After the unscheduled mid-quarter progress report, some more work got done, though not as much as in the first half of the quarter. Both the writing of the seventh sermon and the translation of the fourth have proceeded incrementally. I have finished, though not yet published, the third song with my friend Idris and my brother Thomas. And I have recorded, with my father Martin, the first one…
…and also the same song in German.
Of course my singing is not comparable to a truly trained or talented singer’s, or to the piano playing of my dad. But my bar was only to make something I wouldn’t find too embarassing. That’s a low bar, since I’m not easily embarassed, and it was met.
No progress on a plan to publicize the Sermons once they’re finished. I keep returning to the idea of a set of one song per sermon, Seven Secular Serenades, that could go after each sermon to make the overall experience more pleasant and attractive – this could surely help. But while this song above does that for Adrift in Space and Time to my satisfaction, What Joy, to be of Human Birth would probably serve for The Love that Guides Humanity and the new unpublished song (that might end up titled “The Leaves upon a Tree”) surely would for One of Us, I don’t currently have serviceable ideas for the other four, except the last one would probably be instrumental, and require me to finally learn to play an instrument.
Progress on the prose version of my theory of consciousness has been negligible. I might try a docket space to see whether I can make it work, or whether I better resort to plan B for the final sermon.