In the spirit of our approaching holiday (that would be Xmas), this song popped out.
I'd like to preface with a funny (read: horrifying) story.
I sang the solo on "I Wonder As I Wander" with the Dartmouth Glee Club when I was a freshman(?). I took my starting note from the sopranos, who were standing behind me (my pitch as a little uncertain in those days, as it is for most sopranos who are used to getting the melody, always easy to hear). However, the sopranos messed up and started a third too high (for once they didn't have the melody). And so I started a third too high, too. Despite the painful discord, I continued to sing my solo until conductor Paul Zeller stopped the song - rap-rap-rap of the baton - "Let's start over. Beth, you're on the wrong note."
Now that builds character.
The audience felt so bad for me they gave me a standing ovation.
Without further ado: today's Daily Ditty.
(to the tune of “I Wonder As I Wander”)
I wonder as I wake up with a still-darkened sky
‘Bout the people with birthdays who today catch my eye.
I try to find something that links them, I try –
I wonder as I wake up with the brightening sky.
What if Michelangelo hadn’t had his pope?
What if Michelangelo had given up hope?
Without a rich patron he might have chosen the rope.
But Pope Julius the II – he wasn’t no dope.
What if I’d been born in one Slabtown, Tennessee?
Would I go sing opera? Nope – un-like-ly.
But Grace Moore, thank goodness that she isn’t me.
For us and for opera and for Slabtown, Tennessee.
I wonder as I wake up with half-caff and pie
‘Bout Walt Disney and Scarlatti and Rossetti and why
Some of us are born, make no mark, and then die.
I wonder as I finish my half-caff and pie.
(That was a lie.
There was no pie).