Sunday, October 4, 2015

The Rebel Black Dot Song of the Lord's Day

Topol & Miriam Karlin, "Do You Love Me?" from Fiddler on the Roof (Mike Papa Whiskey)

Commentary: "Do You Love Me?" is not a religious song, which would seem to indicate a break from the recently inaugurated practice of choose a sacred rather than secular music as the R.B.D.S.O.T.D. on Sunday, but lo, the choice of "Do You Love Me?" flows from two religious experiences. Last Thursday, during my weekly Cursillo group reunion, one of the fellows waxed poetic about his wife, about the great blessing she had been & continued to be in his life. He addressed specifically the growth of love over their long marriage, how 'twas leaps & bounds beyond & different from the love newlyweds experience. (He expressed this far beyond my meager ability to describe here.) Today Gospel reading, from Mark, contained Jesus's rebuke of the Pharisees & first century Jewish practice of divorce, & the bishop—the Most Reverend Earl Boyea—spoke eloquently of marriage in his homily. "Do You Love Me?" speaks to both these encounters, & the Lord's design for man & woman, husband & wife.

So, today I'm a little sad that I'll never marry, but grateful to the Lord for the vocation to which He's calling me, for the abundant blessings I enjoy this & every day, which are more than sufficient for me.
Teyve: "But my father and my mother
Said we'd learn to love each other,
And now I'm asking, Golda, do you love me?"

Golda: "I'm your wife!"

"I know. But do you love me?"

"Do I love him?"

"Well?"

"For twenty-five years I've lived with him,
Fought with him, starved with him,
Twenty-five years my bed is his,
If that's not love, what is?"

"Then you love me!"

"I suppose I do."

"And I suppose I love you, too."

In unison: "It doesn't change a thing, but even so,
After twenty-five years, it's nice to know."

2 comments:

J.R. said...

Does it count as breaking confidentiality if everyone that is friends with the person knows exactly who you are talking about?

Mike Wilson said...

Probably, but methinks he would excuse the indiscretion.