Sunday, August 29, 2010

All You Need Is Love

One of my favorite Saturday Night Live skits was Eddie Murphy's "Buckwheat" character advertising an entire record album of classic songs. For those of you in the younger set, "Buckwheat" was the little Black (Politically correct: African American) boy (can I even use the word "boy"?)..... the little Black, African-American "child" who didn't speak very well in the old "Our Gang" television series. (This was when t.v. was in black and white....and the broadcast day ended at midnight... with the playing of the National Anthem)....

Anyway,... I particularly liked his version of Tina Turner's hit: What's Love Got To Do With It.... except Eddie sang it as, "What's Nub Got To Do Wit It"..... as well as his revisit of the Country Music classic, "Lookin' Pa Nub In All The Wrong Places"......

So,... now you all know my warped sense of humor...



Love.....

There's nothing you can do that can't be done
Nothing you can sing that can't be sung
Nothing you can say but you can learn how to play the game
It's easy
There's nothing you can make that can't be made
No one you can save that can't be saved
Nothing you can do but you can learn how to be you in time
It's easy...
All You need is love...

The Beatles sang, "All You Need Is Love" ... one of my favorite Fab 4 songs...
(Although a bit obtuse unless you happen to still be using LSD on a regular basis)...

Steven Stills sang, "Love The One You're With".... (that could turn out to be an interesting venture, depending on who you're with and what you're doing at any given moment)....


C.S. Lewis ventured into the literary definitions of love and came up with four types...


Familial: the love of family.... son, daughter, mother, father, sister and brothers


Phileo: "Brotherly love" in the sense of the human family, how the city of "Philadelphia" got it's name: The City Of Brotherly Love (I wonder just how true that is today?)....


Eros: Sexual love. The root of "erotic". The one love that this world seems most likely to distort and twist away from it's original intent. Hence, the lure and spread of pornographic images...


Agape: This is the love that is attributed to God.... Agape Love...a love that transcends emotions, love for love's sake....(God IS love)....First John 4:8



This is the ultimate biblical definition of love: "This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins." (First John 4, verse 10)...


The Apostle Paul made a special point of love in his letter to the first century Corinthian Church. There are a few vitally important things to consider in this life to be able to live a life of purpose and meaning. Faith, Hope and Love are the spiritual lifeblood that flows through the human heart. Faith is an extension into the unseen, whereby we may develop a trust in a Higher Power Whom we cannot see. This in turn, leads us to be able to "hope" for better things than this world has to offer, a better "future" than the tangible is able to give to us. And love.. love is the glue that holds everything together. As fallible (read,... sinful) human beings, we fall so incredibly short of the type of love we had at the beginning of creation, the full measure of "Agape" love that Adam and Eve shared with their Creator as they walked with Him "in the cool of the day". (Genesis 3:8)...

In First Corinthians, Chapter 13, the Lord's Apostle gives us the clearest picture of what true love really looks like.

"If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient, love is kind. It doesn't envy, it doesn't boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Love never fails. But where there are prophesies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears.
When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought as a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love."

What's Love Got To Do With It?...... asks Tina Turner....

Answer:...... Everything

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Friendship

When You're down, and you're troubled
And you need a helping hand
And nothing, no nothing is going right
Close your eyes and think of me
And soon I will be there
To brighten up even your darkest night
You just call out my name
And you know wherever I am
I'll come running to see you again
Winter, spring, summer or fall
All you gotta do is call and I'll be there yes I will...
You've got a friend



Songwriter: Carol King, Artist: James Taylor



Friendship....

I wrote a blog early this year about my friend, Stan. I hadn't seen him in several years, but when we got together it was just like we had never been separated. We just sort of "took up where we left off".... good fellowship.... a good friend...



When my wife and I were first married we befriended another young, married couple. All of us were struggling financially. I had a pud job that didn't pay much. My wife worked as a visiting nurse so she made fairly decent money and that's pretty much how stayed afloat in those lean years.

This couple we had befriended didn't have any children. We had one and one on the way. For some reason this couple had more of a struggle financially than we did and they never seemed to have two dimes to rub together. (Which is an interesting statement, since what has rubbing dimes together ever had anything to do with ....anything)...?...

Anyway, my wife and I would do what we could to help them out. A dollar or two here and there for gas, perhaps give them some groceries,... whatever we could afford to do. It was a hardship but we didn't mind doing it since they were our "friends", after all....

One night we were all sitting around in our living room, drinking coffee, just chatting about life, when the conversation turned to money woes again. Suddenly the wife turns to her husband and says, "You know, sweetie, if things don't turn around for us we might have to start dipping into our savings."..... Our... SAVINGS?....

I couldn't believe my ears!.... They had... "SAVINGS"!!!... And, here WE were, sacrificing to "Help" them?.... Unbelievable...

Well, to make a long story short, that was the end of our "friendship". We never invited them over or responded again to any of their invitations. We severed that relationship that night.

Looking back, I should have had more of a backbone and really let them have it.... verbally, anyway....but I didn't and that was the end of it.

The reason I am saying all this is simply to say that friendships are extremely important relationships. A good friendship is hard to find, hard to cultivate, and is a real treasure if you can find it and keep it.

There's a scripture in the bible that says, "There is a friend who sticks closer than a brother".
I truly believe it, for I have experienced it.

If you've got a friend (or "friends")... please don't take that special gift for granted. If you want a friend, then BE a friend, and don't take advantage of the relationship. Send them a note once in awhile (or just say it), and let them know you appreciate them. Be there for them when they are going through a hard time. Rejoice with them when they prosper.

And, if you have money in a savings account,.. don't be asking them for a handout. Friends treat each other with integrity.

Should the sky above you
Turn dark and full of clouds
And that old north wind should begin to blow
Just keep your head together and call my name out loud
Soon I'm be knocking upon your door...

You've got a friend...

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Poor, Poor Pitiful Me

Well, I lay my head on the railroad track
Waiting on the Double E
But the train don't run by here no more
Poor, poor pitiful me.....



song by Warren Zevon ....copyright 1973... (Made famous by the lovely Miss Linda Ronstadt....)



Have you ever thrown yourself a good, old-fashioned Pity Party?...

I do it...all too frequently...



Life ain't fair..... Things never work out for me.... I hate my job..... My back hurts.... I hate wearing glasses.... My cats give me allergies.... I never catch a break....My co-workers are a bunch of jerks...... I need a vacation.....Wah, Wah, Wah.....

Life sucks...



Sometimes I just need to read some "encouraging thoughts".... you know, some trite, meaningless, prosaic statements that will supposedly make me "feel better".... (you know the kind)...



examples:

"Self-pity is our worst enemy and if we yield to it we can never do anything wise in this world"



"We could never learn to be brave and patient if there were only joy in this world"



"All the world is full of suffering. It is also full of overcoming"



"I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble"



"I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything; but still I can do something; and because I cannot do everything I will not refuse to do something that I can do"...



"No pessimist ever discovered the secret of the stars, or sailed to an uncharted land, or opened a new doorway for the human spirit"



"Instead of comparing our lot with that of those who are more fortunate than we are, we should compare it with the lot of the great majority of our fellow men. It then appears that we are among the privileged"



BLAHDY...BLAHDY...BLAHDY...BLAH...BLAH......... (give me a break)....right?...



Anyway, if you're into this type of meaningless blather then you can read more quotes and wisdom penned by this particular writer by visiting the following website:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Keller



Helen Keller..1880-1968

Deaf and blind from the age of 19 months. Entered Radcliffe College in 1900, graduated with a Bachelor Of Arts Degree Cum Laude in 1904...

Contributor to many newspaper and magazine articles, wrote numerous essays on blindness, deafness, socialism, social issues and women's rights....

Traveled the world.... published 12 books....Honorary degrees from: Temple University, Harvard, University of Glasgow, Scotland,... Berlin, Germany, Dehli, India and Johannesburg, South Africa........ yada, yada, yada,......



"Life is either a great adventure or it is nothing"......H.K.



Anyway, this is my stupid blog for this week. Sorry I couldn't come up with something better.... I just can't seem to catch a break!...... Wah.....



Well, I lay my head on the railroad track
Waiting on the Double E
But the train don't run by here no more
Poor, poor pitiful me
Poor, poor pitiful me......

Saturday, August 7, 2010

How Hillbillies Saved My Life

I've been reading a book by Phil ("How's that working for you?") McGraw. He says that in everyone's life there are at least 5 people who have had major influence in their life. The influence could be either negative or positive, but it is a definite factor in the person you have become... the "nurture" part of nurture vs. nature in shaping the human psyche. I gave this some serious thought.... who had influenced ME over the years of my life?

One who stood out was an aunt, my dad's sister. Her name was Macy. She was the quintessential "hillbilly".... born and raised in the back hills oAlign Rightf the Missouri Ozarks. She is the only woman I ever knew who chewed tobacco.... "Redman" "Tobacco to be exact. I tried it once or twice... it made me sick.... nasty-tasting stuff...She practically lived to hunt and fish. She also toted a rifle everywhere she went.

I was just a young boy, raised in the big city. This backwoods way of life was a totally different experience for me, and every summer, starting at about the age of 10, I would spend summers with her and her husband, "Sol". (It doesn't get any more "country" than this.... Macy and Sol)..... and, of course, their numerous dogs, cats, chickens, goats,....assorted menagerie of odd-ball animals.

There is a reason I mention her specifically as one of my own "top five." In my "city" life, and specifically during the school year, I wasn't very "athletic"....not very....not hardly....maybe not at all. I always got picked last for those recess football, baseball or dodge-ball games. That was back when kids could actually interact on the playground and even get "hurt" sometimes without the ACLU swooping in and filing a lawsuit to close the school down. The good old days.

I usually felt sort of "left out" from a lot of activities.... probably because I "was" left out of a lot of activities....

But..... every summer, when I would visit my aunt and uncle in the back-hills of Missouri, I was very much "accepted." My aunt would pull out this beautiful (in my eyes) 22 "over and under" rifle, (part 22 caliber bullet and part shotgun), give me a brief education on how to hande it and shoot it and then she would look at me and say, "let's go hunting!"..... music to my ears....

Her grandson, who was about my age, would come down there every summer also, so I had another kid to play with and get into trouble with. ("Trouble" meaning, like..chasing skunks or tormenting a bull)... you should never try it,... it will end up badly).

Every summer for several years we would follow her down the trails and through the backwoods of the rugged Ozark terrain. (For some reason, "Sol" was more into driving us to a trail head and simply staying in the old pickup,... sleeping).... weird....

We would hunt and fish and pick wild blueberries and blackberries, swim in the local "crick" and rivers. I felt like Huckleberry Finn.... I "lived" like Huckeberry Finn... for about 8 weeks every year... and I loved it. I couldn't wait to get up every morning and start a new adventure...

The reason I pick "Macy" as one of my top 5 most influential people is because, at that young age, .... she gave me a glimpse into a better life, ... a life where I was trusted (remember the rifle?), and "accepted" ....unconditionally. She never told me, "you can't do this"... she just led
the charge and expected me to follow. Actually, looking back, she gave me a lot of the type of "nurture" that one should expect from a father figure, even though she was a woman. My dad, her brother, was an alcoholic and really never had a lot of time to give me... at least, not without the accompaniment of a few of his close friends,... Jack Daniels and "Bud" Weiser....were two I got to know well....

Looking back, the memories I have of those summers spent in the Ozarks, with the "Hillbillies", always come flooding back with fondness and gratitude.... and, I believe the underlying reason is because, as a kid, I always felt more "at home" with those folks who accepted me for who I was and treated me like family (because I was), and especially, because I found in them something that every heart years for.... unconditional love.

No matter where it comes from, or the shape it comes in, unconditional love is, I believe, a requisite for forming a stable personality. Most of us spend out entire lives searching for it, grasping for it, only to find it slipping through our fingers like a ghost. Human love has its limitations and I have found that no one can meet the necessary requirements perfectly, no matter how hard they try or how much they care. Even my aunt, with all her good intentions, was still a flawed figure in a lot of ways, but she was able to give me, as I said before, a glimpse into something that would eventually, as an adult, find it's fruition in my relationship with my "Heavenly Father", the One Who is, I have discovered, the Author of "Unconditional Love"....

I believe it was "He", all along, actually leading me though those rugged Ozark hills and valleys, and now, today, by His help and grace, I still find myself treading life's perilous hills and valleys, being led... by grace,....unconditionally,....all the way.... home....