Have not forgotten you, and a gift for you and others.

Submitted by der Alleswisser (United States), Dec 17, 2008 at 12:53

Wendy, although I would be hard pressed to even dream of living up to your kind words, much less doing so, I will get back to you, just too busy right now. But, just in case you are a music lover, I am going to try to give you a perhaps invaluable gift, one that costs me nothing but the few seconds I take to type it.

One of my passions is classical music, and the single most important person I admire is the one whose birthday was yesterday. Born in Bonn December 16th, 1770, was Ludwig Van Beethoven. His fellow musicians were stunned by his talent, Franz Schubert even stated that no one else perhaps should compose music as it would be impossible to match his music. He was going deaf, and contemplated suicide, but deceided to give the world "All the music within me." He was going deaf when he composed his unmatchable symphonies and all the other stuff, and he was totally deaf when he composed the ninth symphony three years before his death. This in my mind should take your breath away. Unfortunately, this could never happened in Islam.

History records that he tried to play his pinnacle - of - all - piano compositions, not just then and not just for the next 200 years, for all time, and that when he did so, he could not, and so everyone realized that he was deaf. So gift number 1 for you, rent the movie "Immortal Beloved," and you will see and hear the story of Beethoven, and the moment described above. And this is the only movie I have ever seen in which you must see the credits in their entirety. Watch this and you will know why.

And the final gift for any classical music lovers: WCPE broadcasts at 89.7 MHz with 100,000 watts from Raleigh - Durham - Chapel Hill, North Carolina. But most importantly, they are worldwide broadcasters via the internet, at www.theclassicalstation.org or www.wcpe.org This is 24/7 commercial free classical music that has many affiliates, is listener - powered and supported, and hopefully a wonderful gift for you and others.

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