iTunes and the Bible

Background Music: And I Like It – Jefferson Airplane

This blogging is harder work than I ever thought it would be. The problem is not a lack of material; it’s trying to determine what subject falls into the who-gives-a-damn category. It’s a blog so there has to be some navel gazing, but I don’t want to gaze so deep that I can see the light at the other end.

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After years of resistance proved futile I gave up on Media Monkey and switched over to iTunes – all the better to feed my iPod and iPad. Well, iTunes was no Media Monkey but it was decent enough to handle my music collection.

Well don’t you know that once everything is working fine, and I’m getting along well with it, iTunes goes and auto-updates itself to a brand new busted version.

Why do so many software vendors think that we have nothing better to do than marvel at their clever changes? Most of us who use software outside of the workplace actually have something else in mind: Listening to music, watching a movie, reading a book, or even writing a blog. I don’t want to be a Luddite. Change can be good, even necessary, but changing a good process for what seems like nothing more than planned obsolescence – well that just annoys the customer. Will Ubuntu ever come of age?

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Around 150 years ago, shortly after the American Civil War, my great-grandmother, or her mother, or an aunt, purchased a Bible upon the occasion of my great-grandparent’s wedding. The 10” by 15” bible featured carved covers – a crucifix in front and back – and 3” brass plates to provide support for its 3” binding. It appears that my great-grandmother recorded most family events in permanent ink. She recorded marriages, births, and deaths. Sometime around the 1940’s the Bible fell into the hands of my great-aunt. I’m not suggesting anything underhanded. Whether it was by virtue of being the oldest or simply a case of disinterest from any other takers, her acquisition of the Bible was Honest.

My great-aunt continued the practice of recording marriages, births, and deaths. However, she switched from permanent ink to pencil. There seem to be several instances where she tried to erase the history of family members with whom she had been feuding. Luckily, pencil, doesn’t erase well from the glossy pages that had been reserved for recording genealogical information. So, except perhaps by total omission, little appears to have been lost.

Eventually the bible found its way into my mother’s hands. (Perhaps by virtue of my father being the oldest of the next generation.) In any event it was no too old to accept fresh ink, or much handling. The pages were dry and fragile. The width of the Bible had expanded beyond the capabilities of its hinges, which now hung loosely from the top cover, at least an inch too short to clasp shut. The bible now was hidden away in what was perceived to be a protective covering.

Of course, there were occasional, careful examinations of the contents. There were mysteries in there beyond the normal biblical scripture. There was, of course, the genealogy, sometimes altered – or corrected. The deaths of individuals were recorded who were otherwise unknown. Some were apparently infant deaths, or near infant deaths, but others were names without apparent origin. There are fragments of a letter started but likely never finished. It is the anguished apology from a mother to an alienated daughter. I don’t know if an apology was ever sent, or perhaps rejected. I have no idea what the daughter may have done that justified, at least to some, her being shunned.

There’s hair in the Bible. Who’s hair is subject of rumor but – unless somebody wants to spring for some DNA testing and exhumations – un-verifiable.

Today the Bible is in my grubby hands, in what I hope is a more protective container than was used in the past. Where it will end up next is anybody’s guess, but it appears to have had a better idea of where it was heading than any of the previous owners would have imagined, so I guess it will be OK.

And – with the “A” music list having advanced to “Angel of Music” from Phantom of the Opera – it seems like a good time to close this entry.

And not a moment too soon; next up on the “A” music playlist is “Angela” by Yoko Ono.