An Ode to Joy.

Of Peace, and Patriotism.

When I was a child, at Vidya, a Buddhist-inspired school founded by Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche in Boulder, Colorado, we wore blue blazers with brass buttons and gray cords (and bowl cuts, mostly, for boys), and blue ties with white strips. And no one knew if someone was rich or poor by the way we dressed.

And our class song was perhaps my most favorite song, ever, after Life is But a Dream. The words are well worth reading, and contemplating: they inform a life, well-spent.

We would sing our class song at various events, all together on stage. I remember singing it in Naropa Institute’s PAC auditorium.

But first, the video:

En el 130º aniversario de la creación de Banco Sabadell hemos querido rendir un homenaje a nuestra ciudad con la campaña “Som Sabadell”. Esta es la flashmob que realizamos como colofón final con la participación de más de 100 personas de la Orquestra Simfònica del Vallès y los coros Lieder y Amics de l’Òpera y la Coral Belles Arts.

~

Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, 1824.

Brother, sing your country’s anthem
Shout your land’s undying fame
Light the wondrous tale of nations
With your people’s golden name
Tell your father’s noble story
Raise on high your country’s sign
Join then in the final glory
Brother, lift your flag with mine!

Hail the sun of peace, new rising
Hold the war clouds closer furled
Blend our banners, oh my brother
In the rainbow of the world
Red as blood and blue as heaven
Wise as age and proud as youth
Melt our colours, wonder woven
In the great white light of Truth

Build the road of peace before us
Build it wide and deep and long
Speed the slow and check the eager
Help the weak and curb the strong
None shall push aside another
None shall let another fall
March beside me, oh my brother
All for one and one for all.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMA5A17IZSo

~

More:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFX8S9aAgvw&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nv5tr98kIf4&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_C9RPUQ1vwQ&feature=related