Leviticus 25

This year, the Academy Award for Best Original Score went to Ennio Morricone for The Hateful Eight. Among film composers, Morricone is a legend whose expertise at his craft is matched by only one other living film composer: John Williams. If you're a Tarantino nut like I am, you've certainly heard Morricone's music before, particularly in the Kill Bill films. Perhaps his best known composition is his theme to Sergio Leone's peerless Western, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.

If you enjoy that cue (i.e., you have great taste in music), other exhilarating tracks from that score include "Il Triello" (The Trio) and "The Ecstasy of Gold;" Metallica uses the latter track to open up their concerts. Other illustrious scores by Maestro Morricone include Once Upon a Time in the West, The Untouchables, Once Upon a Time in America, and The Mission (the theme of which Morricone used as the basis for the song "Nella Fantasia," which has been covered by luminaries from Sarah Brightman and Il Divo to Jackie Evancho. I've covered it too in the shower, humming it instead of singing it because I don't know the words, and I'm confident people would pay oodles of cash not to hear my version.)

Just as impressive as the quality of Morricone's work is the sheer quantity. He was written over 500 scores. Five hundred! What's more, he's still going strong at age 87. He's definitely someone who hasn't retired, who loves what he does so much that he wants to keep working. While I suppose I'll always love writing, I'd be perfectly happy if I retired early. (To work more on writing, I tell myself, but to be candid, I'd probably spend a lot of time lazing around, reading and watching movies.) However, working does keep my mind nimble and allows me to use my meager gifts for the good of society and all that.

Still, a whole Sabbath year as mentioned in Leviticus 25 sounds pretty tantalizing to me because you don't have to work--and that's without the added benefit of strengthening one's relationship with God. Then, we have the Year of Jubilee (which reminds me of cherries jubilee; I've never had it, but it sounds delicious. Even if dogs made it, as in the movie Up.) Debts are canceled, land returns to its original owner, and hired Israelite works are to be set free. (No luck for foreign slaves, unfortunately, as verse 46 says they are "slaves for life.") As God forgives us, the Year of Jubilee helps the Israelites develop and manifest their own senses of forgiveness. In modern society, the Year of Jubilee would create a massive bureaucratic mess, not to mention those who would take advantage of the provisions, such as racking up mammoth credit card debt just before the Jubilee. While I don't want to treat those who've wronged me with indulgence, I do need to work on reflecting Christ's magnanimous nature to everyone in my life.