Welcome to Letters from Quotidia Hologram 10. The word ordinary features in the first part of this post. It means, usual, customary, run-of-the-mill, without distinguishing features, commonplace and in Australian English to describe something or someone as ordinary is, in actual fact, an insult, a casual put-down.
The protagonist of the first song could certainly be described as ordinary. He is an old curmudgeon; he has a set routine and household chores that he complains about. But, whether he realises it or not, he is one of the fortunate of the earth. He lives in relative peace and security which may be a bit boring but is way better than the alternative. He has leisure and income enough that allows him to live modestly in a house that he owns. The first half of the song details this fairly mundane reality which accords to the meaning of the word ordinary.
W. H. Auden famously satirised such an ordinary man in his poem The Unknown Citizen written in 1939 with the epigraph (To JS/07M378- This Marble Monument Is Erected by the State) JS/07M378 is extolled for his unblemished record because no official complaint against him was ever recorded. He worked in a factory, never go fired, wasn’t a scab, or odd in his views. He was popular with his mates and liked a drink. He conformed to expected norms approved by the government and was a reliable consumer. The poem ends with the devastating lines, Was he Free? Was he Happy? The question is absurd:/Has anything been wrong we would certainly have heard. Good questions to ask oneself: Am I happy? Am I free?
There is, you know, another meaning of the word ordinary. In the Catholic Church the word refers to the ordinal numbers 1st-33rd or 34th which identifies the longest season of the liturgical year, Ordinary Time. Its colour is green, denoting growth. It follows, for most part, the mission of Jesus during the three years of his public ministry. The second half of the song deals with this meaning of the word ordinary. The chorus acts as a commentary on the actions described in the verse.
The American poet, Pat Schneider wrote a lovely poem, The Patience of Ordinary Things, and I will quote from it as an introduction to my song, Ordinary Time. I’ve been thinking about the patience/ Of ordinary things, how clothes/Wait respectfully in closets/ And soap dries quietly in the dish/ And towels drink the wet, From the skin of the back. /And the lovely repetition of stairs. / And what is more generous than a window? Poets remind us of how even the simplest of words are freighted with meaning. And words like patience and ordinary carry a great deal of heft, do they not? As does the commonplace word, things. Here now is my song, Ordinary Time. [insert song]
You heavens, give me that patience, patience I need! King Lear, confronted by his elder daughters cruelty and neglect, cries out for the very virtue he utterly lacks! And, from another of my favourite Shakespeare plays, Twelfth Night, Viola’s declaration to Duke Orsino, …She never told her love,/ But let concealment, like a worm I’ the bud,/Feed on her damask cheek; she pined in thought/ And with a green and yellow melancholy/ She sat like patience on a monument, Smiling at grief.
Patience is an alien concept in today’s dysfunctional world where we are taught by the almighty algorithms to doom-scroll faster and faster, not to pause for an instant in our headlong service to the great god of the clicks. Repulsive in the digital dispensation, patience is a hard practice – even for those of us who actually recognise the pitfalls offered by the glowing screens of the tech bros and sistahs. But it is worth pursuing. As Francis Bacon observed, Whoever is out of patience is out of possession of his soul.
Now, with all this palaver about patience, you might think that word to be the theme of the song of this second part of the post-, but you’d be wrong. Its theme is theft. You won’t need to be a scholar to recognise in the first verse of the song a particular form of literary larceny- plagiarism- which references- some would say, filches from- the two Shakespearian quotations given before. I think, in the song, I’ve lifted bits from the Bible, too! And why not? Should not one look upwards in ambition, even if using ignoble means for one’s end?
Anyway, didn’t poet Ted Hughes say something about the force and innocence of plagiarism as being characteristic of the Elizabethan Age? One could argue in this present age of mash-ups, parodies, and fan fiction, that plagiarism is just one more way of generating content. Do I protest too much? Maybe. So listen to the song I present here and make up your own mind. Here is, The Theft. [insert song]
To steal another’s good name by blackening their reputation by bearing false witness is a particularly despicable act. And anyone who has suffered this sort of attack on their character will agree with that darkest of literary villains, Iago, in Shakespeare’s play Othello when he says, Good name in man and woman, dear my lord,/Is the immediate jewel of their souls:/Who steals my purse steals trash; ‘tis something, nothing;/’Twas mine, ‘tis his, and has been slave to thousands;/But he that filches from me my good name/Robs me of that which not enriches him/And makes me poor indeed. Shakespeare puts words of power and perception into some of his more evil creations: Lady Macbeth, Richard III, Edmund from King Lear, and Caliban from The Tempest. This may well be a theme for future posts!
Ordinary Time (words and music Quentin Bega)
Intro: C2 Am F2 G14b9 Verse: C G C G F G Am G
Chorus: F C Dm G F G Dm G Am G Final chorus extension (Dm G F G C)
I get up at dawn, prepare the breakfast, clear up a bit, then head out for morning Mass to start my normal day
Then I work about the house maybe cut the grass or tidy up around the garden that always needs some work oh yeah it always needs some work
I get in the groceries, make the coffee do the crossword read a book or paper this is part of my usual daily round
In the few hours before bedtime watch some TV have a drink or two and chat about the day and the one to come
Ordinary people doing ordinary time day after day as the seasons come around
Nothing much to write about let alone a song but this is all that I have found
Meanwhile in Palestine quite a while ago ordinary time meant quite a bit more than these chores that I complain about
One Man on a mission criss-crossed the land picking up some followers as He went along to bring salvation to us all
Healing the sick and lame, raising the dead- for starters- driving out demons walking on water reassuring the frightened that all was well
Then that awful death followed by the Resurrection all this in three years makes you think what have you done and what is left to do
We’re just
Ordinary people doing ordinary time day after day as the seasons come around Nothing much to write about let alone this song and this is all that I have found Oh yeah this is all that I have found- so far
The Theft (words and music Quentin Bega)
Intro: Cmaj7 Fmaj7 C2 Dm7 G13 Verse: C G C G Dm G Dm G
Modulates to D for the outro
You heavens give me patience, the patience that I need
As I sit upon this monument smiling at grief.
Someone came and took away the soul I once possessed
The theft of it was effortless and left me bereft
I once had peace of mind and wandered easily about
This green earth as I stopped to smell the roses that I saw
Blooming in profusion as their perfume filled the glade
And I was thankful to the Lord for all that he had made
And then a thought occurred to me- it wormed in through my brain
That I could profit from the goodness spread out all around
So I fenced it off and charged admission for all who came to see
What once was open to them all and once was for them free
(instrumental verse)
As I enrich myself and hoard this bounty just for me
I know at last the thief that took my peace of mind away
He stares out from the golden mirror set upon my wall
I contemplate my own face there as I await the fall
You heavens give me patience, the patience that I need
As I sit upon this monument smiling at grief.
Someone came and took away the soul I once possessed
The theft of it was effortless and left me so bereft
You heavens give me patience, the patience that I need
As I sit upon this monument smiling at grief.
Someone came and took away the soul I once possessed
The theft of it was effortless and left me so bereft
Credits: All written text, song lyrics and music (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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