40 2014 Program Notes, Book 9
Wednesday, August 6, 2014
ANGER
Family
We’re at a standstill. What she’s been sending
it’s not any money a man can build a home with.
She’s as giddy as a cyclone. All the profits go for
her pleasure.
And we’re at a standstill for what she’s been sending
is not any money a man can build a home with.
Won’t she settle down to business,
Won’t she ever learn to save something?
For what the featherbrain is sending
is not any kind of money a man can build a little
home with.
Anna I
We’re making progress.
We have come to Los Angeles.
And every door is open here to welcome extras.
We only need a bit of practice avoiding possible
faux pas,
and what can stop us going straight to the top
then!
Family
O Lord, look down upon our daughter,
show her the way that leads the good to Thy
reward.
Anna I
If you take offence at injustice,
Mister Big will show he’s offended.
If a curse or a blow can enrage you so,
your usefulness here is ended.
Then mind what the Good Book tells us
when it says “Resist not evil!”
Unforgiving anger is from the Devil.
It took time to teach my sister that wrath would
not do
in Los Angeles, the third big town we came to,
where her open disapproval of injustice
was so widely disapproved.
I forever told her “Practice self-control, Anna,
for you know how much it costs you if you don’t!”
And she understood and answered:
Anna II
Yes, I know, Anna.
GLUTTONY
Family
We’ve gotten word from Philadelphia,
Anna’s doing well making lots of money.
Her contract has been signed to do a solo turn.
It forbids her ever eating when or what she likes
to eat
she likes to eat she likes to eat.
Those are hard terms for little Anna
who has always been very greedy.
Oh if only she does not break her contract.
There’s no market for hippos in Philadelphia.
Every single day they weigh her.
Gaining half an ounce means trouble.
They have principles to stand by.
“It’s a hundred and eighteen that you were
signed for.”
“For the weight agreed we pay”
Gaining half an ounce means trouble.
More than that would mean disaster.
More than that would surely mean disaster.
Half an ounce more flesh means trouble just half
an ounce means trouble.
But our Anna is not all that stupid.
And she knows a contract is a contract.
So she’ll reason: After all you still can eat like little
Anna in Louisiana.
Crab meat, pork chops, sweetcorn, chicken.
And those golden biscuits spread with honey.
Think of our house in Louisiana!
Look! it’s growing! More and more, it needs you!
Therefore curb your craving.
Stop it stop it, at once.
Gluttons will be punished.
Curb your craving, Anna,
Stop it stop it at once.
Gluttons never go to Heaven.
LUST
Anna I
Then we met a wealthy man in Boston.
And he paid her a lot because he loved her.
But I had to keep a watch on Anna
who was too loving but she loved another
And she paid him a lot because she loved him.
So I said: “Cheat the man who protects you
and you’ve lost half your value then.
He may pay once although he suspects you.
But he won’t pay time and time again.
You can have your fun with money
when you’ve no provider you must face.
But for girls like us, it’s not funny,
if we ever even once forget our place.”
“Don’t try to sit between two stools” I told her.
Then I went to see her young friend
and said: “if you’re kind you won’t hold her,
for this love will be your sweetheart’s bitter end.
Girls can have their fun with money
when the money is their own to give.
But for girls like us it’s not funny,
if we even once forget the way we live.”
But alas, I then saw him quite often.
There was nothing going on. Naturally!
Until Anna found out, and worse luck,
blamed the whole affair on me.
Family
O Lord, look down upon our daughter,
show her the way that leads the good to Thy
reward.
Incline her heart to observe all Thy
commandments,
that her works on earth may prosper.
