The Website of Peter Link

I choose to write a series of songs from the text of prose – prose where I cannot change a single word because I am quoting an established author and her historic work – Science And Health -- With Key To The Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy.

Here fate takes a far different turn than one might expect. As discussed in my previous blog post, a rant against the decline of craft in one of America’s most brilliant of the arts, the quality of lyric writing today seems to be in a great tailspin. Perhaps I stand as one self-appointed member of the resistance to this trend. I gladly wear the badge.

Stephen Sondheim, one of our great present day lyricists, likes to say that lyric writing is puzzle solving. The puzzle is how are ya’ gonna get all them words to fit together into that pretty little melody and still make sense. I’ve now spent almost a half-century trying to solve these puzzles, and though I’ve certainly gotten better at it, it’s still a laborious but fascinating process.

Short.

Keep it short.

No one has time anymore.

So keep it short.

I’m not particularly big on the word “religion”. I find it to be oft times restrictive, non-inclusive and all too often divisive. Though I have studied the world’s religions all my life, it’s not a field that I find myself associating with very often. When anyone asks me if I am a religious person I often answer, “not particularly, but I am a spiritual seeker.”

Everybody lies occasionally. We all do it. And so lies come with different monikers describing the weight of the occasion – names like: white lie, fib, exaggeration, etc. But they’re all lies – just different levels of lies.

Fact of the matter is that it’s one of those few things in life that is black and white. It’s either the truth or its not. If it’s not, it’s not truth-full and so the part where it’s not the truth, is the lie.

The dictionary defines this in simple terms. “Someone who denies the existence of God”. It’s from the Latin: atheos which means ‘without God’ or ‘Godless’.

I’ve always been curious to meet an atheist. Whenever someone announces themselves as one, I always try to take a moment (or often many more) and discus their atheism with them. I like to first start with the obvious question, “Define God?”

I was performing at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel Ballroom in some unremembered benefit back in the days when I did such things, and after I had finished my act, the stage manager asked me if I’d like to see the rest of the show. I said that I would and during the blackout and set change for the next act I was quickly led to a front row table right smack at the stage proscenium. I was so close to the next act that the comedian could have stepped on my head if he wasn’t careful.