The Call to Arms

Theme: O Fortuna

Without warning, a roll of thunder shattered the relative calmness of that pleasant summer day, long ago. I had been sitting below the fig tree in peaceful introspection when the winds began to pick up speed, and the clouds ominously conspired together in forming a black and vengeful mass above. I stood up slowly and glanced toward the horizon. Everything around me, including the cows grazing in the field nearby, seemed to freeze for an instant. It was then that a small clearing appeared in the sky, and a few rays of sunshine glowed upon the earth – and this music began playing:

Carl Orff – O Fortuna

The earth rattled and the sky took on a shade of amber. It was then I heard the war cries – distant at first, but growing, growing steadily like the drone of a nearby bee, until it hit a sharp, unnerving crescendo. And then I saw them. The army of toy sodiers. They charged with their blades unsheathed and held up to the heavens, having forgotten fear, having forgotten the meaning of pain or death. At the head of the militia, the general himself was an iron figure immersed in the flames that burned from the core of his soul outwards – you could have sworn in that moment that he stood for the Divine, invulnerable and eternal.

As I watched them stream past, the utter confusion of the event gave way to solemnity. I saw the many soldiers rush to battle in unison, their hearts as one. They had left thier homes, their families, their lives, their futures. All for pride. It was for the sake of pride that this war was occurring. For the sake of honor, for dignity. It was for these things they had to fight. But one thing struck me which I can never forget. The general – for all his valor and his brave and unfailing leadership – he had tears streaming down his face. The tears of a human being. No one, no one had wanted it to end this way.

“Ave, Caesar, morituri te salutant.” – Hail Caesar, those who are about to die salute you.

Anthem of my Soul

Zelda’s Lullaby

Reader, my friend, I grant you this. If you listen to this melody and are touched by its sheer power and beauty…if you listen and your heart fills with warmth and your spirit with lightness…if you listen closely and you hear the fairies singing notes that tell a story of love, hope, and realization – then you will never be a stranger to me again. For then our souls have met, through a magical key to my childhood, which has become part of me, forever and always.

Newton’s Amusement Park in Outer Space

Relevant music: Mario Galaxy – Space Junk Galaxy

Whenever I listen to this, I am taken to a far, far away place. As the song begins, I am sitting, and I raise my head. Outside the window, a lonely star blinks at me, no doubt a sign of beckoning. The moon is bright and full, and it wears a most benevolent expression – a gleeful grin and sparkling crystal eyes which convey a slight touch of mischieviousness. Promises, promises abound. Promises of unforgettable adventures and excitement in a wonderful realm of pure celestial bliss, and of thrills so farfetched one would wait around for an eternity for a small, brief taste of them. The cosmos extends its luminous, transparent hand to me, and I grab on with the aid of my imagination and pure belief in the moment.

And I am flung from my foundations far past the ozone layer, spinning and brushing against the silky fabric of space-time, as I complete a trajectory graced by none other than the angels, leaving behind me a smooth blue laser streak. Then, for a moment I am suspended and stationary relative to a tertiary star system that holds me gently in equilibrium. I am still spinning as I gracefully conserve angular momentum, and a frosty white light appears and rains down upon me from above. As I spread my arms to slow my rotation, I glance up at the dancing, pulsating lights which march joyfully in a sinusoidal pattern. Somewhere far beyond, I see a glowing red mass which signals me to come closer. I dive headfirst into the blackness, and slide down the curved geodesic chute of space-time towards the flaming ball of destiny.

Orbiting. What a marvelous thing, to be forever falling and free. You are weightless and completely uninhibited, the loving hand of central-force motion holding you all the while, like a nurturing guardian, ensuring that you are not flung away into infinity. How I would love to run and spread my wings and take a leap so grand that the ground would not catch me ever again! I can fly, I can do somersaults, I can grab onto a comet’s tail and travel at speeds so great that I would disintegrate, were I to fall into the atmosphere. But that will never trouble me again.

And as I oscillate in a harmonic mode unbeknownst to humankind, I will never forget the sweet melody that propagates through even the vacuum of space, which never diffuses and will never stop until it has filled every empty crevice of this supposedly expanding universe.