters from Quotidia 2025, Weekend Supplement 8. If you’re looking for a safe haven for ordinary people where the extraordinary only occasionally intrudes, then Quotidia may be the place for you. Havens, of course, by definition offer only temporary respite. So where may a more permanent resting place be found? People of all ages, at all stages and in widely varying historical and personal circumstances have considered this question. Some declare that we’re born in pain, live short and brutish lives, and then die alone and unloved. No sugar-coating here, then! Others, though, offer a more hopeful prognosis from the Big Rock Candy Mountain of Great Depression Era hobos to Nirvana of subcontinental belief systems to Heaven posited by the Abrahamic religions where the righteous dwell forever in bliss with God. But is it true, all this talk of heaven? I think that 17th Century French philosopher Blaise Pascal in his famous wager advances a view that is most persuasive where he argues that a rational person should adopt a lifestyle consistent with the existence of God and should strive to believe in God. The reasoning for this stance involves the potential outcomes: if God does not exist, the believer incurs only finite losses, potentially sacrificing certain pleasures and luxuries; if God does exist, the believer stands to gain immeasurably, as represented for example by an eternity in Heaven…while simultaneously avoiding boundless losses associated with an eternity in Hell. Thanks, Wikipedia for that synopsis, but that’s enough of philosophising for now. Let’s look instead to a classic song from the Great American Songbook: Irving Berlin’s Cheek to Cheek written specifically for Fred Astaire who starred in the 1935 movie Top Hat where he sang the song to Ginger Rogers as they spun around the dance floor in an immortal song-and-dance routine. I think a lot of people would score this scenario pretty high on the heavenly scale, particularly if Frank Sinatra were to take on the singing duties! Others may advance a more carnal scenario where the various appetites are sated in sequence or simultaneously. Yet others of a loftier temperament may cite ethereal satisfaction to be gained from contemplation of eternal verities while hymns and psalms swirl as a backdrop in the incense-laden aether. Now, whatever combination of circumstances causes you to exclaim with glee, ah, this is heaven, it must be admitted that such moments are, indeed, only momentary. There is always a fly in the ointment, if you are partial to Ecclesiastes, or a spanner in the works, if you prefer references to the Industrial Revolution to spoil whatever version of the blushful Hippocrene you may be imbibing. But me, ah, just let me for this one fleeting, evanescent moment dance cheek to cheek with the one I love as I croon in her perfectly formed shell-like ear [insert song] Ageing will, if nothing else, make you a believer in the Second Law of Thermodynamics- the popularised definition which goes: everything gradually goes to hell in a handcart. Things break down, hair falls out, that window-pane neglects to fix itself and you might as well forget trying to get the toothpaste back in the tube after you stepped on it getting out of the shower! Some scientists have theorised that ultimately everything ends up in what has been termed the heat-death of the universe where matter no longer exists- even the protons have evaporated- and there is no longer any temperature gradient anywhere and that nothing, therefore, can happen anymore and the universe just exists as a vast, cold nothingness. A marginal improvement on this is the belief of the ancient Greeks that most of the departed, because they are forgotten, wander endlessly in a grey and dismal void yearning for light and taste. A vast improvement on this is found in St Thomas Aquinas’s account of the resurrected body: Resurrected bodies will retain their original identity; we will be essentially the same persons as before we died; we will be immune from pain and death; Our bodies will be free from restraint by matter, yet palpable; Our bodies will be youthful and will retain our original gender; We will have complete freedom of movement, our souls will direct our bodies without hindrance. The glory of our souls will be visible in our bodies. We will be beautiful and radiant. Thanks to the website The Thoughtful Catholic for this summation. In this iteration of post-mortem existence there is no fly in the ointment or spanner in the works! So, I’ll take this version of the afterlife, if I may. But there is a bit of a niggle. How do I get there? How am I “saved”? I remember Elaine Benes’s on-again-off-again boyfriend David Puddy from the 1990s hit show Seinfeld where he reminds, Elaine, who is an atheist, that she is going to hell for their sexual liaison whereas he gets to skate because he is saved! What a strange and confusing word that is-saved! I won’t even try to unpack this term; it would take too long. But poetry and music, as so often is the case, come to the rescue. When I recite this stanza will you be able not to hear the music that accompanies it? Amazing grace, how sweet the sound/ That saved a wretch like me/ I once was lost but now am found/ Was blind but now I see. I’ll now attempt to define “saved” through a song I wrote recently entitled, Not Saved Yet. [insert song] So, I’d better get my skates on, eh! I’ll have more to say (and sing about) in the 9th WS when next we meet in Quotidia, God Willing!
Cheek to Cheek ( words and music by Irving Berlin)
Heaven, I’m in Heaven…. and my heart beats
so that I can hardly speak.
And I seem to find the happiness I seek…
when we’re out together dancing cheek to cheek.
Mmm, Heaven, …. I’m in Heaven… and the cares that
hung around me through the week..
seem to vanish like a gambler’s lucky streak..
when we’re out together dancing cheek to cheek.
Oh, I love to climb a mountain and to reach the
highest peak.
But it doesn’t thrill me half as much as dancin’
cheek to cheek.
Oh, I love to go out fishin’,in a river or a creek.
But I don’t enjoy it half as much as dancin’ cheek to cheek.
Dance with me..I want my arms about you..the charms
about you will carry me through..to..
Heaven, I’m in Heaven…. and my heart beats
so that I can hardly speak.
And I seem to find the happiness I seek.. when
we’re out together dancing cheek to cheek.
Not Saved Yet (Words and music by Quentin Bega based on 1 Cor. 13)
I saved that little boy lost in the woods
I rescued the damsel so much in distress
I deflected the avalanche aimed at the town
The grandees of this land I all did impress
Into burning buildings I rush without thought
Face foes oh so fearsome by night and by day
Countless the hurdles I can over-bound
Confounding my enemies every which way
But one thing keeps nagging at the back of my mind
There’s still something missing I know I must find
Yeah for all those endeavours I must not forget
With what I’ve accomplished I’m not saved yet
Learn to be patient and learn to be kind
Throw away envy and don’t blow so hard
Jettison arrogance- stop being rude
Don’t insist that you’re right and hold the ace card
But one thing keeps nagging at the back of my mind
There’s still something missing I know I must find
Yeah for all those endeavours I must not forget
With what I’ve accomplished I’m not saved yet
Repudiate evil, uphold what is right
Resentment and ire are never your friends
Bear all and believe all that hope will prevail
Endure all that assails you ‘cause Love never ends
Bear all and believe all that hope will prevail
Endure all that assails you ‘cause Love never ends
Credits: All written text, song lyrics andmusic (including background music) written and composed by Quentin Bega unless otherwise specified in the credits section after individual posts. Illustrative excerpts from other texts identified clearly within each podcast. I donate to and use Wikipedia frequently as one of the saner sources of information on the web.
Technical Stuff: Microphone-songs Shure SM58; (for the podcast spoken content) Audio Technica AT 2020 front-facing with pop filter); Apogee 76K also used for songs and spoken text. For recording and mixing down: 64-bit N-Track Studio 10 Extended used; Rubix 22 also used for mixing of microphone(s) and instruments. I use the Band in a Box/RealBand 2023 combo for music composition.
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