In Search of Empathy and Compassion

On an atomic level, every human being is made up of at least 60 of the 94 naturally occurring chemical elements.

Eleven of those elements (oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, calcium, phosphorus, potassium, sulfur, sodium, chlorine, and magnesium) are necessary for life. The remaining 49 (or more) elements are trace elements.

On a molecular level, every human being is made up of water, proteins, fats (lipids), carbohydrates, DNA, RNA, dissolved inorganic ions, gases, many other small molecules (such as amino acids, fatty acids, nucleobases, nucleosides, nucleotides, vitamins, cofactors) and free radicals.

On a body composition level, every human being is made up of muscle, fat, bone and teeth, nervous tissue (Brain and nerves), hormones, connective tissue, fluids (blood, lymph, urine), gases (including intestinal gas, air in lungs), and Epithelial tissue.

Okay, so we’re all made up of the same material.  How are we different?  There’s the differences perceived by our three of our senses such as Visual (body shape, size, hue, hair), Auditory (voice), and Olfactory (you stink, not me).

Yet the ultimate way we are different has to do with the development and use of our brains. Our intelligence and personality. Lessons learned or ignored. Our use of logic and emotion.  Decisions made and actions taken. Compassion and empathy.

I’ve met celebrities and famous athletes.  I’ve met Corporate CEOs and executives.  I’ve met poor people and rich people.  Once you meet and interact with people, it is difficult to not conclude that the concept of anyone being “special” or better” than anyone else is complete bullshit. The differences between people for the most part have no intrinsic value except within a given social construct.  Is a person who has deftly navigated their way up the corporate ladder to middle management a better person than a sheepherder? That business person may be considered “better” or more valuable within a free-market economic social construct, but that same corporate hotshot is useless in rural Mongolia, where the sheepherder is valued.

Having value and usefulness within a given social construct is something we all attempt to attain, but what about having value and usefulness for all of humanity?  The more I thought about the concept of someone being “better” than another, the more I kept coming back to one universal trait that impacts in only positive ways for all humans, yet is not valued highly among most social constructs on the planet:

Compassion.

As much as I’d like to say that more people need to be more compassionate, the realist in me knows that first, more people need to show SOME compassion. It’s sad to see the lack of compassion in our society today – stunningly so.  I see a good amount of empathy, which is fine, but empathy is a way of relating – it’s understanding how someone feels, and trying to imagine how that might feel for you.  Compassion is the next step - it’s being empathic, and taking some kind of action.  Oh, I suppose there are some cases where there appears to be compassion without empathy, but empathy is essential for true compassion.

Don’t get me wrong - there’s a lack of empathy in our society too – I think we, as a society, need to make the full move to Empathy and compassion in order to grow and better ourselves.  I’m not sure how to achieve that goal, though…and the idea that compassion is slipping away scares me.

Compassionate people are the best people.  Period.

WBEZ's New Schedule

WBEZ-FM is making some big revisions to their schedule starting Monday. 

As with most schedule changes, some things make sense, some are head scratchers. Some changes are being made to save/maximize programming costs – BBC World News, The World and Q go away in favor of a 2^nd hour of Here and Now, a Marketplace rerun, The Daily and a 1A 2^nd run.

Since the NY Stock Exchange closes at 3pm, running Marketplace as early as possible (4:30) makes sense to appeal to people with financial market interest.  All Things Considered gets big ratings, so not cutting it down from 3½ hours makes sense. The show is live from 3-5pm, then after that it is rerun on a loop with needed updates inserted. So, all along the last 90 minutes of the show has been a repeat anyway.  But now with a 4:30 Marketplace pre-empting that last live 1/2 hour, people listening from 3pm have to wait until 6:30pm to hear the 1/2 hour they missed, which kinda sucks.I would have slotted Marketplace at 5pm because of this.

At 7pm, I loved The World with Marco Werman, but I was apparently in the minority. Since the show was not simply moved to a later time period (such as 10pm or 11pm), it must have had low enough ratings that a later time slot made no cost sense.

The weekend changes are likely mostly due to ratings, trying to establish better flow and compatibility, but there were a few notable changes. Slotting It’s Been a Minute between tent poles Wait Wait and This American Life will ensure a lot of sampling. Two repeats of Sound Opinions on the weekend seems a bit much, but if the audience it there, then splitting them to Sat & Sun vs both on Saturday makes the most sense. The loss of the Filmspotting repeat Saturday nights is highly disappointing.

A third hour of Weekend Edition Sunday is silly without the show running live 7-9am. Instead, WBEZ runs the show 8-10, so the 10-11am hour (either a repeat of 7-8am or 8-9am) is old. I would bet the cost to add the 3^rd hour is minimal, and the hope is the audience will stay – bolstered with the Wait Wait repeat moving to 11am. I am looking forward to Hidden Brain, but not at 8pm Sunday. The 2^nd repeat of This American Life is being used to draw people to the excellent Innovation Hub and the new Hidden Brain, but Sunday night is a graveyard for radio, so good luck with that. I would have slotted Hidden Brain at 2pm out of Freakonomics, followed by Innovation Hub for a 3-hour block of Grey Matter stimuli.

I think several shows downgraded to Sunday late night are now on cancellation watch when the next schedule change is made - The New Yorker Radio Hour, Radiolab and Snap Judgement.  All are very uneven (sometimes great, sometimes dull) shows

You can download a schedule grid here.

NEW WEEKDAYS:  1A, The Daily

GONE WEEKDAYS: The Takeaway, The World, BBC Newshour, Q

NEW WEEKENDS: It’s Been A Minute, The Takeaway, Q The Music, Hidden Brain

GONE WEEKENDS: Le Show

WEEKDAYS

10am – 1A

From WAMU Washington DC, a talk show hosted by Joshua Johnson.  The show airs live 9-11am, so WBEZ will either be airing hour 2 live or hour 1 on tape.  https://the1a.org/about

Replaces The Takeaway

2pm – Hear And Now (hour 2)

From WBUR Boston, WBEZ now airs the full 2-hour show (except Fridays when Science Friday will pre-empt the first hour).  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Here_and_Now_(Boston)

Replaces BBC NewsHour

4:30pm - Marketplace

Kai Ryssdal and company move to 4:30pm.  This show is spectacular.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marketplace_(radio_program)

7pm (Mon-Thu)- Marketplace

Kai Ryssdal and company repeat themselves at 7pm. 

Replaces The World, Marco Werman’s spectacular show of global stories (I will miss The World).

7:30pm (Mon-Thu) – The Daily

From The New York Times, a podcast hosted by Michael Barbaro.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Daily_(podcast)

8pm (Mon-Thu) – Fresh Air repeat

Did you miss the 11am Fresh Air?  You get another chance at 8pm.  Hosted by the worst interviewer in the history of radio, Terri Gross, the show moves up from 10pm, where it was likely putting people to sleep.

Replaces repeats of Snap Judgement (M), TED Radio Hour (Tu), Radiolab (W), The Moth (Th)

9pm Mon – TED Radio Hour repeat

9pm Tue – Snap Judgement repeat

9pm Wed – On Being repeat

9pm Thu – The Moth repeat

Replaces repeats of New Yorker Radio Hour (M), On Being (Tu), Re: Sound (W), Freakonomics Radio (Th)

10pm (Mon-Thu) – 1A

A one-hour “best-of” from the earlier 2-hour broadcast, so not a true repeat since there should be some unaired new material.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1A_(radio)

Replaces Fresh Air repeats

11pm (Mon-Thu) – BBC World Service

Overnight news from across the pond starts an hour earlier.

Replaces Q

SATURDAYS

11am - It’s Been A Minute

Sam Sanders’ weekly news recap gets a cushy timeslot between Wait Wait & This American Life.  https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510317/its-been-a-minute-with-sam-sanders

12n – This American Life repeat

Moves from 11am

2pm – TED Radio Hour

Moves from 12n

3pm – The Takeaway

A weekend edition of the show starts June 1 with Amy Walter as host. Leads into the Saturday All Things Considered  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Takeaway

7pm – Sound Opinions repeat

Moves from 2pm

8pm – Bullseye with Jessie Thorn

Moves from 9pm

9pm – Live Wire Radio!

Moves from 7pm

11pm – Fresh Air weekend

Moves from 8pm

12n – Q The Music

The daily Q is gone, but here we get the best of the Q’s music coverage from the past week.  https://www.cbcmusic.ca/programs/qthemusic

SUNDAYS

10pm Weekend Edition Sunday 3^rd hour

WBEZ adds a repeat of the 1^st hour of Weekend Edition Sunday for some reason.

11pm – Wait Wait Don’t Tell me repeat

Moves from 5pm

12n – On The Media

Moves from 10pm

1pm – Freakonomics Radio

Moves from 11am

2pm – Sound Opinions 2^nd repeat

Moves from 11pm Saturday

3pm – Reveal

Moves from 3pm Saturday.  Leads into the Sunday All Things Considered

5pm – Innovation Hub

Moves from 6pm

6pm – This American Life repeat

Moves from 7pm

7pm – Re: Sound

Moves from 8pm, is still usually terrible.

8pm – Hidden Brain

Shankar Vedantam‘s show exploring human behavior and life's unseen patterns. Should be aired in a block with The TED Radio Hour and Freakonomics. Maybe someday… https://www.npr.org/2015/09/03/437264048/about-hidden-brain

9pm – New Yorker Radio Hour

Moves from 1pm. Inexplicably uneven show (great sometimes, not good sometimes) gets buried, will likely gone from the schedule by the end of the year.

10pm – Radiolab

Moves from 12n.  I love Robert Krulwich, but of late this show bores the shit out of me. Buried on Sunday night where I won’t be listening.

11pm - Snap Judgement

Moves from 2pm. Sometimes I love this show, sometimes I am confused as to what’s going on. Maybe I am old. Buried on Sunday night.

RUSH: Clockwork Angels album review

On the occasion of the long-overdue induction of Rush into the Rock & Roll hall of Fame, I present my review of their current album “Clockwork Angels”:

In their 44-year (and counting) career, Rush has amassed 24 gold records and 14 platinum (3 multi-platinum) records; placing them third after The Beatles and The Rolling Stones for the most consecutive gold or platinum studio albums by a rock band.  Their 20^th studio album, “Clockwork Angels,” could very well be their best yet.  I give it 9 out of 10 stars – and I reserve the right to increase that rating.

“Clockwork Angels” is an ambitious concept album that fires on all cylinders and dramatically delivers an entertaining emotional story with the surgical precision that Rush fans have come to expect.   The concept is simple, broad and universal: an idealistic young man takes a literal and emotional journey.  Rather than create epics songs as they have in the past (2112, Hemispheres), Rush created an epic album with each song illustrating a high point of the man’s journey.  The album’s 12 tracks are the 12 most important chapters in a story that likely contains 20+ chapters.  For those who want to know the complete Clockwork Angels story, Novelist Kevin J. Anderson, a friend of Neil Peart, will release a novelization of the album later this year. 

Starting with their 1996 album “Test For Echo”, Neil Peart’s lyrics took a decidedly heavy turn - more so following the tragic loss of his daughter in 1997 and wife in 1998.  The lyrics on 2002’s “Vapor Trails” and 2007’s “Snakes And Arrows” feel heavy, meandering, detached and in some cases joyless.  Conversely, the lyrics on “Clockwork Angels” feel fresh, tight and multi-layered.  Neil Peart’s drumming on Clockwork Angels is better than ever thanks to his studies with Freddie Gruber  and the direction of album Co-Producer Nick Raskulinecz.  Ho-hum: Alex Lifeson’s guitar playing and Geddy Lee’s Bass playing are as stellar as ever. 

The following is my track-by-track analysis, including songwriter notes that might only interest a few:

1 – Caravan

“In a world where I feel so small / I can’t stop thinking big”

One of two tracks released in June 2010, it sets up the story nicely: In a steampunk world, a boy watches steamliners rolling by and dreams of leaving his farming village and making it in the distant city.  Hard-driving and fairly straight-forward with a funky 1:30 instrumental in the middle, “Caravan” sets up the album perfectly.

This is technically the first single from the album, released in 2010.

2 – BU2B

“Blind men in the market / Buying what we’re sold”

Released with Caravan in 2010, “BU2B” (Brought Up To Believe) was remixed and a new intro was added for the album version.  BU2B presents the mindset of the society – life has been pre-planned for everyone by the loving Watchmaker and you get out of life what you deserve as long as you blindly conform. A dark slash-and-burn song, the heavy guitars in the verses contrast with buzzing, dissonant guitar sounds in the chorus. 

*Songwriting Note*: Peart wrote the song as a series of quatrains in which the first line of each quatrain is the 2^nd line of the previous quatrain.  Works fine for the first 2 verses & chorus, but the last 2 verses had to be re-arranged when the song was completed.  Still, it’s an interesting lyric form.

3 – Clockwork Angels

“You promise every treasure to the foolish and the wise / Goddesses of mystery, spirits in disguise”

High above the heart of the city square we see the angels of light, sea, sky and land assuring the denizens that “everything will turn out for the best”.  Clocking in at a trim 7 ½ minutes, the title track of the album begins with a guitar part that had me thinking of “Cygnus X-1” and “Hemispheres”.  Dissonance in the vocal melody called back to those songs as well but also added tension to the narrative. 

*Songwriting Note*: The Bridge of the song is a variation of Proverbs 3:5  from the "Old Testament".

4 – The Anarchist

”The lenses inside of me that paint the world black / The pools of poison, the scarlet mist, that spill over into rage”

We are introduced to a new character – a terrorist who blames his life’s failures on society and plans revenge. The song’s intro knocks you down: thunderous tom-toms, driving descending guitar riff, funky bass, then the bass melody knocks you out.  The song circles around and inside the Anarchist’s mind -  not to make sense of his actions but to illustrate commitment and motivation.  The guitar solo on this song reminded me of Alex’s guitars on Grace Under Pressure.

*Songwriting Note*: The verses carry the same rhyme for 4 lines, the chorus rhymes lines 2, 5 & 6 (a repeater line) also lines 3 & 4 rhyme.

5 – Carnies

“Sometimes the angels punish us by answering our prayers”

Our protagonist is working in a travelling carnival when his path crosses with that of the Anarchist leading to an unfortunate outcome.  The song opens with a heavy, HEAVY guitar riff evocative of “Working Man” - I wanted more of that riff. There’s a lot of nice things in this song that I wanted to hear more of – including a cool jabbing synth riff – that I wonder if this song was originally twice as long to accommodate all the great parts.  A good song that made me wanting more.

6 – Halo Effect

“So shameful to tell / Just how often I fell / In love with illusions again”

A short interlude to the narrative as the young man muses on a girl in the carnival he fell for who reeled him in only to ultimately reject him.  Musically this song is a bit of a pallet cleanser – a short, light ballad detailing yet another instance where the young man’s perception is proven terribly wrong.

*Songwriting Note*: There is no rhyming scheme and there is no chorus - a musical interlude serves as a bridge.  The changing refrain “What did I ___? / Fool that I was” at the start of each verse serves to tie everything together.

7 – Seven Cities of Gold

“A man can lose himself in a country like this”

Our protagonist hears the legend of the seven cities of gold that lie past the desert.  Enduring a parched desert and snow-covered mountains, Cibola always seems out of reach.  The songs starts out with a very funky bass riff and has an atmospheric guitar solo in the middle. 

*Songwriting Note*: The chorus rhyming scheme effectively uses the suffix “-ation”  The second half of lines 1 & 3 of each verse repeat the same line, while lines 2 & 4 rhyme both halves of each line (4 rhymes total) with relevant imagery of the journey.  Simple & effective.

8 – The Wreckers

“All I know is that sometimes you have to be wary / Of a miracle too good to be true”

Our protagonist is on a sailing vessel that is distressed during a storm, when the boat steers toward what appears to be a safe harbor.  As the ship breaks apart on jagged reefs and is plundered by locals, our protagonist is the sole survivor.  This is the 3rd single from the album.

The music for this song came about when Geddy was fooling around with one of Alex’s guitars that had been set to “Nashville tuning”.  After Geddy wrote the chorus and verse chords, Alex grabbed a bass and wrote the bass part. 

*Songwriting Note*: Nashville tuning is replacing the 4 low strings (E A D G) on a 6-string guitar with lighter gauge strings set an octave higher than usual.  This is usually done by taking the higher strings from a 12-string set.

9 – Headlong Flight

“Some days were dark / I wish that I could live it all again”

Our protagonist reflects back on his adventures, and despite enduring some tough times, he wishes he could do it all over for the fun of it.  This is the 2nd single from the album.

This is the song that “old Rush” fans would enjoy the most.  It’s a non-stop out-of-control jam.  The lyric “I wish that I could live it all again” came from Neil’s drum teacher and friend Freddie Gruber who passed away in 2011.  The drum work on this song is insane!

10 – BU2B2

“Belief has failed me now / Life goes from bad to worse”

A dark cloud is over our protagonist as he reflects back on his adventures again and this time he feels despair that things are not all that great living outside the orderly universe of the Watchmaker, but he makes the best of what he has left.  This is a very short, story-filler song.

*Songwriting Note*: Like BU2B, this song is a series of quatrains.

11 – Wish Them Well

“Thank your stars you're not that way / Turn your back and walk away”

Rather than try to change or waste energy on people who are bitter and vengeful toward him, our protagonist decides to just walk away and let them go without even asking for an explanation.

The lyrics apparently sprang from Neil Peart’s own experiences with people once considered friends.  It’s a good hard-driving song, but the message in the lyrics carry the song.

12 – The Garden

“The measure of a life is a measure of love and respect / So hard to earn, so easily burned”

Sentimental and heartfelt, this is a song about reflection and the meaning of life itself.  The final song on the album is possibly the best song on the album.  Starts out with shimmering keyboards and strings, with acoustic guitar entering as the verse starts.  The drums do not enter until after the chorus – it’s a great build to the highly emotional song.  Say what you will about the tone of Geddy’s voice, but he nails this song perfectly.  Alex’s solo for this song is amazing!   Awesome, awesome song.

For all those “Old Rush” Rush fans – THIS is an album to check out.   

You might actually like it.