Friday, June 20, 2008

The best album of the decade



Dennis Wilson, the only actual surfer among the Beach Boys, the drummer, the one-time friend of Charles Manson, the one who drowned nearly twenty years ago, released an album titled Pacific Ocean Blue in 1977. It has been "lost" from then until its re-release this week. I have read about it being one of the greatest rock albums of all time.

It is.

Buy it. Now.

You're welcome.

Saturday, June 14, 2008

Are we still fighting the Civil War?



Spent the day today (Saturday) in northwest Arkansas with two purposes in mind.



The first was to visit Pea Ridge Civil War National Battleground. Why? Well, for one it is one of the best-preserved Civil War battlegrounds we have left. It is almost exactly like it was 150 years ago when a battle was fought here between thousands of Union and Confederate soldiers. The outcome of this bloody battle ensured that Missouri would remain part of the Union.



The other reason I wanted to visit was to get another stamp in my National Park passport. Hey, I told you I am a total dork.


After touring Pea Ridge (and watching cannon being fired, and eating cracked corn and boiled peanuts and real bacon), I drove another hour through the Ozarks to John Michael Talbot's Little Portion Hermitage monastery. Although two of the main buildings were destroyed by a fire in April, I was able to see their stone chapel and walk through their beautiful prayer garden.



It was a day I will not soon forget.

So, why write about these two events in one post? What do they have in common. Much, if you ask me. The first, Pea Ridge, was the site of a battle between men who should have all been on the same side. They were all Americans--they all spoke the same language. Officers from each side had fought the previous war together--they were friends, they were classmates from West Point. Now, because of a difference in how they interpreted states' rights (which is really what the slavery issue came down to--was it a federal decision or was it up to each individual state to determine how it would treat slaves?) they were shooting each other. Dead.

(In saying this, I am in no way condoning slavery. It was, and is where it is still practiced, abhorrent. Slavery was and is wrong. But the American Civil War was not about a moral decision--it was about Constitutional interpretation.)

The Hermitage is a community of Christians, of followers of Jesus. These brothers and sisters work, pray and worship together. They are seekers of God and learning to love one another as Jesus commanded us. It just so happens that these believers are Catholics. And that is where civil war begins.

A bit of background. I came to faith outside of Dayton, Ohio in the Jesus People movement and the Charismatic renewal of the 70s. The church where Jesus met me, and where I fell in love with Him, was a Baptist church. There I was taught how to study Scripture, introduced to the Holy Spirit, and was told that Catholicism was a cult, just like Mormons or Moonies. Dayton is a very Catholic city, with many Irish Catholics and many Catholic churches and schools. So now I was learning that all of these people were as far from God as were pagans. Maybe farther.

Then I went to work at the Zondervan Family Bookstore in Town and Country Shopping Center. Next to our store was a World Bazaar store, kind of an early version of of Pier One. When we needed change ("I only have twenties--I need ones"), I would go next door to World Bazaar and see Mary Schmidt. (It seemed that if Mary was working, I needed change a lot.) Mary was maybe a couple of years older than I, but we were friends because we worked next to each other. Mary was, how shall I say, stunningly beautiful, so it wasn't hard for me to find a reason to talk with her. But I was really in love with Jesus, and that is what I wanted to talk about the most. And I quickly found out that Mary was a--gasp!--Catholic. Should I even be talking with her? Was I going to have to repent to my youth group for becoming friends with a member of a cult? I figured if I could get Mary saved, then I would be ok. I mean, Catholics could become Christians, right? So I asked Mary if she wanted to become a Christian.

"But I am a Christian," she said.

"You're a Christian? I thought you were a Catholic." (I was an idiot.)

"Well, I believe that Jesus is God's son. And every morning I pray and ask Him to help me do what he wants me to do. What more do I have to do?"

Uh, nothing.

That day I learned that Catholics are Christians too.

Yet there is still a war raging in many circles between Protestants and Catholics. Us vs. Them. We are right, they are wrong.

What is wrong with Catholics? They pray to saints. (That is not what the Church teaches. Catholics ask saints to pray for them, just as I might ask you to pray for me when I have a need.) They worship Mary. (No, they just show her respect, as Jesus showed His mother respect. Is there anything wrong with showing respect to the woman who bore God's son?) Catholics think the Pope is infallible. (No, but they feel he is appointed by God to lead the Church. And we are told to show respect to to those who have spiritual charge over us. Again, is there a problem showing respect?)

The was between the states is over. We are one nation again. So when will the war between brothers and sisters in Christ end? When will we embrace one another, pray with one another, serve one another? When will we make Christ known by loving one another?

Friday, June 13, 2008

Two Songs

I downloaded a couple of songs from iTunes this week. Well, more than a couple--four or five actually. But two of them are related. I didn't realize they were until today. Musically they are both from 60s rock bands--although these songs were recorded in the 70s. The first is from Faces titled Ooh La La. It is a fun two chord tune about a grandfather's advice to his grandson about women. (Basically that they are nothing but trouble and you shouldn't let them control your heart--sound advice, if you ask me.) It has a great hook--a chorus that sticks in my mind.

I wish that I knew what I know now when I was younger.
I wish that I knew what I know now when I was stronger.


It is a great tune, one that gets a lot of play in my car and on my iPhone/iPod.

The second song is by the Kinks called (I Wish I Could Fly Like) Superman. Ray Davies sings,

Woke up this morning, started to sneeze
I had a cigarette and a cup of tea
I looked in the mirror what did I see
A nine stone weakling with knobbly knees
I did my knees bend press ups touch my toes
I had another sneeze and I blew my nose
I looked in the mirror at my pigeon chest
I had to put on my clothes because it made me depressed
Surely there must be a way
For me to change the shape I'm in
Dissatisfied is what I am
I want to be a better man

Superman Superman wish I could fly like Superman
Superman Superman I want to be like Superman
I want to be like Superman
Superman Superman wish I could fly like Superman


You may have heard this song when you have gone dancing at your local club. Uh, you don't go clubbing? Neither do I. So I asked Leah my Dancing Daughter to dance to this song. She always makes me laugh and feel good when she dances.

(Dick Clark would have said, "Great beat, good to dance to. I'd give it a 10.")

So, what do these songs have in common? They both call for me to long to be something I'm not. They both cause me to want what I don't have. The second, Superman, is a look in the mirror--and what do I see? A nine-stone weakling with knobbly knees. I wear clothes, literal and figurative, because what I see in that mirror makes me depressed. So I wish I could fly like Superman.

Superman, Superman--I want to be like Superman.

But when I look in the mirror again, I don't see Superman. I keep on wishing, and I keep on seeing the knobbly-kneed weakling.

Then I listen to Ooh La La. Great song. I really could listen to it over and over and over.

I wish that I knew what I know now when I was younger.
I wish that I knew what I know now when I was stronger.

Oh how true. Someone recently wondered if there is anything I don't know. I laughed, knowing that the little I know is really a lot of useless crap. But I thought, There is one thing I would like to know--how to make a time machine. I would go back, say to my college days. There are decisions I would make differently. Or not make at all. If I knew what I know now when I was younger and stronger I would be able to make better decisions, change the outcome some big things in my life.

Two songs, same verse. I want to be someone I am not. I want to play "what if." What if I had made better decisions? What if I were a better person? What if I were Superman?

Then I was reminded--reminded that God is the God of the living, not the dead. He is the God of "what IS," not "what if." God, says Luis Palau, is never disillusioned about us, because he has no illusions about us. So he is not put off by my knobbly knees. He does not look down on me because I made decisions that I think, in hindsight, not the best. God does not live according to past, present or future. All days are today for Him, all moments are "now." He has no regrets. Why should I carry mine around when He does not?

So, I will enjoy Faces and the Kinks. Crank them in the car. Laugh as Leah dances like Superman. But I do not need to let the lyrics live in my heart.

Music--the heartbeat of life.

Sunday, June 8, 2008

Something good about Nebraska



I give my good friend Laree no end of grief about her home state of Nebraska. Really, I have only two reasons to do so:

1. They are a Big 12 rival of my Oklahoma Sooners. Admittedly, not much of a rival these days. The Sooners regularly beat the Cornhuskers like redheaded stepchildren. But still...

2. Because there is so little else to give Laree a hard time about.

But I now have to say something good about her state. I am finding great enjoyment in the writings of Willa Cather (pictured above) who, while not technically a native of Nebraska, did grow up there. I came upon Willa Cather in an airplane magazine a few years ago. The writer listed his five favorite novels. One was Cather's Death Comes to the Archbishop. It sounded intriguing, so when I got to wherever I was going I stopped at a bookstore and bought the book. It is set in one of my favorite parts of the country--New Mexico. The story follows two missionary Catholics who have been sent to the new United States territory to restore the faith and rebuild mission churches.

The story itself is good and rewarding, but it is the quality of Cather's writing that grabbed me. It is so simple, so sparse. This is textbook as to how to use the fewest words to tell the story. So now I am checking out more of Cather's novels. (Death Comes to the Archbishop is on my shortlist for taking with me on vacation later this month for a second read.)

So today I stopped at Barnes and Noble and bought O Pioneers!, Cather's tale of the women and men who helped to settle Nebraska in the nineteenth century. Cather published this novel in 1913, at which time she was no longer living in Nebraska. After she graduated from University of Nebraska-Lincoln she moved to Pittsburgh where she taught English and worked for Home Monthly magazine. Then she accepted a position with McClure's magazine, taking her to New York where she lived and wrote until her death in 1947. But her Nebraska roots show through in many of her novels, including O Pioneers!, My Antonia, and One Of Ours.

Here are a few samples of her simple, yet deep, prose from O Pioneers!

"The history of every country begins in the heart of a man or a woman."

"There are only two or three human stories, and they go on repeating themselves as fiercely as if they never happened before; like the larks in this country, that have been singing the same five notes over for thousands of years."

"I like trees because they seem more resigned to the way they have to live than other things do."

"From two ears that had grown side by side, the grains of one shot up joyfully into the light, projecting themselves into the future, and the grains for the other lay still in the earth and rotted; and nobody knew why."

I'd give up my iPhone just to be able to write one sentence like that.

Here is a poem that Cather published in McClure's in 1911 titled Prairie Spring.

Evening and the flat land,
Rich and sombre and always silent;
The miles of fresh-plowed soil,
Heavy and black, full of strength and harshness;
The growing wheat, the growing weeds,
The toiling horses, the tired men;
The long empty roads,
Sullen fires of sunset, fading,
The eternal, unresponsive sky.
Against all this, Youth,
Flaming like the wild roses,
Singing like the larks over the plowed fields,
Flashing like a star out of the twilight;
Youth with its unsupportable sweetness,
Its fierce necessity,
Its sharp desire,
Singing and singing,
Out of the lips of silence,
Out of the earthy dusk.

OK, this poem alone makes me want to visit Nebraska.* I want to go to Red Cloud in south central Nebraska where she grew up and dig my hands through the soil, heavy and black, full of strength and harshness. I want to listen to the larks singing over the plowed fields. I want to see the fading fires of sullen sunsets. I want to experience prairie spring in Nebraska.

*I also want to visit Nebraska because it is one of a handful of states I have never been to or through. The others are Rhode Island, Vermont, Wisconsin, Montana, Alaska, and North and South Dakota. But let's be honest. Those last two are very questionable whether or not they are real states. They sound like they have been made up, like the Canadian Army. But I am willing to drive to where the map says they are to check it out.

When I was touring the Wright Brothers' museum in Dayton last summer, I noticed they had a display about Cather. I have no idea why, but will check that out further next time I am in Dayton. But relating her to my heroes, Wilbur and Orville, only makes me like her all the more.

I recommend you check out a Willa Cather book from your library and give her a try. You may just find yourself longing for a visit to the Cornhusker state.

There, Laree. I said nice stuff about your state. Are you happy?