Harmonic Convergi, Two of 'Em

The Big Three religious traditions all keep their own calendar. Any correspondence between them is rough at best. Easter and Passover, for example, generally fall within the same general time of year but may actually occur weeks apart. But Rabbi Artur Waskaw recently wrote about what he is calling "God's Surprise". For the next three years, in early October both the Muslim month of Ramadan and the Jewish High Holy Days begin at the same time. After 2007 this won't happen again for 30 years.

Meanwhile, over on the Catholic side of the equation, October 1st is the feast day of St. Therese of Lisieux ("Do small things with great love"), October 4 is the feast of St. Francis of Assisi ("Where there is hatred let me sow love") and the entire month of October is one of the two in the year devoted to Our Lady.

Rabbi Waskaw sees this confluence of calendars as a unique opportunity for the Abrahamic traditions to pray for and with each other. You can read more of what the rabbi says here at www.faithfulamerica.org.

But wait, it gets better. I said there were two harmonic convergi and I wasn't kidding. On this day in 1889 the Moulin Rouge opened it's doors. The Moulin Rouge, inspiration of Toulouse Letrec, the bohemian revolution and Baz Lurhmann. Thirty-eight years later to the day, in 1927, "The Jazz Singer" was released. If you've seen "Singin' in the Rain" then you know that this created a revolution in film. It was the first talkie (and a musical no less) and all the studios had to start making talkies or perish. They all adopted the new technology and the entertainment world has never been the same

And so, today we note two historic moments in entertainment which made it possible in 2001 for one of my top ten favorite films to be made. "Moulin Rouge" the movie with everything: a celebration of the bohemian values of freedom, beauty, truth and love (but most of all love), a film that gave us Nicole Kidman singing and dancing, "Smells Like Teen Spirit" as a can-can, "Roxanne" as a tango and above all, Ewan McGregor. I love it when that happens.