Boiled Spaghetti

     The following post is from November 20th of 2009. Those who live in gated communities and frolic on their yachts in their free time do not bother me. It does bother the budding communist dupe though for if they cannot live in that style of luxury they don't think that anyone should. The communist mind is not built upon care for their fellow man but rather jealousy for those with great wealth.  Communism is indeed a great equalizer, not a perfect equalizer for its tyrants still procure what wealth there is for themselves, but it does make everyone else less prosperous! It redistributes the poverty so that most, except those tyrants, can share in it. As our culture is today we will never be a peaceful and content people. We have permitted ourselves to become convinced that we must have everything new that technology offers to us, partake in every facet of entertainment available to us and become exactly what the television commercial tells us is beautiful and successful, or we are....the oppressed! No legislation can fix this anomaly in the concept of happiness and total distortion of the concept of joy for happiness and joy cannot be purchased nor are they by-products of things purchased. Contentment is a choice. Music can enhance it and it can destroy it and is the subject of this post from November of 2009. The highlighted song is about a real man, real love, and contentment that is not built on riches and therefore cannot rust away or be stolen.

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     I think that everyone realizes that music can have a powerful effect in a person's life. I am more of a Jack-of-all-trades when it comes to music. I know a little bit about many types but I'm not even near an expert in any of them. I know that Richard Wagner's compositions are stirring in a militaristic sort of way. The scene from Apocalypse Now where the helicopter gunship advances on a Viet Cong village, blaring Wagner's Ride Of The Valkyries from speakers, is chilling. When I listen to Ralph (Raif) Vaughan Williams I can picture myself sailing through the whitecaps on a tall ship. Individual songs can immediately transport me to a specific time and place. When I listen to the Fifth Dimension's Wedding Bell Blues, I am laying in my bunk in basic training at Fort Dix with Tom's transistor playing loudly in the next bunk. I am in an EM Club in Vietnam when I hear Roberta Flack singing Killing Me Softly With His Song. I'm sure you experience the same type of moments. I heard it said that Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin wrote the number one rock song of all time Stairway To Heaven while in a trance-like state and I believe that Handel described a similar writing method with parts of his Messiah. It was a song I heard today that reduced me to boiled spaghetti, as it always does, that brought me to this topic. The Winstons were a soul, funk group from the 60s and they went gold with Color Him Father the lyrics start out this way:

There's a man at our house, he's so big and so strong
He goes to work each day, stays all day long
He comes home each night looking tired and beat
He sits down at the dinner table and has a bite to eat
Never a frown, always a smile
When he says to me "How's my child"
I've been studying hard all day in school
Tryin' to understand the golden rule
Think I'll color this man father
I think I'll color the man love, yes I will

One theme that has appeared in this blog from time to time is my thought that the answers to our society's reeling out of control are not welfare, diversity or toys in abundance. They are God, family, respect for your neighbor and responsibility. This song Color Him Father, is about a man who marries a widow and becomes a father to her seven children. We are entitled to tell the God who we do not believe in that we will be the master of our own fate but no adult should make that choice for a child! Johann Sebastian Bach added the initials SDG after his name on his cantatas, his message being that his work was to reflect Soli Deo Gloria, which is Latin for To God alone be glory! I was an inquirer in 1982 when I saw the film Chariots of Fire (Academy Award winner for Best Picture and Best Original Score.) The strength of conviction in the man (Eric Liddell) effected me greatly. Country music is not my first choice in music but I hear a lot of it because it is the first choice of my wife. Maybe it is my imagination but it seems that I hear more and more themes that are reverential to God. The Arts, in general, both reflect where the culture is and influence it. It would be a worthy topic of prayer to plead God's mercy upon us by moving in hearts and minds of those who have such gifts!