“WHY GET CARRIED AWAY?” (Jn 12:1-11): 17 March 2008 (Holy Monday)
Bette Midler starred in a 1979 movie called “The Rose.” It’s loosely based on the life of rock singer, Janis Joplin. I never saw the movie because I figured that it would be too depressing to watch a movie about a self-destructive celebrity. At least that’s what the trailer looked like to me then. But I’ve always liked the song from the movie.
The song has the simplest melody, sung by Midler in the simplest of ways–but it has the most extraordinary words! The song is really a series of attempts to define love and to find a symbol for it in all its excesses: a river that drowns, a razor that cuts, a hunger that aches.