Wednesday, July 1, 2020

Independence Day 2020 : Wisdom of a Cigar Man





Your children are not your children
They are the sons and daughters of Life’s
Longing for itself
They come through you but not from you.
And though they are with you yet they 
Belong not to you.

     On Children, Kahil Gibran











____________

Wisdom of The Cigar Man

That Pilgrim couldn’t sleep last night.
Thought dreams and questions swirled faster and faster.
He wasn’t in Kansas anymore.
“What is the point of all this?
How did this all get so corrupted and twisted inside out?
A friend’s father suggested the divine decides
To thin the heard every 20 to 30 years.
Did we ever consider how we may 
Be contributing to these distractions now and those to come?
Sometimes the distractions are much more destructive
Then we could ever dream about.
This is not about you or me.
We are not here for our own benefit and delight are we?
‘Love everyone’ is painted on both church and tenement walls.
The American poet wrote “The happiest man is he who learns from nature the lesson of worship.’
Why do I believe what I believe?
Where is it written that this person or group of people 
Are better than another person or group, or have the right answer ?
One schooled economist analyzed and promulgated how there are
Enough resources on this earth to feed, clothe, shelter
And care for every living being.
A billboard on Dylan’s Highway 61 read ‘Compassion.’
The Yoda settled in his Shaker Mission chair suggested,
 ‘The greatest love you can give your children
Is to love your spouse. Consider the world you are leaving
 to your children and grandchildren.’”

The Pilgrim recalled recently wandering through a deep mysterious fog
Into a Cigar Shop where the owner who once lived in Eastern Europe, lighted him a welcoming cigar , asked him to have a seat
And the Cigar Man began , 

“ I came to America to be free. America is a wonderful place.
Yet , Americans are clueless to all that they have. 
I have experienced how unbridled anger ,
Jealousy and greed leads to violence and war
All because people had different views .
Unfortunately Americans somehow believe all that it can’t happen here.
I thought the American political process would be better than the rest of the world. Whatever happened to coming up with solutions to solve problems rather than spending one’s energy disparaging 
The opponent or their constituents while fueling more anger?
Is the common good of the country not important anymore?
What’s wrong with trying to bring people together?
I wish you all would study more what happened in Eastern Europe and What continues there today.”

Easying into his soft leathered arm chair he concluded , “You know people from all walks of life and opinions gather, smoke cigars and have a little escape from the angst in this smoke shop. It is amazing to be with people who respect each other , talk , laugh and smoke a good cigar.”

Somehow sanctified a smile swept across the pilgrim’s face as he grabbed his lit cigar, waved a grateful farewell saying -
“ I  need to get home .”

  • JF Sobecki



——————————————


The Summer Day - Mary Oliver (live)
https://youtu.be/rBPHUE961zI


Where do the children Play - Yusuf/Cat Stevens


Teach Your Children - Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young


America - Simon and Garfunkel

Locked Up - The Avett Brothers


4th Of JulyAsbury Park - Bruce


I Remember Everything - John Price
(The last song he recorded)


Blue Bayou - Linda Rondstadt * 



And if you have not seen this movie
I recommend it without reservation ****

A Hidden Life






Happy and Safe Fourth of July
Remember “Wear (a mask) and Care / Social Distancing saves lives”




Amdg















Copyright 2020 All Rights Reserved JF Sobecki







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Monday, June 1, 2020

The Lost Recipe



Even in our sleep, pain which cannot forget
falls drop by drop upon the heart,
until, in our own despair,
against our will,
comes wisdom
through the awful grace of God.
      
            - Aeschylus



Pre-ramble:

The theme selected as the virus effects indicated flattening and knuckleheads celebrated the premature to normalcy seemed to be clear. Topics might include:
No masks.No social distancing. Demanding the opening ore-pandemic status quo activities and enterprises. Some suggested that their prayers were nullified since the holy places of “official worship” remained closed. (It was implied that the divine has difficulty listening to the silence of hearts and  our own receptors are defective outside sacred ground.)

Then the cold rain began to dissipate, and  the sun made a late but dramatic appearance fulfilling fading winter hopes and dreams. Citizens flooded streets, parks and any corners they could find. The prospect that the quiet prayers were answered was ignored for the most part. No gratitude as the crowds moved on. The scientists shouted from the roof tops “Be Careful! Stay Home! Wear masks! There will a spike and a second wave!” Closed minds and some ignorance prevailed as crowds bumped each other coughing on beaches , rivers, parks and bars. “If you are worried then you stay home’ they sang. Now doctors and health officials calculate new cases.

It all seemed like a good theme with supporting topics for a narrative but reality came crashing like a knee on a poor man’s neck and the world changed again.


The lost recipe:
Know Peace. Know Justice.

Fueling the burning embers of late night street fights 
Working on continually slowly ignorantly
building up pascals until the point where something 
Is bound to blow the lid off everything.
Rosa’s ride a simple beginning,
Ghosts of the Tulsa war and Mississippi burning ,
memories of the march from Selma to Montgomery
And Martin’s dream seem to have been swept aside.
41 shots and the so-called inadvertent continuance of the perpetual “bad mistakes’ of killing first 
and second guessing later became the status quo.
Then the knee on the neck.
The world watched over and over how 
A black man took his last breath as his hopes, dreams
And fears were squeezed out of him slowly for 8 minutes and 46 seconds.
Take outraged citizens black, white and all colors
add a slight touch of professional firebrands from all sides of the political spectrums -  
A touch of Antifa, a sprinkle of Boogaloo boys
And mix with BLMers and Neo-Facisits and voila
- the perfect bomb !
Musk’s Falcon to the stars has become a second thought blocked out by the smoke rising from American city streets below.

Were MLK and RFK myths?
Are the lessons of Gandhi and Dorothy Day
Voices in the wilderness?
The imperfect but accepted Judeo-Christian ethic and "In God We Trust" seem to be blown away with the winds of change. .

The recent echo of someone proclaiming that he has 2,000 rounds and he is “ready for the animals” frightens me more than COVID-19. My prayers , hopes and dreams shift. 

               - JF Sobecki

—————————————————

Martin Luther King Shot - Robert Kennedy
( a man , a time and place when wisdom and grace mattered)


American Skin - B. Springsteen

Peace - Subdudes


Change Myself- Todd Rundgren

The Word - The Beatles


Song For Sam Cooke - Dion

What’s Goin On? - Marvin Gaye

We Can Work it Out - The Beatles

The Public - The Movie Trailer - as must see
now streaming on TV


The Holy Longing
poem by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe


Tell a wise person, or else keep silent,
because the mass man will mock it right away.
I praise what is truly alive,
what longs to be burned to death.

In the calm water of the love-nights,
where you were begotten, where you have begotten,
a strange feeling comes over you,
when you see the silent candle burning.

Now you are no longer caught in the obsession with darkness,
and a desire for higher love-making sweeps you upward.

Distance does not make you falter.
Now, arriving in magic, flying,
and finally, insane for the light,
you are the butterfly and you are gone.
And so long as you haven't experienced this: to die and so to grow,
you are only a troubled guest on the dark earth.

Translated from the German by Robert Bly


The Sermon:

So the priest seemed to repeating the same ole sermon week after week and the congregation elected a representative to speak with the priest about the repetition each Sunday. They met and the priest was cordial in his reception. Well, weeks went by and and the sermon hadn’t changed. So, the representative went back to the priest about the problem sermon. This time the priest was surprised and he asked the representative to kindly repeat the message of the sermon. So the representative gave it a shot “It’s about loving your neighbor as yourself ; serving the sick and the poor; being selfless and kind and patient; respecting nature and seeing the divine in all things, creatures and people.” The priest was surprised and said ,“Wow, that’s really good.” The representative said “Well, the rest of the congregation would respond the same.”
The Priest then shook his said and said “ That’s surprising ,by the way they act during the week and the theme of their confessions I didn’t think they were listening.”

The lesson:

An American Tune - P Simon





Amdg














Copyright 2020 JF Sobecki All Rights Reserved



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Thursday, April 30, 2020

The April Fool's Blues


“I. The Burial of the Dead

April is the cruelest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain….”
   - The Wasteland , T.S. Eliot




I came for inspiration
I came looking for grace
And found my reflection
In every passing face

           - Jackson Browne


As the rain and the snow
    come down from heaven,
and do not return to it
    without watering the earth
and making it bud and flourish
    so that it yields seed
for the sower and bread for the eater 
so is my word 
that goes out from my mouth:
    It will not return to me empty
but will accomplish what I desire
    and achieve the purpose
         - Is 55:10-11


--------------

The April Fool’s Blues

Knocked down, locked down
Splendidly isolated, the row desolated
Retreated, self-defeated
Solitude , nourishing  gratitude
Humbled, mumbled and rumbled
Clouds hiding sun , no more fun
Raining, pouring, old men snoring
Rivers flowing, no more flowers growing
Voices blaming , fingers pointing
Faded passion, waning compassion
Hear the weeping , eternal sleeping
They’re counting cases , faceless faces
Churches emptied, Souls in need
Finding grace, in a stranger’s face
Songs sung solo, no where to go
More time in bed, prayers being said and said
Social with distance, gone in an instant
Children lost in wondering, parents shuddering
Politicians stuttering , experts muttering
Worried about the lack, everything that dies comes back
No fields of dreams , athletes losing track of schemes
Graduates stranded, employment demanded
First responders , first line servers falling
Ghosts television watching, book reading
Couch napping, puzzle assembling
Music making , more napping
Empty street walking, meal eating
Heads humbly bowing
Face timing, phone calling
Connections being made, trying not to be afraid
Always wearing a mask, this too will pass
Look a lotus flower grows in the mud
…And the morning bird’s healing song can be heard


                                    - JF Sobecki

----------------------------



Healing Rain

Healing rain is coming down
It's coming nearer to this old town.
Rich and poor, weak and strong
It's bringing mercy, it won't be long.

Healing rain is coming down
It's coming closer to the lost and found.
Tears of joy and tears of shame
Are washed forever in Jesus' name.

Healing rain, it comes with fire
So let it fall and take us higher.
Healing rain, I'm not afraid
To be washed in Heaven's rain.

Lift your heads, let us return
To the mercy seat where time began.
And in your eyes I see the pain.
Come soak this dry heart with healing rain.
And only you, the Son of Man
Can take a leper and let him stand.
So lift your hands, they can be held
By someone greater, the Great I Am.

Healing rain, it comes with fire
So let it fall and take us higher.
Healing rain, I'm not afraid
To be washed in Heaven's rain.
To be washed in Heaven's rain.
Healing rain is falling down,
Healing rain is falling down,
I'm not afraid.
I'm not afraid.


“Sweet April showers
Do spring May flowers”
    - 1157, by Thomas Tusser.


Video Poems: ( since it is the last day of National Poetry Month)


Not Spring - Elizabeth Metzger



Obit Caretakers - Victoria Chang

https://youtu.be/DUtL9X3n-UU



Your End of April and Hope for May Playlist


Land of Hopes and Dreams - B and P Springsteen


April Showers - Frank Sinatra (* for my morristown friend)


A Little Soon To Say - J. Browne

Splendid Isolation - W. Zevon

A Need for Solitude - MC Carpenter

Ghost in a Ghost Town - Rolling Stones
https://youtu.be/LNNPNweSbp8

How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live - R. Cooder

Hard Times come again No More - J. Taylor w Yo Yo Ma


Tears Of Healing Rain -  Mark Simos, Lissa Shneckenburger, Aoife O'Donovan, Keith Murphy , and Ari Friedman on cello


Shelter Me From The Storm - Bob Dylan


Human Touch - J. Browne & Leslie Mendelson


Windfall- Son Volt


Live Forever - Drew Holcombe




Amdg





Copyright All Rights Reserved J F Sobecki LLC


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