Song:

“The Sanctus” from Gounod’s “Messe solennelle en l’honneur de Saint-Cécile” (1885)

It is very like what my soul does when I am highly aware of the magnificence of God.  But, a video of someone doing a shuffle dance is also not unlike that, either. Now, there’s also Bobby Bare’s “Dropkick Me Jesus through the Goalposts of Life.” If you don’t think that song is sublime, you haven’t been dropkicked often enough. Which, to be honest, a lot of people haven’t. And no Trekkie can pass by the Beastie Boys’ “Sabotage.” I mean, all those enemy drones drinking deeply from the grapes of wrath when the crew broadcast it at precisely 57.7 MHz. Words do not suffice.

 

Book:

“The Dark Night of the Soul” (c. 1579) and “The Ascent of Mount Carmel” by St. John of the Cross (1618)

A good edition with footnotes gets you geeking out on the references to the Old Testament, and then on the mysticism of the via negativa inherent in the Old Testament. The whole thing then overwhelms the intellect so effectively that you actually start experiencing said via negativa.  But what about Eliot’s “Murder in the Cathedral”? The works of Dante, on which only last week I spent $125 just to get some extra footnotes and commentary? Virgil? Horace? The Upstart Crow? Impossible question.

 

Movie:

“The Hunt for Red October” (1990) and others

“The Hunt for Red October,” “What’s up Doc?”, and “Holy Grail.” These are just perfect of their kind. Even Aristotle agrees. The first has manly men doing manly things, as do “Patton,” “Lawrence of Arabia” (with a great score), “The Wind and the Lion” (allegedly Osama bin Laden’s favorite), “Master and Commander,” and “Gladiator.” I like watching manly men do manly things.  I’ve never understood why more women don’t. Not for the same reason as men do, obviously. The two comedies are the only ones I know that can induce medically dangerous laughter even when you have had the whole thing memorized for over 40 years.