In case you missed this at the bottom of a long post earlier this week: A hilarious performance of Rossini’s Cat Duet by sopranos Felicity Lott and Ann Murray. This is the same duet that Betsy and Tacy performed in the school concert every year to the delight of their friends. Easy to see why!
Drat you, once again undermining my parental authority with your suggestions! Last night at 10:30, when I should have been sternly admonishing my girls to go to sleep, I was howling with laughter at their imitation of this duet. Thanks for the link!
“Exploration,” says John Stilgoe, author of Outside Lies Magic, “is a liberal art, because it is an art that liberates, that frees, that opens away from narrowness. And it is fun.”
Yes: it is so, so much fun, and that is why I write these posts all chattery with excitement over this or that connection the kids made today. (Or that I made myself!) I know I get carried away, but that’s the point, isn’t it, that way leading on to way has carried me away?
And yet—and yet—I think we are at once ‘carried away’ and made more fully present in the now, more rooted, by these relationships between ideas about things past and future. The joy of connection makes me want to celebrate this moment, this brief encounter with wild-haired child and broad-trunked tree, bus going by, sign on church wall, Scottish warlord creeping over the tower wall and startling the English soldier’s wife who has just put her babe in arms to sleep by crooning that the Black Douglas won’t get him. Child, laughing, shouting “Dinna ye be sae sure aboot that!” across the courtyard outside the library. How can I not celebrate this freedom?
Every day is complicated, messy, and full of friction. And every day has glorious or cozy moments worth celebrating. I seldom bother to chronicle the friction and the mess because writing time is fleeting and precious—and childhood even more so. I’d rather capture the small joys that I might forget—or take for granted—if I don’t take time to set them down in words.
(Excerpt from this post about Real Life, quoted here because I don't want anyone to be under the impression that things are always perfect around here! Heaven knows we are anything but. Perfect, frictionless, orderly? Nope. Happy? Most of the time!)
Be like the bird
Who, pausing in flight
On limb too slight,
Feels it give way beneath her,
Yet sings,
Knowing she has wings.
Just commenting to see if I can …
Posted on September 4th, 2009 at 12:33 pmWhew. You’re the first. It looks like the wonky URLs are fixed, too. Yay, Emily Carlin (my web guru)!
Posted on September 4th, 2009 at 12:47 pmWhat a catfight!
I will never say I don’t like opera again – warbling women and wailing cats indeed!!
I’m crying, I’m laughing so much.
Thanks for sharing!
Posted on September 4th, 2009 at 2:32 pmThe girls loved this.
My favorite response, though, was that Bella asked, “Who posted that video?”
Posted on September 6th, 2009 at 7:55 amoh that was hilarious! thanks!
Posted on September 8th, 2009 at 10:35 amVery funny. Just what I needed after my day today. Thanks for sharing!
Posted on September 9th, 2009 at 6:47 pmDrat you, once again undermining my parental authority with your suggestions! Last night at 10:30, when I should have been sternly admonishing my girls to go to sleep, I was howling with laughter at their imitation of this duet. Thanks for the link!
Posted on September 10th, 2009 at 4:23 pmSwoon with me… — Here in the Bonny Glen says:
[...] Betsy and Tacy Go Over the Big Hill Heaven to Betsy Emily of Deep Valley, my hero The famous Cat Duet [...]
Posted on April 28th, 2010 at 9:55 am