Today is Maundy Thursday, the remembrance of the Last Supper, the final Passover Jesus celebrated before he died.  Imagine his state of mind:  he knew that before another night had passed, he'd be dead, gone from this world.  Yet he rejoiced the beauty of the Passover moment.

     Today is also April 1:  April Fools Day.

     But it's more.  Today is the birthday of one of the greatest of the Romantic pianists:  Sergei Rachmaninoff.  Born in Russia, eventually emigrating to America and, shortly before his death in 1943, becoming an American citizen, Rachmaninoff (my wife's favorite musician) composed some of the richest music ever written for the piano. His work blends intense and mournful melody with powerful and intricate chords and keyboard movements, beautifully capturing the deepest spirit of the Romantics.  Rachmaninoff's musician gives us a poignant window into our perennial struggle with the vast and unyielding import of sentient existence.  It shows us that however intellectual we may suppose ourselves to be, we are, in the end, creatures of heart and imagination.

     Rachmaninoff's music is therefore more than appropriate for Maundy Thursday:  it speaks to the center of who we are.  In his music, we realize, again, that although reason is an essential part of who we are, we make our biggest decisions with our heart.  We are also reminded that while we may well live for the moment, we flourish ultimately when we accede to the presence of the eternal.

     For as Maundy Thursday and Rachmaninoff's music remind us, in the end, we find our true self when we submit to the fact of things we cannot see--but things whose power over us we cannot deny.

     After all, we are only who we are.