I love this band.
That’s pretty straightforward, I suppose.
The 2nd Chapter of Acts’ first album, With Footnotes, featured a song called “The Easter Song”.
What a classic!
This isn’t that song….but….how much more classic can lyrics get than something from Psalms?
….”I shall seek thee….earnestly.”
Happy Easter!
Here’s what “Easter Song” sounds like….just in case you haven’t heard it before….
Awwwwww…..what the heck?
One more….it’s Easter….
I heard an interview with this guy on WNCW the other day.
What a great songwriter.
He wrote a bunch of songs that Johnny Cash did….”The Reverend Mr. Black”…. “Jackson”….a whole bunch of other songs.
And….he had a great sense of humor, too.
The DJ, Martin Anderson, lives on my mail route…so it was fun to hear a familiar voice talking to Mr. Wheeler.
Billy Edd Wheeler lives up in Swannanoa, NC….so he’s a local, I guess.
Swannanoa isn’t too far from us.
He’s written an autobiography that’s coming out soon….“Hotter than a Pepper Sprout: A Hillbilly Poet’s Journey from Appalachia to Yale to Writing Hits for Elvis, Johnny Cash, & More”.
What a life in music!
Here’s Seth Alexander talking about self-help materials.
I like self-help materials.
There’s worse ways to spend your time than listening to or reading things that might empower you….that might motivate you.
I know that there are things in the world that make you feel like there’s no way you can make it through.
Why not engage with the things that sponsor optimism?
That being said….how did we ever…or…how did I ever….think that at some point I would “arrive”….that I would get to a point where I was closer to being accomplished or….something close to accomplished?
That’s nuts to suppose that a journey has an end like that….a strong destination that, once reached, means that you don’t have to struggle or worry about things like you did when you were striving to “get there”.
If I stumble for a hundred miles….and arrive at my destination….I still arrive.
If I worry about the consequences of falling down and never start my journey, a hundred miles is a long bridge that I’ll never cross to get to where I want to be.
I want to move forward….and if I fall, I want to get up and keep moving.
I want to move.
Awwwwwww….what the heck?
I just need to fix the power steering on my Mail Jeep.
No self-help book is going to do that for me.
I just need to fix the leak.
I’ll feel better when I can drive my Jeep.
Simple as pie.
I wonder if the really important things I know were learned on an early morning run or sitting around a campfire with family and friends?
I suspect that most of the really good things I know I learned outside of “school”.
This is a Ted talk about nature kindergartens.
That’s a pretty fascinating thing….giving children the opportunity to play and learn outdoors….outside of a traditional classroom.
Listen to the laughter the speaker’s comment gets when she mentions that “it was pretty common for children to play outside. (back in the ’70’s)”
It was pretty common.
We were outside all the time.
What would you do if you stayed inside, anyway?
We didn’t have “Pong” at my house.
I couldn’t play “Pong” even if I wanted to.
“Pong” was pretty pointless and boring.
These tablets….smartphones….satellite dishes….giant televisions…change the game.
And, when I think about it, their presence in our house is my doing.
I brought these things into our lives.
I filled our house with distraction.
But….there is something to be said for spending time out in the natural world.
We need “connection”….so that we are able to recognize the need for and benefits of “protection”.
I want to be optimistic about what Nature will hold for my children as the future unfolds.
I want to be optimistic.
Sometimes, what I hear gives me reason to think that my optimism isn’t warranted.
Maybe these children will fix things as they grow up?
I stopped looking at or posting on Facebook a while back.
It looks like other folks have too.
Who knew?
Something about it started to feel a little bit creepy.
And…it is a little creepy.
Who knew?
Our Great Pyrenees loves our chickens.
Too much.
Strangely, considering the outcome of the “loving” for the chickens, they love Appa, too.
They’ll fly into his enclosure to be with him.
This has happened a few times, so when I look out the window and Appa is laying down, and he has his paws on something, and there are feathers around his paws, I have a good idea what is happening.
He plucks the chickens until they’re bald.
The weird thing that we’ve discovered (after putting the first couple of victims “out of their misery” when he tore them up) is that the chickens heal after this process.
The feathers grow back.
Who knew?
Another weird thing about all of this is how sick the relationship between the giant dog and the chickens is.
Surely they know they are headed for damage?
Why do they want to be with him?
Maybe we need to get another dog for him to hang out with?
A dog is harder to pluck, for sure.
Maybe another dog would get him to lay off on de-feathering all of our chickens?
Telling him “bad dog!!” doesn’t do much.
The pull of interspecies relations is too strong.
Fifty Shades of Appa.
Calm down, big boy….calm down.
From the YouTube description:
Dag Aabye is a septuagenarian Ultra Marathon champion who lives completely off the grid. Can two filmmakers track him down—and if so, what will they find?
Read more: https://www.theatlantic.com/video/ind…
“Never Die Easy” was directed by Adam Maruniak and Justin Pelletier. It is a part of The Atlantic Selects, an online showcase of short documentaries from independent creators, curated by The Atlantic.
“Never Die Easy”.
Good running film.
Thanks, Adam and Justin….