I'm almost done with the Nunc Dimittis, at least in terms of sketching out the music. But I promised I would write a blurb on Simeon, the old man who approaches Jesus when he's a few days (weeks?) old and praises this occurrence... mostly so he can die in peace. Boy, I tell ya, that baby musta been something. ...kidding, really. In all seriousness, though, the complete faith that he had demonstrates a true rarity. I mean, he'd waited his whole life for the so-called "salvation child" to arrive... except to Simeon it wasn't "so-called"; it was the real thing.
It's kind of funny, like Simeon I sometimes do feel old. Maybe not like pre-baby-boomers generation old, but I've seen enough in my life that I have that sense of what "the good old days" (for my generation, anyway) were like, as well as a slight feeling of yearning for them. I'm not going to lie; there are a few things (OK, maybe a lot of things) that I would like to do over again. Much of it had to do with the whole inner growth (which I'm still developing), and how this process stacks up against times when I wish I could have taken opportunities, etc. There's that "when we were" tingling in my head sometimes, and there are times when I wish I could go back and either change them or enjoy them. I don't run and skip steps while going downstairs like I used to all the time during middle and high school. My body still feels young, which is a good thing, but my brain feels older, in some spots anyway.
I do wonder why Mary's song lasts nine verses while Simeon's lasts only three. They're both pretty important sets of texts, but it poses an interesting challenge to create two pieces of different lengths (or distribution of texts) while creating a similar overarching affect throughout the whole cycle. At least with sacred verses I don't have to work so hard to please the audience like I do with just about everything else.