Excerpts from “Wandering in the Spirit” by Leo Downey 11/12
There was this guy in the audience. They were there for the most beautiful orchestra on Earth. It had been around forever and you could only play for life. He saw the people around him moved to tears, he was thrilled by the chill of the strings, the pomp, the grandeur, and the humble silence between each note, the way they trail off and never end, each one as perfect as a perfect kiss.
He thought it looked like such fun, the grand theatre and the stage, the handsome men dressed in tuxedos, the women divine in black, the way the audience rose, rapt in applause and clapped. He wanted to be one of them for all the wrong reasons. When the Conductor left the podium he was at the side door waiting and he asked if he could join? The Conductor made the gravity clear, “Do you know the weight of the music we play here? Heaven and Earth hang on each nuance, for me and for us. We give up our life and our death for the music. We are what we are because of who we are here for, one living breathing body, we are blood brothers of the one who wrote the music and sang the song. Are you willing to listen to me, and the Conductors that come after me like… they do!?…” He looked out over their heads. “The first one was given this wand, a new name, a sacred promise and a sacred authority, the gift is a cross to bear son.” The guy said, “Yes..”
“Pardon me John, could I come over tonight and discuss my feelings about the second movement with you?” “I’ve got some issues with it, I’ll bring a bottle of wine.” The guy continued, “I don’t like the way the Conductor is conducting, he’s too heavy here and too light there and these notes, lets write them into a Major key, something more happy.” John replied, “Well, I don’t know, I feel that way sometimes too, but this orchestra is God’s body to me, not symbolically, but really and I’d rather be part of it than take it apart.” The guy quickly replied, “Oh, I don’t want to take it apart or make a new one, it could never be as nice as this one, I just want to change some things, you know, give the audience what they want, I think they’re getting bored and all these minor keys are too hard or them to bear, think how much more they’d like it if it we made it sound happy and fun!” The guy turned to the piccolo player, “What are you doing tonight?”Gradually the orchestra lost its breath. The guy knelt with others but they didn’t pray and the audience couldn’t tell the difference, they weren’t musicians, it was still all music and most of them thought it was what they wanted. It wasn’t great like it used to be, it wasn’t even good enough to be bad. John listened to the Conductor with appreciation for what he heard. The orchestra was coming to a crescendo.I want to tell you secrets of a Monastery, how evil defines itself in the presence of the holy, how it hides its difference by appearing the same, how a real Priest is a Medicine Man an Artist and a Soldier by a different name, why I left and why I came, how a spider weaves a web and what happens in the Center.