Isn't That What Friends Are For?

I've been an avid follower of the Canadian musician Bruce Cockburn. Here are some lyrics that are really stirring. I wish you could hear the music that goes with this. It's a beautiful song. Also, you'll note at the end of the lyrics that I found a blurb on the web as to why he wrote this song. Doesn't that always make a difference when you hear a song? For me it tends to breathe life into the lyrics because you can associate it with some dimension of the complex reality we live in. Anyway, this is from the album of songs entitled "Breakfast in New Orleans, Dinner in Timbuktu" it was released in 1999. Yes, that's the album's cover art up there on the left. Go out and buy it! Support this rocker who gets little attention here in the U.S. but that has been on the top of my list for a number of years.

Rei
______________________________

Heavy northern autumn sky
Mist-hung forest -- Dark spruce, bright maple --
And the great lake rolling forever to the narrow gray beach

I look west along the red road of the frail sun
Where it hovers between shelf of cloud and spiky trees,
Receding shore;

The world is full of seasons; of anguish, of laughter
And it comes to mind to write you this:

Nothing is sure
Nothing is pure
And no matter who we think we are
Everyone gets his chance to be nothing

Love's supposed to heal, but it breaks my heart to feel
The pain in your voice --
But you know, it's all going somewhere
And I would crush my heart and throw it in the street
If I could pay for your choice

Isn't that what friends are for?

We're the insect life of paradise:
Crawl across leaf or among towering blades of grass
Glimpse only sometimes the amazing breadth of heaven

You're as loved as you were
Before the strangeness swept through
Our bodies, our houses, our streets --
When we could speak without codes
And light swirled around like
Wind-blown petals,
Our feet

I've been scraping little shavings off my ration of light
And I've formed it into a ball, and each time I pack a bit more onto it
I make a bowl of my hands and I scoop it from its secret cache
Under a loose board in the floor
And I blow across it and I send it to you
Against those moments when
The darkness blows under your door

Isn't that what friends are for?

________________________________________

Known comments by Bruce Cockburn about this song, by date:

• 24 August 1999 - "The 'you' in that song is my friend Jonatha Brooke who's formally of a group called The Story... Jonatha and I had been going through similar things at a distance from each other (a couple years ago now), sort of upheavals in our respective lives and comparing notes over the phone for a while and we finally actually got a chance, after many months [to meet]. One of the wierd things about being a touring musician is that you make friends with other people who do what you do but you only see them, you know, when you sort of flash past each other waving on the bus, or you know, at the occasional festival once in a while you get lucky enough that you actually end up in the same place at the same time with time to spend. Eventually you know, this happened, with me and Jonatha. While I was waiting for her to show up at the designated rendezvous point, I ended up writing that song based on our phone conversations and a few other bits and pieces from my notebook."

- from an interview/live performance with Laura Ellen, "Live in the Sty" programme, KPIG radio station, Freedom, California, 24 August 1999.

The Confessional Booth

Growing up Roman Catholic had its distinct advantages. If you’ve never had to part a red velvet curtain, seat yourself in a small compartment, and sit quietly until you heard someone on the holy side of a confessional booth inquire about your private pursuits of the profane and then follow this up with a humble admission of guilt, well, then you’ve missed out on a great experience. Leaving a confessional booth after having been assigned some prayers by a priest is spiritually therapeutic! You go in dirty, and come out clean. It’s that simple. Catholics have one major up on Protestants in this practice. Being shrived of your sins by a whispering priest veiled behind a mysterious mesh screen is tantamount to taking a hot shower after having rolled around in a juicy mud fight for a few hours. (Oh and of course there are lurid stories circulating of inquisitive priests and confessing young ladies enough to fill volumes but no different than the sexual escapades on the opposite side of the theologically polarized fence. Need I mention the likes of Jimmy Swaggart? Enough said.) Sometimes I think we used to make up stuff simply because we had to say something and so we might as well make it good. But I do I remember standing in line at St. Athanasius Church waiting my turn to plead guilty for having ripped off some of my sister’s Bazooka gum and to confess that when I did the dishes the night before I never used any Palmolive soap but just rinsed. I didn’t want to be late for Gilligan’s Island.

Steady As We Go by DMB

I listened to this song five times this morning! Why? It captures the way things should be. That's about it today.

R


Steady As We Go
Dave Matthews Band

I'll walk halfway around the world
Just to sit down by your side
And I would do most anything, girl
To be the apple of your eye
Well troubles, they may come and go
But good times, they're the gold
And if the road gets rocky, girl
Just steady as we go

Any place you wanna go
Know I'll be next to you
If it's treasure, baby, you're looking for
I'll search the whole world through
I know troubles, they may come and go
But good times, they're the gold
So if the road gets rocky, girl
Just steady as we go

When the storm comes down you shelter me
When I don't say a word and you know exactly what i mean
In the darkest times, oh, you shine on me
You set me free and keep me steady as we go

So if your heart wrings dry, my love
I will fill your cup
And if your load gets heavy, girl
I will lift you up
Well troubles, they may come and go
But good times be the gold
So if the road gets rocky, girl
Just steady as we go

Please Feed Me!

I am into my fourth day of journaling everything I eat. Yes, you read that right! I have a small Moleskine journal of thirty or so pages wherein I am chronicling my palate’s culinary adventures–well, I’m not sure if a bowl of oatmeal in the morning can qualify to be categorized as a culinary treat, but you know what I mean.

Do I hear you asking me why I am doing this? I am doing this to stem the tide of life in the 40s! Yes, I am aging but I won’t go down without a fight. I am determined to exercise and eat right if it kills me. Hey, if I don’t then something else is sure to kill me so I might as well at least enjoy a good season of health.

I took a physical recently and I wasn’t so pleased with the outcome. So, I decided to do something radical and drastically cut back on certain dietary choices that are not so conducive to good health and force myself to be conscious of what I am actually consuming every day by writing down everything I eat.

It’s actually a very humbling thing to write down everything you eat. It reminds one of how we as Americans don’t eat to live but rather we are a nation of food consumers that live to eat. Perhaps by the end of the month I will be able to have an enjoyable backward glance and see some measure of progress.

I am also currently reading Dr. Andrew Weil’s book “Eating Well for Optimum Health: The Essential Guide to Food, Diet, and Nutrition.”

Let me bore you to death and share my food consumption on May 1, 2006. Don’t laugh!

Breakfast
• Bowl of Uncle Sam’s Cereal (whole grain, flax seeds, etc.) 2% milk, some honey
• Cup of green tea with some honey
• 16.9 oz bottle of Dasani water

Mid Morning
• One lonely tangerine!

Lunch
• Plate of leftover spaghetti with meat sauce (compliments of Macaroni Grill), threw away the meatball though! Noooo!!!!!! Someone save me!
• Boring bottle of water

Afternoon
• Went out to Publix and went on a trailmix shopping spree. Picked up a can of whole almonds, bag of raw (no salt boooring!!!) sunflower seeds, bag of lightly salted and roasted sunflower seeds and a bag of Oceanspray dried cranberries. Made myself a concoction to munch on when I’m feeling the urge feed myself filet mignon!
• Bottle of water #3

Dinner
• Bowl of brown rice with pinto beans (Yum! Really was tasty, I was hungry! How could I not be after eating all that goat food up above! Sheesh!)
• Cup of yogurt

Evening
• I was going to have a glass of wine but I opted to have a cup of green tea.