{"id":8121,"date":"2019-12-01T11:55:44","date_gmt":"2019-12-01T16:55:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thefest.com\/kdstaging2\/?p=8121"},"modified":"2019-12-07T10:27:40","modified_gmt":"2019-12-07T15:27:40","slug":"merry-of-soul","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.thefest.com\/merry-of-soul\/","title":{"rendered":"Merry of Soul"},"content":{"rendered":"

::: By Jude Southerland Kessler :::<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n

If you haven\u2019t watched \u201cOutlander,\u201d you should.<\/p>\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n\r\n

This science fiction\/romance TV series is addictive \u2014 perhaps because, unlike many programs, it is both uplifting and inspiring. This isn\u2019t to say that there aren\u2019t complications, hitches, and plot lines that make each episode\u2019s ending nail-biting\u2026but overall, the story is one of a life\u2019s devotion.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n

The series theme song, \u201cThe Skye Boat Song,\u201d is a lovely and haunting adaptation of an old Scottish ballad about \u201cbonnie Prince Charlie,\u201d but the words have been altered to tell the tale of the show\u2019s female protagonist, Claire Randall. And as I was listening to it a few nights ago, I was touched by one line that described this beautiful and bold healer as \u201cmerry of soul.\u201d What an incredible tribute to be thought of as \u201cmerry of soul\u201d! I know a few people who fit that bill.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n

One (perhaps) fictional figure who certainly matches that description is the quite seasonal Santa Claus. With his hearty \u201cho, ho, ho\u2019s\u201d and his year-in-year-out dedication to giving gifts to one and all, he is described as having \u201cdimples [so] merry.\u201d And ah, that magnificent smile of his! It makes me grin, just imagining it.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n

The Beatles, too \u2014 well, The Beatles of 1958-1964 \u2014 were also \u201cmerry of soul.\u201d With their mickey-taking and inside jokes, silly walks and dances, sly innuendos and double entendres, and their enjoyment in making music, they drew us, unashamedly, to them. They were utterly joyous.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n

I think of them insisting, over Brian\u2019s reluctance, that they make a 1964 holiday record for their fans. I think of them singing that nonsensical \u201cGood King Wenceslas\u201d and then, stepping up to the microphone to read their personal Christmas greetings. Merry! So many scenes from those early years were exactly that! You can\u2019t watch The Beatles on the Feb. 1964 Washington, D.C. stage-in-the-round without absorbing their sheer delight! You can\u2019t hear them on Live at the BBC, Vol. 1 without feeling their pleasure in being exactly who they are.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n

Right now, I\u2019m working away on Vol. 5 in The John Lennon Series, where 1965 begins to take its toll. The book will be entitled Shades of Life because by this point in their career, John, Paul, George, and Ringo had begun to feel the tug and pull of Beatlemania \u2014 the grind of making a yearly film, doing two annual LPs, going out on a second World Tour, enduring yet another North American Tour, and grinding out one more U.K. tour while also giving interviews, doing television specials, starring on radio shows, and living complicated private lives. The unrelenting schedule was stripping these young men of vibrance and colour. The boys were becoming grey automatons \u2014 working incessantly, without a bit of bright.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n

I can empathize. I bet you can as well. Life is taxing. Having moved 32 times in the last 42 years, and facing yet another move this year, I am tired. Spending most of my time doing things I have to do rather than things that I want to do (such as write) and dealing with an auto-immune disease that complicates what I eat, drink and do, I\u2019m frustrated.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n

Struggling to \u201cright myself\u201d after several rather significant lifestyle gut-punches, I\u2019m cynical. It\u2019s been a long time since I\u2019ve been \u201cmerry of soul.\u201d \u201cWeary of soul\u201d is more apt. Maybe you feel that way, too.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n

But tonight, as I walked in the just-before-Thanksgiving night air and watched twinkling Christmas lights going up in our neighborhood, saw huge campers being readied for \u201cto Grandmother\u2019s house we go\u201d road trips, and heard the laughter of visiting children romping through front yards, I reminded myself that \u201cOutlander\u201d\u2019s Claire had every reason to be \u201cweary of soul\u201d\u2026and yet, she wasn\u2019t. Like a person unjustly incarcerated for years, she missed out on so much that she could never recapture and enjoy, but instead of focusing on what she\u2019d lost, she focused on what she still had to enjoy.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n

The Beatles were like that. Certainly, in the post-1966 era, they experienced argumentative and unhappy moments. But Beatles Guru, Mark Lewisohn, reminded us last year at the Monmouth University White Album Conference that the White Album wasn\u2019t entirely written under an umber cloud, that the boys were still friends in Rishikesh, at George\u2019s home in Esher, and in the studio days ahead. Even the fractious moments we see on \u201cLet It Be\u201d were only part of a larger puzzle \u2014 with intricate pieces of camaraderie, dissention, happiness, and agitation snapping together congruously to form a whole. There were still plenty of times, Lewisohn reminded us, where merriment had its home in the hands of The Beatles.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n

After all, when one stands back and summarizes the Fab Four\u2019s career, what does one find? Love. Love, love, love! Innocent love in \u201cI\u2019m Happy Just To Dance With You,\u201d \u201cDo You Want to Know A Secret,\u201d and \u201cLove Me Do.\u201d Romantic love in \u201cSomething,\u201d \u201cHere There and Everywhere,\u201d \u201cPlease Please Me,\u201d \u201cEight Days A Week,\u201d and \u201cThis Boy.\u201d Love denied in \u201cFor No One,\u201d \u201cGirl,\u201d \u201cNot a Second Time,\u201d \u201cYes, It Is,\u201d and \u201cI\u2019ll Follow the Sun.\u201d Sexual love in \u201cWhen I Get Home,\u201d \u201cI Wanna Be Your Man,\u201d and \u201cI Want You.\u201d The love of friends in \u201cIn My Life,\u201d \u201cWith A Little Help From My Friends,\u201d and \u201cYellow Submarine.\u201d The heartbreak of love in \u201cIf I Fell\u201d and \u201cYesterday.\u201d There\u2019s even a tongue-in-cheek fondness for the Queen in \u201cHer Majesty.\u201d You can think of a hundred other examples. Because for The Beatles, it all boils down to love\u2026in the end.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n

Perhaps \u201cOutlander\u201d\u2019s popularity can be explained by the fact that in this angry and argumentative world of blame and shame, we yearn for a place where love truly is \u201call you need.\u201d And perhaps The Beatles surpassed all other bands in history, in part, because no matter what, they lived out their greatest mantra: \u201cAnd in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n

In moments of wonder and moments of despair, one thing remained: they were merry of soul.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n

\r\n\r\n\r\n

Jude Southerland Kessler is the author of the John Lennon Series:\u00a0www.johnlennonseries.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Jude is represented by 910 Public Relations —\u00a0@910PubRel<\/a>\u00a0on Twitter and\u00a0910 Public Relations<\/a>\u00a0on Facebook.<\/em><\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

::: By Jude Southerland Kessler ::: If you haven\u2019t watched \u201cOutlander,\u201d you should.   This science fiction\/romance TV series is addictive \u2014 perhaps because, unlike many programs, it is both uplifting and inspiring. This isn\u2019t to say that there aren\u2019t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":8123,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.thefest.com\/?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.thefest.com\/?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.thefest.com\/?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.thefest.com\/?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.thefest.com\/?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8121"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/staging.thefest.com\/?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8121\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8137,"href":"https:\/\/staging.thefest.com\/?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8121\/revisions\/8137"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.thefest.com\/?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.thefest.com\/?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.thefest.com\/?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.thefest.com\/?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}