Musical Saturday Morning

It was 1966 (?) and I had a new favorite song.  It just struck a note with me and we all sang it that winter on the school bus, at school and during recess!  Decades later I won the record from a radio station whom was playing stump the listening audience - I got the song on just one note!

Paul Rainer was the lead singer on this single hit for the Troggs, many decades later he is a very close friend of mine - as is his wife whom calls me "Steven King" because she loves his books and comments constantly about how much I look like him !!!!  (that would be pre-motorcycle accident Steven!)  LOL  It was Paul's one brush with fame as he was then assigned to Western Germany as a British spook.  But, he has all of his photos hanging on the walls concerts and all. 

Makes one wonder about the twists and turns of life.  If he had stayed in rock, what would have happened to him?  Most certainly I would have never met him, nor would he be a friend today. 

Hmmmmm .....

Seeking Joy

Paul writes this from prison and he writes about joy and gain.  A sharp contrast with the life he was living ... or was it?

Philippians 1:8-11

Grow to love more like Jesus by:

Experience God's Love Yourself
It is not enough to read about God's love for you.
You need to, you have to experience it - to understand it!
Relationship with God:
Prayer
Understanding
Seeking
Listening to the Holy Spirit
Understanding
Seeking
Repenting
repeat as needed ...
Service

Choosing What Is Excellent
Discernment - ability to know wrong from right, what is of God or not, lie from truth.
Comes with maturity and study, with the Holy Spirit working in you.
We are all told to test everything - you are supposed to have this!
If you do not study, you will not know, you will not be able to judge.
Conversely, if we take our eyes off God for a moment, we can be surprised ...

Praise Everyday
Give thanks in all.
Concentrate on seeing life's positives.
Do not only view the negative!
Be of help to all, even strangers, do not expect them to acknowledge you.
See all you do as being for Jesus, in His name, for His good, not your own.
What you can not see as being for Jesus, you probably need to step away from as soon as possible.

Bring glory to Jesus.
Bring glory to God.
Just let go of pride, fear, hate, jealousies, all that is not of God.
Seek to love as Jesus demonstrated.

The Revenant

As you may recall, I am a major US Wild West history junkie.  Always have been.  When your early years are filled with elderly people whom fought in the Indian Wars, chased Poncho Villa around Mexico and Texas, and knew the tails of those whom had come before - it is so terribly hard not be be touched by those tales!  I love elderly people!

So, I was in grade four, in northeastern France and I found a book about Hugh Glass on my monthly journey to the local NATO library some seventy miles away.   I guess I thought the book was about glass ...  Instead it was a semi-riveting book about the fur trader Hugh Glass.  Don't worry, by seeing the movie - The Revenant, you still will not know anything about Hugh Glass.

So, some Hollywood types are kicked back on a business trip to old Mexico trying to come up with an idea for a movie.  Toking away at their Peyote, while passing the pipe, one of them comments they ought to redo Jeremiah Johnston ...  Stoned out of their heads, they hammer out the main portion of the proposed movie ...

Oh make no mistake, this film is not about Hugh Glass but rather about some stoner trapped in the wilds of the old west on a really bad trip!  You will get what I mean once you have seen the movie.

Okay, Leonardo's butt is there for your pleasure.  We have an aborted rape scene, a man with his jewels cut off by the rape victim, a frontal nudity of a skinny man and more brutality than occurred across the entire history of the old west, all in two hours of film!  Of course we have to denigrate the French as well and as for the "savages", well they are after-all, savages!  Oh, how high do  you like your Pawnee's strung up?  I blame Tarantino for the presentation  style and content here ....

The locations are spectacular.  I have been to most of them and really enjoyed knowing I had waded that river, peed behind that rock, yodeled in that canyon!  I am sure that Leonardo has done the same so I will now have to go back and re-stake my territory!

Acting is quite good given that the writers were most likely on drugs and had no idea what they were doing.

Clothing was a bit hit or miss.  The 1820's are not well documented in that regard - were it the 1840's then I would be beyond critical!

Language was unfortunately not historical and could have been filmed with Chris Rock or Richard Pryor at their worst.

Story line ... again no mindset of what the early west was, nor the fur trade, save for watching old John Wayne or Charlton Heston movies.  And from an Indian viewpoint, oh heavens!  We have the Cree, the Arikara and Pawnees referred to ... they probably ought to go for a group action lawsuit!  And then everyone can turn on the French and get them to pay retribution to the tribes!  Or maybe everyone with the last name of Glass could sue the estate of the long dead Jim Bridger ... LOL

In reality, the movie's storyline took place across three months time, Hugh forgave Bridger when he caught him, he demanded his rifle back from Fitzgerald - but did not kill Fitzgerald as he was in the American Army, with a high penalty for killing soldiers, and sadly Hugh only lived 9 more years after this story took place.  The Arikara got  him in the end.

My suggestion is that this is an exciting movie.  It shows how someone can be turned into a sociopath (Glass) and a psychopath (Fitzgerald).  But, it is not something I would take a teen to see, nor a female I respected.  And the real story is is far less exciting but just as riveting ...  If you love history find a copy of "Lord Grizzly" by Frederick Manfred, 1954 instead, and a large cup of some good tea.  Worked for me in grade four ....

Explosion '72

In 1971, mother decided to become a Southern Baptist.  Mind you I did not say Christian - I still have hopes she can indeed find God one of these days - drowning in the morass of theology she had her head stuffed full of at Denver Theological (danger Will Robinson!).  And with her decision came the decision that Sommer and I, as well as, all of our friends had to go to church with her.  Really?  My only satisfaction in all of that I made a couple of friends and found out they went to my high school and so had someone to hang out with at lunch!  Yeah, if I you are a foreign geek you really are not going to make many friends!  Also seemed that if you were a church attender, no wanted to know you either!  Double whammy for me it seemed.

That summer I started reading random references to something called Jesus People.  What I found interesting was that these "Jesus People" by all appearances seemed different than the hypocrites whom attended mother's church (oh, the stories I could tell!).  Sure, the biggest joke in the church was about the typical Boulder Canyon hippie visiting a church and getting invited out to lunch; at the meal he asks for more green beans and adds, "Praise the Lord".  How those people would roar with laughter!

But, there was something about these "People": they were not rioting, they were not protesting, they were a peaceful lot - really not getting into anyone's face - and that made me notice.  They talked about peace, peace was possible between all men - but it started with you, in your heart ...  Made no sense to me, as far as I knew I had no heart but peace I understood - because it was something I longed for and could never find.

The summer of 1972, the youth group all went down to Dallas, Texas for Explosion 1972.  I was unsure as to what it would be, other than an utter waste of time.  But the church had a couple of buses and the youth group headed off to Texas.  What is there to say?  The children of hypocrites, are hypocrites.  Yeah, they could talk a great line but unable to live it across two weeks.  I was completely disgusted with everyone of them by the end of that trip.

But something stuck with me ... the music.  It spoke to me.  No it was not rock or anything, perhaps folk music?  The words meant something.  And, just because I was surrounded by hypocrites did not mean that there was not a truth somewhere out there ... communicated by those words.  It started my mind working, ultimately leading to my fall from grace with everyone I knew, thrown out of my family and exiled to Seattle the following year.  In that also came my finding the peace and the truth behind those words.

I was never a part of the Jesus People, I actually never met anyone whom was, but I met a great many whom were touch by what happened that summer of '72.  We struggled to understand against the backdrop of an unyielding archaic church, whom did not understand us and would not try.  We must conform that was their only answer, no matter how wrong they were.  It was easy to understand how so many were moved to fall into cults or movements which did become cultic.

Ever so often I think of, Keith Green and Love Song,  their music, their words.  Most of it was "eh", but I think of the words and meaning behind the song, "Love Song".  They still have meaning to me.  I still have that longing within me for ultimate peace - on Earth between all men and within my heart.  But, for now, that peace will only be found within a relationship with Jesus, in faith.

And everything else will just be chaos ...

Farewell George

If you have been a long time reader of my series of blogs, then you know I have a series of "virtual children", those whom were friends of my children or me, came and stayed.  It also meant that if you wanted to call me Papa or Pops, then there was a requirement to acknowledge my right to get in your face, offer advise and help as needed - even when not asked!  :)  And understand that in that simple statement has come rushing back all of these memories of my virtual children.  Amnesia sucks at how everything can be stolen from you ... quietly waiting for something to trigger it to come back!

Virtual Fifth Daughter, has been long gone from my life (I am told too embarrassed to face me).  She choose mighty poorly in life and she never had to have, but she was watching Oldest Daughter and her choices.  Well, if OD was not willing to do what was right, why should she? Yeah, people watch our lives and our screw ups - OD messed up big and it affected many of her friends.  I do not know if OD has figured this out yet for herself yet or not.  She is big on condemning VFD, but can she see what she caused?

And VFD had a brother, George.  Oh gosh, a good looking, smart and engaging young man.  He had everything going for him - and - everything in the world going against him.  He and sister are black, not a shade of.  And he bought into the lie that the culture of the black man must be one of protest, thievery, drugs and prostitution.  Free money, to buy drugs and sex with!  What more could any young man ask for?  Oh yeah, all of your friends are gang members too.

I tried working with George to tell him about a different way through life - but to him it was the "white man's" way.  He just could never reach the point of understanding that God is colorblind.  I remember my last words ever to him were a question, "Could you try and act any more stereo-typical?"  They have hung on my tongue for over a decade now.  He knew exactly what I was saying, so did his father whom had popped in for a visit that afternoon - first time in years I guess.  His father agreed with me, what his son was calling life was really not worth living.  At 17 he was already headed down the wrong road.  A young life being wasted, refusing every opportunity to do something with his life and his anger?  It was not towards me or whites, no one had actually ever done him wrong.  It was unfocused anger because all of his gang friends were angry at the system ...  A system of rules, yes, but open opportunities to all, if you play by them ...

Back home, they have been having an odd gang problem across the past year, that I am just trying to read about it and understand.  Gangs in the eastern part of town go over and shoot suspected rival gang members in the "white" western part and visa-versa.  So, eastern shooters managed to kill a 2 year old in her car seat.  Western shooters replied by killing those associated with the suspected shooter.  On and on it goes.  East versus west, it is not even a territory war, it is just murder for the fun of it I think.

And George, a black man for an unknown reason was hanging out around a vacant house, by his home, goes down in a hail of bullets.  By all indications he had left his past behind him.  He had a job, a wife, a child - he was breaking out of his old mold (and that of culture's).  Black man, living in the "white" sector, made to order target.  Or was it a drug deal gone bad?  Had he gone back to his old ways?  Even a month later, there is no answer to any questions.  And I hate to say this, but with him being yet another dead black statistic - his case may never be honestly pursued ...

I am sorry to have heard too late of his death.  I would have gone to his funeral, to support VFD if for no other reason ...

The world has gone quite mad and I fear ... we should not wonder when evil befalls our culture, society and the civilization we have created ... when our children must pay for our sins ... in what we have allowed to be created ...

Exhaustion

Oh my how mother's antique shows wear on me!  Even when I use massive amounts of caffeine - it is all I can do to stay awake! And the codeine for the pain sort of tries to negate all of that caffeine.

But, we managed to get her booth set up on Friday.  Due to traffic patterns I had to blast off at 5 am to get down to Puyallup.  Of course, that placed me there 4 hours early, but if I had of left later, it is quite likely I would not have arrived until 2 hours too late!  Such is the life of living in Seattle where any disastrous road maintenance project only requires two or three more to really foul things up!  And they do their fouling up even the rains!

It was a humorous day, I with virtually no memories - am confronted by all of these people whom thought they knew me!  Of course, I am blank ... nothing is there to draw from.  I seem to remember flickers of certain dealers, of things they had in the past which I had admired but there is nothing - no personal attachment to anything.  Almost frustrating ... but then that is a word I no longer understand either.

I met a long hair dachshund whom was very friendly, until I realized that the lady standing behind was holding a chihuhua and I think that the dachshund thought it was a puppy!  Well maybe my German is starting to leak back, I wrote the previous sentence wholly in German!  Then had to retype it.  Sigh.  Amnesia is enough to drive one quite mad!

Luckily for me, I was not tempted by anything I saw at the show, everything was much, much too expensive and I am getting rid of stuff.  From Neandertal tools, including two rare arrowheads - to - Roycoft whiskey bottles.  I like the bottles, I have no idea what anyone sees in whiskey - yuck! :(  I also took the whole of my Russia space medal collection and odd money types (like thinly sliced yew wood, plywood, etc.). Swiss postage mailers which predated the invention of stamps to World War I Swiss Army mailings.  So much stuff and it barely touches the surface of what I brought from Europe years ago.  Sigh, stuff ...

Well, bed calls a very exhausted Kris .... :)

Sweet dreams ...

Musical Saturday Morning

I loved this group back in the early 60's and this song was recently voted the best instrumental of all time!  No idea where - no one around here ever heard of the Shadows!