God is a DJ

I had a very good and long chat with my friend Vince today who I got to know when I was doing Activations at Globe.  He started out as a radio DJ at NU then continued doing events in an events and activations agency which he now heads.

One thing interesting he said was that God is a DJ.  That sometimes, music comes to you at the right moment as if heaven-sent.  And that moment when your situation jives perfectly with the music that you were hearing at that time, whether from your iPhone or from the taxi's radio, as if on cue, as if you're in an MTV, is a gift specially made for you.

Mine was during my trip to Rome about exactly two years ago.  It was late afternoon and the sun was still high in the Italian sky when I entered the Foro Romano or the Roman Forum.  As a lover of history, walking on the Via Sacra was very thrilling as if I've gone back hundreds of years ago; as if I stepped inside a book and was walking on its pages.

To get me into the mood, I was playing classical music on my iPhone.  And as I walked upward toward the Capitoline rise, I heard a track that was unfamiliar to me.  It was dark and heavy, as if voices under the earth were murmuring a message while a constant drumbeat played in the background in a mood of suspense.  I thought of moving forward through the playlist but I was distracted with the emerging beauty I was seeing.  The view of the whole Forum slowly emerged from atop.

Then as I reached the peak of the rise, I saw it, the whole Forum.  And as if on cue, I heard that the track had a glorious rise in its melody.  The dark tone reached a peaceful height and plateaued.  Then angelic voices in a triumphant chorus continued onto a peaceful melody.  As I watched the glory of Ancient Rome.  A wild fantasy come true, unexpected and unplanned.    

I walked again down the road and took note of the ruins of the ancient Roman Empire, the Roman Senate, buildings and basilicas.  The music was still playing on my iPhone until I reached the House of the Vestal Virgins.  And there the melody settled in a peaceful harmony of instruments and voices.

After the track, I looked at my iPhone and read the name of the song.  It was Requiem Aeternam by Rutter.  And after reading the name of the track, as I climbed the old stairs going up the Palatine Hill, I felt in an instant -- that moment was given as a gift only for me, most specially for me.  Now I acknowledge that at that moment,  God certainly was my DJ.