I have never, ever shared a cat-meme before. And it will never happen again. God have mercy.

But this was too good to pass up. More than just a meme, actually I have had this experience. This is not being said out of any arrogant posturing. I have literally experienced this meme. The immersion in one of Mahler’s symphonies — even just one movement of it — can draw out far, far more inexpressible depth of feeling in me than was ever remotely experienced through the deaths of even several (much closer than Grandpa!) very close family members. Such is Mahler’s colossal power, the fentanyl of my thinking-mind whose naloxone is only Zen.

Now, that reality maybe sounds sick, to some, but it’s true. That is why this Third Symphony is, say, perhaps only a once-a-year experience for me. (Same with most of the others.)

In Mahler, it seems, I can express even such socially objectionable things.

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[ This Mahler’s Third Symphony, Third Movement, by the way, was the track used by the Greek artistic polyglot genius Dimitri Papaioannou as the soundtrack for his epic Opening Ceremony for the 2004 Athens Olympics. If you watch a video of that — which is available only on Vimeo, it seems — you will certainly end up looking like the cat on the right. Guaranteed. The sublimity of Mahler’s vast spiritual totality, coupled with Papaioannou’s mesmerizing, dynamic visual panorama, will be too much for you to take. I wept openly when someone showed it to me for the first time last year. It’s actually quite overwhelming. I really don’t recommend it. You shouldn’t watch. Fentanyl is a far less dangerous experience. ]

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