Classic Rock

Several days ago, Mike Cope wrote about classic rock and listed Steppenwolf and Three Dog Night. Those who responded mentioned Led Zeppelin and Simon and Garfunkel. Is there a difference in classic rock and classic rock and roll?

The first thing I bought with money from my 12cents-an-hour job at the variety store was a record player. It was a cheap cardboard box that only played 45's. The first 45 I bought was "Rock around the Clock" with Bill Haley and the Comets. This was true classic rock. The second 45 in my collection was "On Blueberry Hill" by Fats Domino. Elvis followed with "Love Me Tender."

Later I got sidetracked to dreamier tunes like "Love is a Many-Splendored Thing", "Exodus", and music from Broadway.

My checkered musical past (from Gene Autry to West Side Story) has led me to look for music that sounds like music, for lyrics which make sense and music with a quieter, calmer mood than one generally finds on any radio station. Come to think of it, I don't listen to radio stations anymore except NPR.

Thank you God for the contemporary Christian music which
soothes my soul and leads me to you more quickly than any other medium.

Small groups

Time Magazine (April 5, 2004) reports that Socrates Cafes are springing up all over the country. These are small discussion groups based on the Socratic method of questioning. This article led me to think about the efficacy of small groups in my life:
1. The Minter Lane Book Club. Since 1983 we have read and discussed 186 books, broadened our reading interests and drunk gallons of iced tea and coffee.

2. My Highland Small Group. They surround me with grace, compassion, and strength.

3. Trilogy. My spiritual formation group with Jeanenne Nichols and Kaye Price-Hawkins in the last nine years has formed and empowered me to surrender to the Spirit and grow in Christ.

Thanks to all the members of these groups. You have made me a wiser, happier, and better person.

Thank you Lord for friends who warm and comfort me, for those who make me laugh and for those who dry my tears. Surely your small group in Bethany did the same for you.

Tumbling tumbleweeds

Our Bible class had an enjoyable outing to Ball Ranch last weekend where we feasted on brisket, potato salad and peach cobbler.

The Ball Family Singers treated us to an old-time Western show featuring songs all of us over 50 in Texas know. I can't discern what it says about my upbringing that I knew every word to almost every song. Remember the Sons of the Pioneers? I had their records once. The songs of Gene Autry and Roy Rogers? Autry and Rogers were more than heroic movie cowboys--they were singers and minstrels who painted pictures of the Old West that foreigners still believe to be true.

As I listened, I was back in a simple kitchen in Hamlin, Texas, where the Light Crust Doughboys were always on the radio, and life was less complex.

Thank you Lord, for musical memories when I am surrounded by the cacophony of noise some call music today. Roy Rogers rapping-----Naaah!

Rainy days and Sundays

I think I should move to Seattle. Rainy days are my favorite days. Sundays are too--get it? Wet days in West Texas never get you down. They are times for celebration.

Rain and thunder visited us all day yesterday. It was a day for standing on the porch with the door open, smelling the ozone and listening to the splatter of raindrops. It was a day for burrowing into the recliner and finally finishing the scandalous mystery begun weeks ago. It was a day for leafing through Southern Living and cutting out delectable recipes I knew I would never cook. It was a day for beginning a blog--and I did!

Lord, thank you for the blessing of water in our lives and in your Gospels.

Welcoming the night

Hello to all who might read this--perhaps this will be a way of keeping up with old friends, relatives, and random readers.
It will not be profound, just musings and a way for a writer to share thoughts.

I've had trouble sleeping because of a chronic pain in the knee--My wonderful doctor James Wray gave me a magic pill
(not narcotic) which helped last night. My nights are always made better by this prayer from the New Zealand Prayer Book:

Lord,
It is night.
The night is for stillness.
Let us be still in the presence of God.
It is night after a long day.
What has been done, has been done;
what has not been done has not been done.
Let it be.