Wednesday, September 2^nd, 2015.

Insisting on the primacy of truth. Colloquialism. Can you compromise when it comes to truth? If you take a bucket of wine and a bucket of manure, and you take a ladleful of the wine and put it into the bucket of manure then you still have a bucket of wine and a bucket of manure, but if you take just a teaspoon of manure and put it into the bucket of wine then you have two buckets of manure. You can’t mix error with truth.

Every man who’s ever lived has gone through the same struggles. Immaturity is the insistence on being unique.

Be in the world but not of it. Pious lukewarmness doesn’t cut it. Pusillanimous, small of soul.

This is the standard text for music majors. It’s written by a secular writer and it contains some stuff that we know is wrong. That’s to be expected from a secular writer. You should learn to use the good parts and ignore the bad parts.

You have to write a paper.

“If you don’t have time to read well, don’t bother.” If you don’t have enough time, slow down. It’s better to do some things well than to do everything poorly.

In mediō stat virtūs.

Choose between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of man.

The problem is the heart. The only things in the universe with intellect and heart are you and God. God can help you if you ask Him. “Save me.” “Help me.” You are not human enough if your heart does not break. It will heal. Ask God to help you.

“The music of an age tells us about the people of that age.”

Melody, harmony, rhythm.

Do not listen to chant music while doing chores. It is too sacred and shouldn’t be used that way. Listen to Baroque music instead. For recommended listening, see the list.

Music affects the heart. The devil uses music to affect the heart and disrupt the passions.

Opera music goes in the upper right, academic(?) music goes in the top left (it sounds like a cat walking across the piano keyboard), rock music goes in the lower left (e.g. Pink Floyd’s “Comfortably Numb”), and folk music goes in the lower right. Where does chant music go? It would go in the upper right, except it’s off the chart.