Crazy Uncle Dave's Sports Pages
A Quote to Start Things Off
Search Me!
Pictures of Memories I
These Blogs Are So Last Year
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Recognition for My Poetry4 months ago
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Does Grief Last Forever?11 months ago
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Growing Up1 year ago
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Saturday, October 21, 2023
Randy stonehill Keith Green story
Thursday, February 23, 2023
23 23 Aziz Ansari
A Typical Tom Haverford Pose
Ansari was Born on February 23rd, 1983 in Columbia, South Carolina. I was born on the23rd of September in 1964. I graduuated from High School in 1983, and I lived in Columbia for 2 years from 1996 to 1998. If you are not familiar with Park & Rec, the scene below is a really good intro to the Tom Haverford character,
Monday, January 23, 2023
23 23 Mariska Hargitay
Friday, January 6, 2023
The Music of Poetry - The Pain That plagues Creation
Monday, October 24, 2022
A song about Middle School
Thursday, June 30, 2022
The Poetry of Music: How Can They Live Without Jesus
I have really enjoyed my short time as part of the Poetry Friday community. Up until a month ago or so, I would just occasionally see links to it on some of the blogs I follow. It wasn't until 4 weeks ago that I started posting there.
I love music, and I have a very eclectic taste in music. There are many things I enjoy about music, but I think overall I am drawn to the lyrics. Today's "Poem" is actually lyrics from a song that I think would make excellent poetry. I think once a month or so, I will share some of these songs here and post them as well to Poetry Friday, which by the way is being hosted this week by Janice at Salt City Verse.
Today's Poem/Song is How Can They Live Without Jesus by the late Keith Green.
Before I reveal the lyrics, a few quick comments about them and the writer. Keith Green was a contemporary Christian musician (CCM) from the mid-'70s to the late '80s who died in a plane crash in 1982. He was a gifted pianist, singer, and songwriter.
This song has a very strong and clear Christian message. It is a message that many may take umbrage with. I don't share it here to be divisive or evangelical. While I agree with the tone and the message of the song, I share it here because I think it's great poetry. I find it thought-provoking, and at the same time, it is enjoyable.
How Can They Live Without Jesus
How can they live without Jesus?
How can they live without Gods love?
How can they feel so at home down here,
When there's so much more up above?
Throwing away the things that matter,
They hold on to things that don't.
The world has gone crazy,
But soon maybe,
A lot more are gonna know.
For maybe they don't understand it
Or maybe they just haven't heard
Or maybe we're not doing all we can
Living up to His Holy Word.
'Cause phonies have come
And wrongs been done
Even killing in Jesus' name
And if you've been burned,
Here's what I've learned:
The Lord's not the one to blame.
For He's just not religion
With steeples and bells
Or a salesman who will sell you
The things you just want to hear
For His love was such
That he suffered so much
To cause some of us
Just to follow, follow
So many laughing at Jesus
While the funnies thing That He's done
Is love this old stubborn rebellious world
While their hate for him just goes on
And love just like that
Will bring Him back
for the few, He can call his friends
The ones He's found true
Who've made it through
Enduring until the end
The ones He's found true
Who've made it through
Enduring until the end
If you are interested in hearing the song, here is a rendition by the CCM vocal group, Glad.
Tuesday, June 14, 2022
More Than a Song: Bob Bennett
Wednesday, January 5, 2022
Saturday, October 16, 2021
I'm trying an experiment.
It's been quite a while since I've posted here. So I have set my timer for 15 minutes have put on Larry Norman radio from pandora on Alexa which is playing Rich Mullin's oddly enough. I am going to just type for 15 minutes and see if I can produce a short message.
As the school. year started this year, for about 3 weeks I was working 3 jobs. I have had a long term sub assignment as an art teacher at my favorite elementary school. I also had been working along with my wife and daughter at a minor league baseball park selling concessions. There was a section in the employee handbook that said I had to disclose to my supervisor if I wrote in a blog, but I think that was written 20 years ago when blogging was more common place. The problem was that my supervisors would change with almost every shift and the supervisors I did tell didn't know what a blog was. I also continue to work 2 nights a week at the movie theatre. I was very glad when the baseball season ended in early September and I could get back to the relative ease of working only 2 jobs.
The problem with getting back into blogging was 2 fold. The first our family has 3 birthdays in a 3 week period in September which kept us all on our toes. The 2nd is that once you get too busy to do something like blogging or reading which both came to an abrubt halt it's hard to get them back going again.
I lost 30 pounds this Summer. The trick will be not to find it again this winter. I am counting calories consistently for the first time in my life and it seems to be working okay for me. My wife and I are doing it together which is better than going it alone.
My timer just went off so I will continue this again hopefully soon with the opening sentence. I always told myself that when I got under 250 pounds I would start running again.
Music listened to during past 15 minutes:
Larry Norman - UFO
Rich Mullins - If I Stand
Randy Stonehill - King of Hearts
Rescue Story - Zach Williams
Why Don't you look into Jesus - Larry Norman
Wednesday, July 7, 2021
The Lost Art of Listening (to an Album)
In late 2020 Randy Stonehill released a new album entitled "Lost Art of Listening". At Christmastime 2020 I became the fortunate recipient of said album. I was instantly intrigued by the title. It got me thinking that listening to an album, a process that I grew up on, is becoming an increasingly lost art, ESPECIALLY in this digital age.
Pandora , Spotify Sirius XM, and You Tube have changed the landscape of how we consume music these days. C.D. Players, Turntables and the like have been replaced with phones, smart speaker and Roku. The days of listening to an album from beginning to end have been put on an endangered list by the very conveniences that have sprung up around us. I also have had until very recently the majority of my CDs, and cassettes packed in boxes in my house since our move. I had sold most of my record albums to Half Priced Books prior to our move. A friend just returned about 60 albums I had lent him prior to our move and gave me a record player to put them on line. The only working cassette player we own is in the 2004 Jeep Grand Cherokee I gave my son when he graduated high school last year, so technically, I don't even own that anymore. I won't even have the severely limited access I have to it now when he moves out.
My process for listening to an album is as intricate and as simple as I am. Ideally, I'd like to set aside a couple hours and really dig into the album. These days unencumbered hours are a luxury, so I'll generally settle for a casual listen while attending to the everyday business of family life. This initial listen the album becomes is a little more than background noise and does not yield many if any lasting impressions. This type of listen is a first step though. I equate it to walking a few blocks very day especially when you can't make your usual step count.
After this initial listen or sometimes concurrent with the initial listen I try to pore through the album materials (or the J-card as they call it in the biz). Stonehill's J-card was quite extensive , often difficult for my quinquagenarian eyes to handle but filled with lots of great information.
For my second listen, I waited until I had some undisturbed free time. With everyone out of the house., I let the music , singing, and lyrics hit me where I was. This was as freeing as it was challenging since it is counterintuitive these days to try to do just one thing at a time.
After some time passed, I listened to the album in it's entirety a few more times. These listens help me get a real sense of the album but I was still short of my goal of being able to convey that sense to others. To achieve that goal I decided to listen to each song back to back and describe the songs while in the act of listening.
Here are my observations . . .
Mercy in the Shadowland - The first song starts with strains of a hopeful melancholy that mixes world weariness with the promises of unspeakable joy both in the present journey and our permanent destination. Featured Lyrics: We'll find our rest if we just confess our sad estate. OhJesus said The Poor in spirit shall walk through Heaven's gate
This Old Face- Whimsical wisdom amid evocative imagery is one of the thing's I've come to expect from Uncle Rand these many years and This Old Face does not disappoint. This song could be titled turning 70 as this is something Stonehill, born in 52, will be doing sooner than later. Featured lyrics: It's been weathered by the wind of sadness and of sin but it shines whenever Heaven's love appears.:
Beginning of the Living End - Stonehill goes into full rock and roll mode with this bluesy guitar driven altar call. Featured lyrics: Every soul is a precious jewel, everyone should count the cost. We should all take a wake up call from the thief upon the cross.
Thinly Veiled Threat -The rock show continues and slows the tempo down a notch but ratchets up the lyrical intensity with a song that could be titled the vanity vanity it's all vanity blues Featured lyrics: History repeats like a nightmare you never can forget. All our grand inventions promise us a better world and yet, they leaves us bruised and bloody and they mock us like a thinly veiled threat.
She Loves Me -
A love song about the unfathomable divinity of romantic love. As a man who is constantly amazed by the love I share with my wife this song resonates throughout my marriage, Featured Lyrics: I am much more blessed than a man can be. The beauty of her soul brings me to my knees.
Coyote Moon Every album has a song that can get blipped over in the course of the initial hearings. It wasn't until I listened to this song twice in a row that I really heard the haunting simplicity of comfort found within it. The truth in this song is an oasis. If this album were available on vinyl, Coyote Moon would make a great last song for the first side. That way, you could ruminate over it's beauty as you flipped the disc. Featured Lyrics: Here we begin hearts on the wind laughing carefree children. But then one day, they run away cause nothing stays the same,
Still Not Over You This is vintage Stonehill, 3 different verses as examples of the theme; interspersed with a bridge and a crafty guitar interlude. It's A 5 paragraph essay for the soul, with enough originality to get it placed on the top of the pile. Featured Lyrics: (I chose the bridge cause it actually has the word bridge in it and I'm all for symmetry) Some bridges we cross, some bridges we burn sometimes the scars remind us what we learn. Sometimes you just have to turn and go the other way.
Billy Frank -A song by one of my favorite artists about one of my personal heroes, It's no big surprise that I love it. What is surprising about this love letter to Billy Graham is how Stonehill paints him in human colors and not with stain glassed hues. Featured Lyrics: You were just a Carolina boy who dreamed of playing ball who turned your heart to heaven when you heard a higher call.
Since this is my favorite song on the album I'll add some bonus lyrics:
You;ve been the voice of truth to presidents and kings.
But you've never been impressed by such things
Nothing is more precious in your sight
Than Jesus Christ the Savior crucified.
The next 3 songs are called father trilogy. This led me to tweak my process just a tad; instead of listening to each song in the trilogy twice in a row, I listened to the entire trilogy back to back . In short, I tried to experience it and thus chronicle it in the way I felt this section was meant to be experienced.
Leonard Has a Toaster Stonehill again uses comedy to broach a serious subject, family dysfunction. This song is at least somewhat autobiographical as Randy is the youngest son of the late Leonard Stonehill. As to whether the toaster is actual, vegetable or mineral, I don't know. Featured Lyrics: Age to age the dysfunction carries on, like the passing of some toxic baton.
Where Are You The 2nd song in the trilogy walks us through the pains and difficulties of having a loved one with Alzheimer's. Leonard Stonehill passed away in 2014 with Alzheimer's so this song is likely part of Randy's actual journey. Musically, vocally, and poetically Where Are You evokes memories of early Stonehill masterpieces.. Featured Lyrics: I'm becoming a stranger in your distant eyes. I am wrestling the weight of my despair. I keep wishing I could hold you close enough to heal you like some sacred prayer.
Goodbye Old Friend We say goodbye to the trilogy as Sir Stonehill serenades his father with a tender tearjerker laced with hope and regret. Again, one featured lyric is not enough Featured Lyrics 1: There's a certain tug of war between a father and a son. Words we spoke in anger , damage that's been done. I guess were both just broken like the fences we never got to mend. Featured Lyrics 2: I should have thanked you so much more for listening to my song. For all the caring things you did to help me carry on. There with me like a dusty long lost letter I always meant to send.
For the last 3 songs of the album I went back to the listen twice while composing strategy utilized prior to the trilogy
Worry About Money Billy Sprague once had an album called Serious Fun. This album could certainly be title Serious Whimsey or perhaps Juxtaposition Jukebox. Worry About Money is a down home bluegrass foot stomper that at the same time is a biblically accurate rebuke of how the material world has altered our spiritual priorities. Featured Lyrics: Money is a thing that we all need. It can serve you well but for heaven's sake it's always been the frosting never been the cake.
Angel of the Highway - This beautiful song is an encouragement of staying on the road God put you on. Featured Lyrics: It's true I'm always travelling guess that's just where I belong. Moving on from town to town with a prayer and a lover's song.
Dance Behind the Laughing Sky -
If the Lost Art of Listening is an Epistle from Stonehill to his listeners, Dance Behind the Laughing Sky is a worthy benediction.. Consider the opening lines:
Majesty on High, speaks a Holy Word and breathes a billion stars.
Love's the reason why, He molds us in his hands and tell us who we are.
Life is so much more than just a waking dream a road where dark shadows entwine.
Listening to an album may be a lost art, but Lost Art of Listening makes that art priceless.
For more on this album:
1. Read the review in CCM Magazine.
2. Watch Stonehill's 2017 appearance on More Than a Song at Dave Out Loud. It features live performances of Worry About Money and Beginning of the Living End
The Lost Art of Listening is available at Stonehill.com for $15.00. It makes an excellent Christmas present, and I speak from experience. :
Sunday, June 6, 2021
Here's a song some members of the Kinzinger Family probably haven't heard.
At the end of last November, I wrote a post about 10 things I'd like to see the Republican Party like to address going forward after the 2020 presidential election. One of these things was a distancing from Donald Trump. It isn't something that I think is greatly needed but not something I had great hope in happening. After the attacks in Washington, I hoped this would be the last straw for those aligning themselves with Trump. This happened with some Republicans but clearly not most Republicans.
One person who did not only distant himself from Trump but actually spoke out against him was Adam Kinzinger, a U.S. congressman from my home state of Illinois. Kinzinger was one of 10 Republican members of Congress to vote to impeach Trump earlier this year. Standing up to the highest-ranking member of your party takes guts and earned Kinzinger a great deal of respect in my opinion. It would be no surprise to hear that not everyone in the Republican Party holds my opinion about Kinzinger. It turns out that not everyone in Kinzinger's own family agrees with me.
Earlier this year Kinzinger received a letter signed by 11 of his family members denouncing the congressman. Here are some quotes from the letter.
"Oh my, what a disappointment you are to us and to God! We were once so proud of your accomplishments! Instead, you go against your Christian principles and join the 'devil’s army' "
"You won’t convince us otherwise with your horrible, rude accusations of President Trump! (To embrace a party that believes in abortion and socialism is the ultimate sin.)"
"It is now most embarrassing to us that we are related to you. You have embarrassed the Kinzinger family name,"
"We are thoroughly disgusted with you!! And, oh by the way, we are calling for your removal from office,"
This letter from Kinzinger's family members was written about 6 months ago just a few days after the capitol was stormed. I meant to write about this months ago as I thought there were some valued lessons to be learned from this incident. 6 months later I will just let the music and lyrics of Susan Ashton make my point.
Standing on this battlefield of strong opinion
Among the verbal brush and briar
Plenty of weaponry and ammunition
We say ready aim fire.
So you argue points of logic until I'm put in my place
And I argue my convictions until I'm blue in the face but.
We just keep on going round in circles
Lost, found, life is such a mystery
We search and we find opposing answers
Maybe we should just agree to disagree.
Can we meet on neutral ground?
For surrender
And carve a path for restitution
Because my love for you is surely strong enough
To find some kind of resolution.
Cause we can have our differences
And that won't change the way I feel
About you and about me and about God
And His whole deal but.
We just keep on going round in circles
Lost, found, life is such a mystery
We search and we find opposing answers
Maybe we should just agree to disagree.
Cause we are getting nowhere fast
When the concrete and the supernatural clash
So we will stand at other ends with all this stuff
But can't we find a common thread in love.
And in our thirsting quest for knowledge
Maybe one day we will find
That I finally see it your way
Or you finally see it mine.
We just keep on going round in circles
Lost, found, life is such a mystery
We search and we find opposing answers
Maybe we should just agree to disagree...
Monday, May 3, 2021
1921 A Musical Review: A to Z Reflection Post
Harry Truman, Doris Day, Red China, Johnnie Ray
South Pacific, Walter Winchell, Joe DiMaggio
Joe McCarthy, Richard Nixon, Studebaker, television
North Korea, South Korea, Marilyn MonroeRosenbergs, H-bomb, Sugar Ray, Panmunjom
Brando, "The King and I", and "The Catcher in the Rye"
Eisenhower, Vaccine, England's got a new queen
Marciano, Liberace, Santayana, goodbyeWe didn't start the fire
It was always burning, since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
No, we didn't light it, but we tried to fight itJoseph Stalin, Malenkov, Nasser and Prokofiev
Rockefeller, Campanella, Communist Bloc
Roy Cohn, Juan Peron, Toscanini, Dacron
Dien Bien Phu falls, "Rock Around the Clock"Einstein, James Dean, Brooklyn's got a winning team
Davy Crockett, Peter Pan, Elvis Presley, Disneyland
Bardot, Budapest, Alabama, Krushchev
Princess Grace, Peyton Place, Trouble in the SuezWe didn't start the fire
It was always burning, since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
No, we didn't light it, but we tried to fight itLittle Rock, Pasternak, Mickey Mantle, Kerouac
Sputnik, Chou En-Lai, "Bridge on the River Kwai"
Lebanon, Charles de Gaulle, California baseball
Starkweather homicide, children of thalidomideBuddy Holly, Ben Hur, space monkey, mafia
Hula hoops, Castro, Edsel is a no-go
U2, Syngman Rhee, Payola and Kennedy
Chubby Checker, Psycho, Belgians in the CongoWe didn't start the fire
It was always burning, since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
No, we didn't light it, but we tried to fight itHemingway, Eichmann, "Stranger in a Strange Land"
Dylan, Berlin, Bay of Pigs invasion
"Lawrence of Arabia", British Beatlemania
Ole Miss, John Glenn, Liston beats Patterson
Pope Paul, Malcolm X, British politician sex
JFK – blown away, what else do I have to say?We didn't start the fire
It was always burning, since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
No, we didn't light it, but we tried to fight itBirth control, Ho Chi Minh, Richard Nixon back again
Moonshot, Woodstock, Watergate, punk rock
Begin, Reagan, Palestine, terror on the airline
Ayatollah's in Iran, Russians in Afghanistan"Wheel of Fortune", Sally Ride, heavy metal suicide
Foreign debts, homeless vets, AIDS, crack, Bernie Goetz
Hypodermics on the shore, China's under martial law
Rock and roller, cola wars, I can't take it anymoreWe didn't start the fire
It was always burning, since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
But when we are gone
It will still burn on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on
I knew I was going to mention more than 26 people alive in 1921. That being said, I was very surprised when I tabulated that I had mentioned 69 people and 1 stuffed bear that were around in 1921.
At the first mention of each these people, I always included how many years they had lived before 1921 and after 1921. On average these people lived 30 years before 1921 and 48 years after. This means my average subject was born in 1891 and died in1969. In 1891 there were 44 states in the U.S.
During the challenge I tried to include material from my other blogs, both new material and previously published material on the people I was profiling. I also tried when possible to include people living in 1921 who were still alive in 2021. I started with Al Jaffee on my first post, Prince Phillip passed away during the challenge before I got to Q for Queen's Consort. I discovered today that I had already included someone years ago in the A to Z challenge who is currently living. In 2015 I participated in the A to Z challenge from, Crazy Uncle Dave's Sports Blog and my theme was White Sox Home Run Hitters. For E I wrote about Eddie Robinson. At the time Eddie was 94 years old and the 21st oldest living major leaguer. Since then, Eddie has become the oldest living major leaguer. He was born December 15, 1920. That means I began the A to Z challenge with someone from 1921 who is still alive and I get to end the challenge the same way.
I really enjoyed participating in the challenge again this year. I have my theme all set for next year but first I'm going back to the simpler non a to z blogging lifestyle. I am looking forward to the a to z road trip after a little rest. Working for a century can do that to you.
Thursday, April 15, 2021
M is for Merman
A TO Z Easter Eggs
Tuesday, March 23, 2021
How to Get Through 2021: Press On.
When I wrote my first How to get through 2021 post, I did not expect to write another one the next month and certainly not to write another one the month after that. But this seems to be exactly what I'm doing.
In my first installment, I talked about how Day by Day interaction with God will help us get through difficult times, In the second I mentioned about how true Shoulder to Shoulder fellowship will aid us in that journey. That should be it, I thought. If God is not all encompassing enough relying on and serving others who are also relying on and serving God should fill in the gaps.
Well there seems to be a third ingredient in progressing through difficult times and I was reminded it of last night when listening to Spotify. I was listening to a song by Billy Sprague , a musician, song writer and performer who years ago lost his fiance in a car accident. She was driving to one of his concerts when the accident occurred. He took a 3 year hiatus from recording and touring and his 2nd release after his return led off with the song, Press On.
Although Sprague certainly did not write this song for Covid the emotions expressed are similar to the results of living in lock-down.
Consider these lyrics
... the passion for life drained like blood from my chest
And it took more than my will just to take a step when the compass of hope was gone.
or
Every desperate prayer seemed like heaven refused and some days I found faith meant just tying my shoes and it was all I could do to press on.
In shampoo bottle parlance, if Day by Day is wash and Shoulder to Shoulder is rinse then Press On is repeat. Pressing on is a continuation of trusting God and walking along side each other through our trials and our joys.
Look at the Shoulder to Shoulder living happening in the 2nd verse...
On the oceans so lonesome I was not left alone
had some heavenly friends when my heart was a stone
and they carried my heart ache and made it their own
when the current of sorrow was strong.
(and one said)
"I pray your memories will not drag you down
not be anchors but treasures of the love that you found"
and his kind words turned hurt into comfort somehow
and the wind in my sails to press on.
I think at least those of us in western society consider pressing on a solitary activity. I think it is actually quite communal. There are heartaches every in life that could be greatly benefit from a group of people making it their own. Even as I was writing this, a friend called to invite me to a church service on Easter which reminded me how his own father said kind words to me on an Easter Sunday some 30 years ago that put the wind back in my sails. I'll save that story for another time.
In Philippians Chapter 3 the Apostle Paul discusses the concept of pressing on. In verse 9 he talks about attaining a righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith in Christ. In verses 10 and 11 he talks about knowing Christ through his suffering , death and resurrection. In verses 12 and 14 he describes how he is progressing to this point but having not yet reached it and how he is pressing on towards that goal. In the 2nd part of the 13th verse he writes something that describes a successful strategy for combating grief, co-vid or anything that life throws at us ...
Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead. Philippians 3:13B (NIV)
Paul as he often does is using his words to assign priorities. The past can be very instructional to us but we should never let it define us. Grief doesn't define us. Lock-down shouldn't define us. A Christians goal should be to become more like Christ. We can do that by pressing on and we weren't meant to that alone.
I think this may be it, but who knows, there is still a lot of 2021 to get through and I know a lot of songs.
Sunday, February 14, 2021
How to Get Through 2021: Shoulder to Shoulder
Saturday, January 30, 2021
12 from 2020
It may be difficult to imagine a hopeful piece about house arrest. Steve West talks about his life in an early covid lockdown and by using his and other's memories talks about doing far more with far less.
My ally stands. “Here’s a place—a fragile, earthen vessel, admittedly, yet one that will hold you, for now,” it says
And yes, I just did order Diane Keaton's book House which D.J. Waldie wrote the text for from my home librray.
Blog: Desiring God
Policies, Persons and Paths to Ruin: Pondering the Implications of the 2020 Election October 22, 2020
Author and Pastor John Piper is not the only contributor to the blog on the Desiring God but his posts are generally the ones I most appreciate. This post I found especially gratifying as I had decided on the same course of action for the election as he did. Well approximately the same, he chose a write in candidadte, I just moved on to the next race. Piper makes a very good defense of not voting for Trump or Biden without mentioning either by name.
Favorite Line: In fact, I think it is a drastic mistake to think that the deadly influences of a leader come only through his policies and not also through his person.
Something similar is happening now in the presidential election. Trump has predicted that he will win when the votes are counted OR if the tally shows him losing, it will be because of vote fraud. He has also affirmed that he would take the election to the Supreme Court if he loses. This is dangerous for our country. If there is a fair election AND Trump actually loses, many of his more devoted followers might protest the counting of mail in votes and declare fraud. Some of these followers might turn to violence.
I am certain this is not something Lindy wanted to be right about. At least we can't say He didn't warn us.
* I've always wanted to say italics mine. As long as we are doling out punctuation marks, I'll take the ampersand.
Blog: The Aaugh Blog
Colorblind Eye Patch Dec 9, 2020
The Aaugh Blog is an independent Peanuts website that I quite enjoy. I really liked this post that talks about some of my favorite strips from when I was a kid when Sally had lazy eye. No favorite line just favorite memories.
Blog: Thinking Person's Guide To Autism
Losing Hard Won Freedoms: The Pandemics Toll on People with I/DD December 10, 2020
I hate to end on a sour note but Covid has been especially hard on people with disabilites. as I'm typing this on My daughter who has high functioning autism is playing monopoly with her Mom and sister. (More on this epic game here and here. That reminds me that she has been unable to attend her monthly game night for young adults with HFA for almost a year. As Ivanova Smith states it ican be much more difficult for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities than just missing a game night.
Favorite Line: (Smith describing the effects of the isolation that pandemic restrictions has caused her). I feel like I am stuck in a car that keeps going backwards and backwards and I can’t make it stop.
Sunday, January 17, 2021
How to get through 2021: Day by Day
I volunteer with our church youth group, It is for 6th graders through 12th graders. Until recently it was two separate youth groups one for 6th 7th and 8th graders and one for 9th through 12th graders meeting on separate nights of the week. During the Summer we would allow the incoming 6th graders to join the middle school group and the outgoing 8th graders to attend both groups. As the Summer would draw to an end I would give the outgoing 8th graders a short (2-3 minute) commencement on their last night of the younger group.
In 2016 my son Charlie was one of the kids moving up to the high school group. I challenged the students to have a "2020" vision of what they hoped to achieve in High School especially how they could be used by God in their new schools.
Little did any of us know about what the year 2020 held for us. In fact my son's senior year was progressing quite normally until March 13th turned out to be his last day of high school that actually met at the high school. Since that day, 2020 was a rather tumultuous year (Understatement Alert).
The events of the past 2 weeks make 2021 look like it's going to be more of the same. How do we get through another year like that?
Sunday, March 29, 2015
Zuckermans Famous Pig (from "Charlotte's Web") - One Man Barbershop Mult...
Monday, December 22, 2014
Simple Plans a review and reminiscense
There is much to love about Simple Plans, from it's delightful cover art to the fact that it's dedicated to Habitat for Humanity, the fact that the music is evocative of so many styles of music while maintaining its own distinct sound. One of the things I like most about the album is that the music is so reminiscent of the work of so many of my favorite Christian artists, particularly, the late Rich Mullins, Allen Levi and Noel Paul Stookey, best known as the Paul from Peter , Paul and Mary and also Bob Bennet. Michael Kelly Blanchard and Michael Card.
I just started playing the album and will give you a few reflections as I listen.
For the shaping of a shelter, where everybody can come home
Simple plans, the title song ,starts things off. It catches the ministry of Habitat for Humanity in a musical nutshell . It is soothing musically and also spiritually energizing. This song reminds me of Spider Droid and my trip to Joplin Missouri a few years ago where we helped with construction and clean up after the tornado.
Oh remember the fish and the loaves, how love has a math of it's own
The very catchy "what you got" is a reminder that we are just pieces in God's redemptive puzzle. It is a perfect tie in again to ministries like Habitat for Humanity that rely on volunteer efforts. We may think that we have relatively little to bring to the table, but by a "just bring what you got" mentality we can see God do so much beyond our own meager efforts.
You may live on borrowed time, broken heart and troubled mind, God thinks your the keeping kind
My friend Don Brorsen and I used to call songs like no strings on love, what's your point songs back when we were deejaying together in college, We called them this because they repeat the moral of the story lyric so many times. We sometimes meant this term derisively, however the repetition works nicely on no strings on love. Don, like all of us, lived on borrowed time , dying of cancer earlier this year. He also was familiar with broken hearts and troubled minds, I am not sure if he ever heard this song but confident it would have ministered to him if he had. This song is the most Stookeyesque of the set. It is fast paced, but deep , thoughtful and provocative.
I will remember the hands of Christ, touching the broken, the scandalized.
If No Strings on Love is the most Stookeysque of the tracks on Simple Plans, Love The World is hands down the most Mullinsesque. Crockett performed BGV's for Rich Mullins self titled debut Album in 1986 and also played guitar and toured with Mullins in later efforts. Just a few years after Mullins untimely death, Mullins presence is palpable on Simple Plans and most evident on this track as well as the cover artwork.
What I see in you is shining in your eyes written on your face ... and I will be the lucky one for all I see in you.
All I See in You seems to be an intimate song about a friendship that I would love to know the whole story about. It reminds me of the power that encouragement brings and how well placed words can have a lifetime of benefit. I remember when I was engaged to Amy, I was briefly unemployed and felt bad as I had no job. When I shared that concern with her, she said I'm not worried, you always work. That confidence in me has helped me many times in retrospect when difficulties have come. Knowing that Amy is in my corner, has been enough to keep on punching through.
What have you learned that means a difference to you?
Billy Crockett and Allen Levi are the only 2 artists I know who have the consistent ability to be simultaneously irreverent, silly , poignant and thought provoking. There songs are like poetic lasagna with many layers weaved throughout. Tap on Your Shoulder from the fast pace to the Stookyesques "Tap Tap" is the most fun song on a very fun album.
All of my children will be who they will be and I will be there with them to the end.
While there may be too much hoe down in All of My Children for my wife's liking, I like the simple message that God made us special and loves us very much. It's a very Big Idea.
I find my guitar and I walk to the light and I vow to be the man I'm made to be tonight.
Following Hammer Thumb , a brief instrumental interlude that shows off Crockett's mammoth guitar abilities , Mark and Sammy is the one song on the album that has not aged well. This is mainly due to the fact that Crockett uses the home run race between Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa from 1998 to sing about doing your best and playing at a high level. Unfortunately how could Crockett know that McGwire and Sosa's achievements would be tainted by allegations and admissions of steroid use? It is my sincere hope that Crockett did not use PED's or fill his guitar with cork to complete this album.
It all turns doesn't it turn, daylight to darkness and daylight back again
It All Turns is a modern lullaby, a soothing song about the beautiful cyclical nature of life. It is like the book of Ecclesiastes from a glass half full perspective.
Nobody wants to be the last in line.
Jesus mixes things up. He took the hierarchy of his day and stood it on his ear. In his vivid descriptions of what it means in our society to be last, Crockett shows how powerful Christ's contention that in the kingdom of heaven the last will be first, really is.
The problem with many records is that they are not produced to have one cohesive message. The songs are not laid out in any order and are usually a hodge podge thematically. I do not feel that way about this album. The overall message I get from Simple Plans is that of a modern epistle about God's role in our lives, and ours in His mission. Like most epistles, Crockett ends his with a benediction called Traveling Mercies.
My favorite lines from the song are ...
Go in peace
live in grace
trust in the arms that will hold you
go in peace
live in grace trust God's love
That is a message suitable for 1999 , now and the future.