A supervisor told me, many years ago, that I could be a philosopher.  I pondered on the meaning of his comment.  But, it does seem that my Blog Posts, of late, have leaned toward the philosophy realm?

I was watching the Gershwin Prize for Popular Song ceremony for Willie Nelson.  We were privileged to see Willie perform live at the DuQuoin, Illinois State Fair, a few years ago.  He is a dynamic performer and I was left with many thoughts and memories after the music ended.

Willie performed, at the conclusion of the tribute, Living in the Promised Land, and received a standing ovation for the songs moving…timely…lyrics.

‘Give us your tired and weak

And we will make them strong

Bring us you foreign songs

And we will sing along

Leave us your broken dreams

We’ll give them time to mend

There’s still a lot of love

Living in the Promiseland

There is a winding road

Across the shifting sand

And room for everyone

Living in the Promiseland

So they came from a distant isle

Nameless woman

Faithless child like a bad dream

Until there was no room at all

No place to run, and no place to fall

Give us our daily bread

We have no shoes to wear

No place to call our home

Only this cross to bear

We are the multitudes

Lend us a helping hand

Is there no love anymore

Living in the Promiseland

Living in the Promiseland

Our dreams are made of steel

The prayer of every man

Is to know how freedom feels

There is a winding road

Across the shifting sand

And room for everyone

Living in the Promiseland’

Songwriters: Paul Madeira; Jimmy Dorsey

Time…has always fascinated me.  The idea of a year…or ten…or one hundred…being a long period is a false construct that is formed by our relatively short lives in comparison with the Universe that surrounds us.

My lifelong friend, Jeff, asked me last year when we were visiting he and Margo, in the United Kingdom…If I ever thought about my mortality.

I must admit that the older I become…the more apparent that there is an end to this life… is evident.

 

I responded to Jeff…that I have often thought that death may be nothing like we have feared…but indeed a revealing of our true life and purpose…or our first ‘Big Break!’

Roger Ebert, the famous film critic, during the last few minutes before he died said, according to his wife Chaz, “The one thing people might be surprised about-Roger said that he didn’t know if he could believe in God.  He had his doubts.  But toward the end, something really interesting happened.  That week before Roger passed away, I would see him and he would talk about visiting this other place.  I thought he was hallucinating.  I thought they were giving him to much medication.  But the day before he passed away, he wrote me a note: ‘This is all an elaborate hoax.’  I asked him, ‘What’s a hoax?’  And he was talking about this world, this place.  He said it was all an illusion.  I thought he was just confused.  But he was not confused.  He wasn’t visiting heaven, not the way we think of heaven.  He described it as a vastness that you can’t even imagine.  It was a place where the past, present, and future were all happening at once.”

What if this life is nothing more than a Pop Quiz…in God’s Eternity?

Job said, ‘My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle, and are spent without hope.’

Perhaps the Creator has placed us all in the Sandbox of life…to see how we will play with with each other?

 

Promiseland