Steamed Turkey

It's cold here in the Northern Hemisphere. Sure, today is the day we all (well, those of us in the US, anyway) gather with family and friends, sharing warm companionship and an autumn harvest of foods.

For many, the economic crisis and the ongoing wars may undermine the joy of the holiday, and seem to limit the number of things we can be grateful for. Yet, there are good things afoot. I'm looking forward to a new government that tells us to hope instead of fear. I'm encouraged that with both Iraq and Afghanistan asking for a departure date for foreign troops, the end of those wars may be in sight (even if not quite on US terms).

I'm happy to visit locally owned shops and see them full of people, talking and connecting as much as buying. I'm heartened that the sacred music festival I book will be returning for a fifth year, despite having too little money to pay artists what they really deserve. I'm grateful for my family and friends, for home and community, and for a spiritual perspective that confirms that material circumstances are temporary, while Love is eternal.

Also, I'm grateful for music, particularly music that helps warm up these cold days. The theme of tomorrow's Spin The Globe is derived from a weak pun: it's focusing on the music of Turkey. But it gives me a chance to hear more great music from that diverse nation, including the warming music of the soundtrack to the 1997 movie Steam / Hamam: The Turkish Bath.

[mp3] Agricantus: Disiu
from the album Steam / Hamam: The Turkish Bath

Happy Thanksgiving!

Giving Thanks

Today in the USA we observe Thanksgiving, perhaps my favorite holiday of the year. Other holidays have become so commercialized, or politicized. Thanksgiving is about gratitude, and it's hard to mess with that.

I've got to go bake a pumpkin pie for my family gathering, but first a few words and a song for you.

Are we really grateful for the good already received? Then we shall avail ourselves of the blessings we have, and thus be fitted to receive more. Gratitude is much more than a verbal expression of thanks. Action expresses more gratitude than speech.
--Mary Baker Eddy, in Science and Health

And a song from Norwegian Sondre Bratland and Pakistani Javed Bashir, who recorded a beautiful album of sacred music together, blending Christian and Muslim texts. This song of thanksgiving includes the words: "Countless as sand, and tremendously as the deep waters of the ocean is the grace of God which he pours over my head every morning. Every morning He freely offers me an immeasurable grace in my bowl."

[mp3] Sondre Bratland & Javed Bashir: "Morning Hymn"
from the album Dialogue (2006, KKV)

Happy Thanksgiving. And thanks for reading SoundRoots.

tags: worldmusic, thanksgiving, norway, pakistan