Browsed by
Tag: cuomo

Rollin’ Stone – Would You Like a Lime With That Week Four

Rollin’ Stone – Would You Like a Lime With That Week Four

Comments 0 Comment

According to my cool guitar calendar on the wall in my office that I have mentioned before, today is the birthday of Muddy Waters.

Wikipedia refers to Muddy Waters as the “father of modern Chicago blues“, and an important figure on the post-war blues scene. His style of playing has been described as “raining down Delta beatitude.”

A beatitude, a supreme blessedness.

Quite the compliment.

Well, my mother told my father
Just before hmmm, I was born
“I got a boy child’s comin’
He’s going to be, he’s going to be a rollin’ stone
Sure enough, he’s a rollin’ stone
Oh well he’s a, oh well he’s a, oh well he’s a…  (from Rollin’ Stone, Muddy Waters)

Featuring that classic blues chord progression, it’s a great harmonica song.

It is said that the band the Rolling Stones and the magazine Rolling Stone both took their names from this song.

 

I spoke with my brother Gary a week ago and he was prodding me about how I had to keep this corona theme going now that I had started.

I haven’t written a weekly post since 2014.

I had to make a beer run.

 

Things got worse this week.

Some people think this is the end of times.

Some people think it is all part of a grand scheme for Trump to declare Marshall Law and take over the country.

Some people think this is this generation’s 9/11.

I don’t think any of that.

It may be the end of times for some things, like values maybe.

This is a different country than what it was twenty years ago.


Gas is cheap.

But we can’t drive anywhere.

Flights to Florida are $49.

But who wants to fly to Broward County right now?

I mean I do, my little guys are there, but I can’t.

Yesterday I got the email that my June 4 Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit show with David Crosby opening at Wolf Trap Farm Park has been rescheduled to a future yet undetermined date.

That’s okay because maybe that means Kim and I can go to the Kennedy Center.

Oh, they are not open either?

 

Do you remember when guys used to carry a prophylactic in their wallets?

I am carrying a rubber glove folded up in my wallet

You can never be sure when opportunity knocks so you have to be prepared.

Hey, you could be driving down the road and on the next street corner something catches your eye.

That’s it!  I’m doing a U-turn for that one.

$1.69 a gallon?

Yup and  I’ve got my glove on!

 

And speaking of prophylactics.

Every time I see Andrew Cuomo on the TV, I think of how elated he was a little over a year ago as he was celebrating the signing of his new abortion law, and lighting up buildings in New York City pink.

87,325 dead babies in New York (the average number of abortions per year in New York) and you get so excited you light up buildings.

As of last night, New York had 5,489 Coronavirus deaths.

But no lights.

But I guess it’s different.

Well, who knows, without those 87,325 abortions he might be needing 50,000 ventilators right now.

Maybe that was part of his Emergency Preparedness Plan.

Maybe he should run for President.

 

Well, I feel, yes I feel
Feel that I could lay down oh, time isn’t long
I’m going to catch the first thing smoking
Back, back down the road, I’m going
Back down the road, I’m going
Back down the road, I’m going
Sure enough back, sure enough back (from Rollin’ Stone, Muddy Waters)

 

Got the Blues?

Read your Bible.

Tomorrow is Palm Sunday.

The day Jesus entered Jerusalem on a donkey, the crowds laid down palm branches before him. We begin the holiest week of the year and sadly, we will not be in church.

“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.”

 

So I began with a “Delta beatitude,” I will end with another beatitude.

“Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy” (Matthew 5:8)

Keep those healthcare workers and their families in your prayers.

 

 

And if you want to hear a little Muddy Waters playing Rollin’ Stone at the 1960 Newport Jazz Festival, here is a link.

Dear God, What a Mess!

Dear God, What a Mess!

Comments 1 comment

Oh God said to Abraham, “Kill me a son”
Abe says, “Man, you must be puttin’ me on”
God say, “No.” Abe say, “What?”
God say, “You can do what you want Abe, but
The next time you see me comin’ you better run”
Well Abe says, “Where you want this killin’ done?”
God says. “Out on Highway 61”

From Highway 61 Revisited by Bob Dylan

The story retold and modified in these lyrics, are of Abraham and his son Isaac, from the Bible in Genesis 22.  God tests Abraham by telling him “Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah.  Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about.”  Abraham proves himself to God and Isaac is spared.  To Abraham, only God had that right to ask to take the life of his child.

Recently Kim and I volunteered to facilitate a small group study based on the book by Jacob Armstrong called God’s Messy Family: Finding Your Place When Life Isn’t Perfect.  The book uses Abraham’s family story in Genesis, to help us make sense of our own families when life isn’t perfect.

Life is not perfect as we were reminded of again with the recent decision in New York to pass their Reproductive Health Act.

I am not a supporter of abortion.  I am sure many of you are and I respect that.

And though I am a non-supporter, I am realistic enough to know it is not going away, it is part of a world health initiative and it is here to stay however imperfect some of us as individuals may feel that is.

I get that.

It’s just that at my age and my current state of getting old, crotchety, and more conservative; as a father of three girls, grandfather of three grandsons, and a part a family who has lost a child…sometimes I just want to say “phooey” again.

Oh sure, there was a time in my naïve, young, counterculture life when I probably landed on the supporting side of this issue as well.  Then again, I was probably on the supporting side of many issues that I can look back on now and say… “What was I thinking?”

Life’s experiences change a lot of things.

Experiences like hearing the heartbeats of my daughters before I even had a chance to hold them or hear them cry.

Or having photos of my grandsons held with magnets on the refrigerator, or downloaded to my cell phone’s photo gallery, and even having shared them in my writing.  And these images are not the traditional school photos, these are sonogram images created by ultrasound equipment allowing me to see them before their introduction to the world. I was just as excited about them being my grandsons then, as I am now.

Or grieving a child whose heart not only beat, but was shared with many as a son, a brother, a friend, and a mentor.

 

 

So I have to ask, what is it about terminating a life that is worth the joy and celebration exhibited in New York?

One article I read said that Cuomo was exultant sporting a pink tie, and that on Tuesday night, the governor ordered the top of One World Trade Center to be lit up pink.

And why pink?  Pink is the revered color associated with Breast Cancer…And why One World Trade Center and not the Planned Parenthood on Bleecker Street? What were you thinking?

And those with him in the photo were just as exultant, big smiles, very pleased with themselves.

I wonder how many of those smiling, exultant faces have the personal experience of losing a child.  I wonder if any grieve a lost child terminated by the decision to abort; or lost by miscarriage; or by sickness, accident, or act of war.  They are all lost children regardless of their age at time of death.

And how many of those who aborted now regret that decision? How many wonder what their child would be like today?  How many of those decisions were driven by the boneheads who fathered those babies, thus protecting their right to continue to reproduce as often as the urge struck.   I have heard anecdotal stories of men who have fathered as many as three maybe even four babies, all conveniently aborted.  Or maybe it was a parent’s decision to protect their daughter from the “shame” of a teenage pregnancy, or maybe that protection was extended to themselves more.

If a law like this must be made, at least give this imperfect decision the level of soberness it is due.

You can’t have a daughter and be that exultant about the opportunity you just created for her to terminate your grandchild.

Or maybe, as in the Governor’s case, you can.

We just have to hope for a world where more people believe only God has the right to ask for your child back.

And given the opportunity, those little heartbeats be allowed to bring joy to those who want to love them.

exultant, big smiles, very pleased with themselves