North Carolina Home

Long about 700 A.D., a kingly dynasty emerged from among the people of what is now called France. From 688 to 741 A.D. the politics and military operations of the Frankish people was ruled by a leader, Charles Martel. When Charles died, the kingdom was divided between his sons, Carloman and Pepin. Pepin’s reign over Frankish lands became known, as ages passed, as the Carolingian dynasty. Pepin’s son, Charlemagne, built a legacy of military rule, leadership and regal authority that became known historically as the Carolingian dynasty. Thanks for reading Carey's Snippets! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. In the year 778, Emperor Charlemagne engaged in battle at Roncesvelles pass in the Pyrenees mountains, which are along the border of what is now France and Spain. Events in that battle became, later, the basis for the French epic, Chanson de Roland. As the time of Emperor Charlemagne’s death was approaching, his legacy became known as the Carolingian empire, which ruled the Frankish dominions for the greater part of the 9th century. Later, the name was simplified to “France.” Their epic, the Chanson do Roland, later became the inspiration for naming my first vinyl LP (1978) the Songs of Rowland. But that’s neither here nor there. As I was saying. . A century later, King Louis V ruled for about twenty years. He was the last of what is called the Carolingian dynastry of what later became France. Then centuries rolled through time. About a thousand years later, a new kid on the block of world history came along, Britannia, known these days as Great Britain. The origin point is that island in the North Atlantic, also known as England. A thousand years after the Carolingian empire discombobulated, the Brits were sailing around establishing their hegemony, later known as the world empire on which the sun never sets. Dream on, ye limeys! But anyway, as I was getting to. . . ,During that era of British expansion, they established colonies in North America. On the east coast of the North American continent, the Carolina colony was established. Ultimately the colony was divided into North Carolina and South Carolina. Later, after the thirteen British colonies of north America had fought their way out of British nomination, we established the state of North Carolina.

On our southern border, which runs east-to-west from the Atlantic to the Smoky mountains region, a state line was established to clarify, for all time, that we citizens of North Carolina are who we are, and those folks down there in South Carolina are who they are, and they can do their own thing, I mean, it seems to me that sometimes they get a little cocky. But that’s neither here nor thee. . . it’s there, not here in North Carolina where we live. You see , , , back in the day those cocky South Carolinians started a civil war, and later we got dragged into it, even though we didn’t have near the number of slaves that they had had. But hey! Let bygones be bygones. We’ve managed to forgive them for that. That kind of sumters it all up for you, in a nutshell, a peanut shell or whatever. Even so, I must admit that we tarheels and blue devils and mountaineers and other North Carolinians do like to vacation down there in Myrtle Beach every now and then. But I digress. What i’m getting to here is that, about thirty years ago, I wrote a song about the great state of North Carolina. I thought you might like to hear it; so, if you care to, you can listen to North Carolina Is My Home.

Chicago!

Chicago, Chicago, my kind of town! To you, to you, did the coasts come around. Great pumping heart for the American dream. Designated hitter for the American team Pumper of power, builder of towers, Engine of steam

Manufacturer, Retailer, Joiner of Rivers, Progress shipper Master of migration, piper of hydration, mid-America skipper Wheeler, dealer, produce peeler, slump healer, water dipper Engine of progress from Conception to Completion Wagon of wheels from New York to California. Joiner of Rivers Snow king, Water whiz, prairie prince, furnace against shivers Makers, shakers, quakers, stakers, takers and givers. They tell me you are butcher for the world. But I see you as the American dream unfurled.

You are the football, the puck, the bat, the baseball hurled You are the American flag, old glory, the flap and the whirl You are Lake Michigan, the Illinois, the swamps made to whirl. You’re the playground for every boy and girl You are the Freedom, the Energy, the stars and the stripes; You are the water, the prairie conduit, steam and pipes. You are the Apple of Manhattan made ripe! Oh, New York, New York, where is your bling? To you, L.A. Frisco, Seattle, Denver, Twin Cities, we bring the other side of America, westward migration, completing the ring the cycle of progress, the wheel of fortune and wealth the prairie, the harvest, the produce: American health! Chicago, Chicago, joiner of the halves of a Nation enjoined Oh windy city, city of plenty, Wealth of the nation encoined! You are Production defeating poverty purloined. Chicago, Chicago, glorious and free

Great city where to whence movers and shakers did flee. Oh, Chicago, Chicago, great middle city for America, for me! You are the football, the puck, the bat, the baseball hurled! The three-pointer long shot to win the tournament of the World! King of Soul

Thanks for the Memories

When I was a child, I spoke as a child. Now I am an old man; I write as an old man. Early on, I rode a bicycle. Now I recycle. oh, yes, household detritus and worn-out stuff gets properly handled for the sake of the planet that I grew up on. But in a wider perspective, I recycle the stuff of my 73 years into whatever comes to mind . . . whatever I find, in that grey matter up there at the crown of creation. Creation is an ongoing miracle that I did not invent; Creator created me, and I make the best of what I got; been doing it for 73 years now. When I was younger, a fellow named McGuire came along and wrote a song, “Eve of Destruction.” I see what he was getting at, Things were dire for McGuire when Kruschev and Kennedy were rehearsing Russian roulette. I remember. I remember. After spending part of my life in construction, I have decided that is generally better than destruction, although, truth be told, sometimes you have to tear down before you can build up. Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation wasn’t fulfilled around his mission required sending soldiers to tear down the slave establishment that my southern forebears had been constructing for a couple of centuries. Life comes shining, we notice, from the East unto the West. Dreams may culminate in Fulfillment, or . . . maybe not. But you gotta give it a shot. And it’s funny; sometimes its New to New; sometimes its New to Old to New. And, for sure, kids have a lot to do with it. There was a time when I was one of the New Generation; now I’m just an old guy, like my wife’s gramps was, back in the day, The Blood Sweat and Tears singer sang. . . or maybe it was the the Chicago Transit Authority singer (I’m writing this in Chicago) who sang: “Give me my freedom for as long as i live; all I ask of living is to have no chains on me, and all I ask of dying is to go naturally . . . and when I die, when I’m dead, dead and gone. . . there’ll be one child born and a world to carry on, a world to carry on. Well, in our case, its three who carry on, and so on and so on. Neil Young sang to and Old Man to “take a look at my life; I’m a lot like you.” Now that I am on old guy, I do see young folks out there in the hinterlands, living life. . . well, we’re all the same really, but not really. . . at least, us Americans, we’re a special breed. i mean—not that we’re any better than anybody else—but we did inherit something special when Jefferson wrote, back in the day: “. . . all Men are created equal; they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.” And that has worked well for us. It still does. And there’s so much good stuff to ruminate about. At the Simon and Garfunkel show, a couple of nights ago, the two guys there were singing the old song, “Old Friends” who “sit on their park bench like bookends; a newspaper blown through the grass falls on the round toes of the old shoes of the Old Friends. And come to think of it. . . that’s important to understand: Friends are very important in Life. I mean, next to husband or wife, and the young’uns that come along, friends are one of the most precious blessings we have. When I was a teenager, I remember listening to Judy Collins, on—I think it was the “Wildflowers” album, “My father always promised us that we would live in France; we’d go boating on the Seine, and I would learn to dance. We lived in Ohio then; he worked in the mines. . .now I remember . . . the setting sun . . . in my father’s eyes.” Or something like that. Now I’m a fathe—grandfather no less—remembering—or trying to—all of it. But I have also learned that, if you want to live a quality life, you should tap into the ancient wisdom, such as: the ancient prophet comes to mind, Jeremiah. He went to a potter’s shop because the Lord told him to. When he got there, he watched what the potter was doing. And life is a lot like that: we are clay in the Great YWHW Potter’s hands, spinning on the wheels of time, chance, providence and the grace of God. To get a glimpse of the final phase—where we’re headed in the big picture, check out Revelation 5:9: https://open.spotify.com/track/4t3dyoa2vpmTqvZ2uKuL9W?si=4d13b30bc6b34974

Time Times and half a Time

About 2400 years ago, the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar took control of what had been the land of the Jews—Judah and Israel. Because ole Neb was a smart guy, he understood that those Jews whom he had subdued were smart people. They were not street-smart like he was. They were not control freaks. They were not powermongers. They were people of the Book; they are the people pay attention to what is going on; who read and pay attention and pass from generations to generation the history and the theology that we know in this modern ago. Moses started the Book long ago when he wrote the story of their Exodus, a story that later inspired Martin Luther King, when he had spoken and acted with conviction to set free the captives of racist oppression. https://open.spotify.com/track/0NNQLsb7YExz88Fgak87Ze?si=ce9bd4eb7aaf4550&nd=1&dlsi=9fc79d1cb31e4cf7 The Book known as Bible is a profound historical narrative; it’s a preservation of wisdom, a foundtion for Law and proper relations among all peoples. The people of the Book have often found themselves in persecution and peril because, compared to their antisemitic neighbors, they know too much. It was for that holocaustic purpose that the little kraut colonel kicked off the nazi movement in 1923, his “third reich”, that strove to eliminate the Jewish race. That did not work out for the hateful nazis; nor will it ever work for future antismites. The People of the Book will not be eradicated from human history. That is why some watchful members of that Hebrew tribe discern the patterns of human behaviour accurately enough to prophecy events that would take place 2000 years later. That’s what Daniel did, long, long ago, because he was of the People of the Book, and he understood, by divine revelation, what the long arc of history would ultimately present: a brazen attempt to exterminate the People of the Book. Case in point: About 400 years before Christ, the scholar Daniel, a captive Hebrew, was taken prisoner. Nebuchadnezzar hauled the Hebrew wise man to his capital, Babylon, and prevailed upon the young man’s literacy and perception, using Daniel’s advice, much like Jewish lawyers are often prevailed upon in modern times, except at that time it was more about dreams and visions than Law. Even so, while in service to his boss, Daniel discreetly composed a book of his own, which we find, even today, in the Bible. Because the people of the Book send historic signals that raise red flags to signal the onslaught of a strange crooked crosses that represent holocaust and terrible abuses in human history. About 2300 years before it later happened, Daniel discerned and depicted, in cryptic Hebrew, the rise of a “little horn”. . . a despicable being who would erect a vast system of murder to snuff out the Jewish people, and also to put to death thousands of other folks who had answered the call to stop the little nazifying lunatic. In the biblical canon, the Book of Daniel, in 7:24-27, the prophet presented a literary, symbolic scenario representing events that would transgress human decency, many, many centuries later. . . even 2000 years later.

“. . . the ten horns of the kingdom are ten kings that shall arise; and another shall rise after them; and he shall be diverse from the rest, and he shall subdue three kings. “And he shall speak great words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High, and think to change times and laws; and they shall be given into his control until a time, times, and a dividing of times. “But the judgement shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion, and they shall take away his dominion . . .” Then later, in my parents’ lifetime. In the early 20th century— it happened this way: The adolf hitler demoniac mounted up, in a great heap of third reich insanity, a mountain of hate against his European neighbours. During his hyper-murderous, swastikafied campaigns, his fascist minions captured as many Jews as they could, imprisoned six million of them in concentration camps and tried to murder them, en masse, to exterminate the Jewish race. But, but—praise be to God—the brave men of France, Britain.and the United States of America, along with many others, put a stop to hitler’s murderous campaigns. And when the great liberation from nazi holocaust and warmongering had been put and end, the Allies discovered the camps where the demon hitler had tried to exterminate the people of the Book, and they put hitler’s Holocaust officers on trial in Nuremberg. And that’s why Daniel had written,in his prophetic account—long, long before it actually happened. . .7:25. this: ““But the judgement shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion, and they shall take away his dominion , to consume and destroy it to the end.” Furthermore, moving right along. . . the prophetic voice of the people of the Book is still active. That’s why—to present one expression of perseverance and courage— a couple of Jewish boys from the Bronx, Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel, sang Paul’s profound verses, which I heard sung two nights ago in a live, theatrical presentation set to Paul’s prophetic music, using literary symbolism that goes back, way back. . . in time. back in the day,-1970’s. . . ”In the clearing stands a boxer. . . a fighter by his trade, and he carries the reminder of every glove that laid him down and rocked him, ‘till he cried, in his anger and his shame, ‘I am leaving; I am leaving, but the fighter still remains.’ ” Paul’s “Boxer” is far more than himself; it represents his people, the embattled People of the Book who have managed, through all these millennia of time, to survive, carrying the reminders—written in the Book— of every attempt to knock them down into the the holocausts of prejudice, hatred and discrimination And. . . as Amos had said to Andy: “And I told him that!”. Smoke

Eternity

I, Carey, was wandering in the world, working a job, enjoying life. It was 1977. Life was good, but I was not. I mean, I was doing ok. I made a few choices that turned out to be counterproductive. I was legally connected to another person for awhile but that didn’t work out; it ended. I was wandering around. I wrote some songs and sang them around town in Asheville. I went to Nashville and somehow managed, with a little help from me friends, to make a record album: Something for Everyone;Songs of Rowland.; it presented the songs that I had written up to that time. I drove to Texas with the intention to start a new chapter of life in Austin. I stopped in Waco to visit my grandmother. On a certain Wednesday, my aunt Francis invited me to a church gathering. When I walked in, I saw two women kneeling; they were singing, as the charismatics say, “in the spirit.” I thought I was hearing angels in heaven. Don’t believe it? I understand, But listen up. When the meeting started, a blind man went up to the pulpit and began speaking. He said, “Nowadays, the devil is stalking around dragging people down; if you’re not careful, he’ll drag you down.” Or something like that. The devil? Are you kidding me? Well, no, the preacher was not kidding me. I realized that he was right. I had been wandering around without a plan, without a direction, fulfilling my own desires and ambitions and. . . and, look where it got me. So there’s this question about the devil. Does he really exist? Uh, are you kidding me? Take a look at humanity and history. . . a long parade of men fighting and killing and deceiving each other and stealing things and stealing wives and even mounting vast campaigns, as in nazi Germany, to wipe out an entire race of people from the face of the earth: to incinerate those people who had written, since the beginning of time, the greatest story ever told. So, yes, Virginia, there is a devil, and it could be true. . . maybe this Bible legacy which gives an account of the devil’s contention with the Creator of Universe is a scenario that should be considered when deciding what is true, or not true, about life on this planet. And it could indeed be true that the Creator of the Universe separated a part of Himself—that part which we call the Son, Jesus— and he came down to this lost planet called earth, and then He allowed the enemy to execute Him on a cross, so that. . . wait for it (three days) he could demonstrate to us that Life does, indeed, go on after death. And if you believe that, I’ve got some real estate in heaven I’ll tell you about. I’m not kidding. Moving right along. . . Jesus showed us that death and our own f****-up can be redeemed by joining Him, the Risen One in eternity in heaven. When Mary Magdalene went to the tomb on Sunday morning. . . what she saw looked something like this:

Sp there you have it. Either believe it or not: the empty grave. I. do not believe any man or woman could outdo that. I do believe it did happen, and I will join Him in heaven when my time is up. So instead of continuing to follow the rebel dark angel who thinks he can control the world. . .I recommend turning to the One who created the Universe, the Lord who initiated life itself. . . yes, even DNA and the genetic code and all of that—everything. Yep. I’m going with Him. So I did. I saw the Light, as brother Bob, and many others. . . Lonnie Frisbee. . . also did at about that same time, the’70’s, and we got . . . “Saved.” Read ‘em in weep, all you unbelievers. But hey, perhaps some day you’ll join us. And the world will be with the Son. By ’n by, I managed to make a second record album, Revelation 5:9 to clarify my Faith that Jesus is Lord, risen from the dead. . . and He is communicating, through His Word—what they call the Bible—and also through His people, the church, who believe in Him. We are now communicating the Truth about what this world is, what this Life is really all about, even—if you care do some deep reading—. . . how it got here and how to deal with it and how to get through life without all hell breaking loose inside of you. That’s why I sing this song, https://open.spotify.com/track/1zfGddC1N9WXbNxlOWTULB?si=84ef893eaa2e4a64. Now I understand that this is a lot to take in at one time. Not to worry. Just consider the whole thing, life itself, where it came from, your place, your role in it, who is in charge here and all those heavy questions. But do not fail to notice that, as the years roll by, every now and then someone you know kicks the bucket. They die. . . and it could happen to you. And there is only one way out of that inevitable end: Turn to Jesus. But the death/eternal life thing is not the whole picture. Life is just better when you’re walking with the One who conquered death. In the end, He will take you with Him. You just gotta believe! Smoke

A Tall TAiL

Hello worldweb, my weird friend; I’ve come to write on you agAin, about a tall t’Ail creeping. . . that flipped its tAils while I was sleeping and the image that was planted in my brAin, still remAins. along the webs of AiLence. To Witman, who wandered lonely in the Cloud: In the fifth year of donald the dweeb, king of fifth revenue, a streaming twAit dropped in while I was streaming in the province ulAi. On the the 21st day of the third month, while I was scurfing on the web, I lifted up mine eyes and looked, and behold; there was an icon, programmed in the guise of coded jazz, and all that razzmatazz. And I discerned the message that it wrote to me. To begin with, he looked like a knight-con in shining code, and before I could say tweetledee, I was suddenly feeling tweetledumb. (But. I transgress; Ai guess.) “Oh Danube tube, grok the the tweeb” said he, as if I should agree. “It took me a wild to get here, cuz the programmer of PruizAi was giving me a hard time,” said he. “That sAid, I just dropped in to see what condition your condition was in. . . agAin.” “No problemo”, said I. :What’s up?: “The prince of DOjE is about to drop in to see what condition your condition is in. He’ll be giving you a hard time, but not to worry, We’ve got it Aill under control. All you gotta do is pay the toll. Comprendez? “I’m tracking with ya” said Ai. “Where are we going?” “I’ll get to that” said he, “but i can give you a clue . . . a preview, so to tweek. It Ain’t what you think; it may be a mystery wrapped in an enigma, or. . . maybe not. We shall see. It depends on what you say to me.” And there I was smurfing in the streaming ULAi, wondering, pondering. . . and then, bAi and bAi, I responded; “Let us go then, U and Ai. . . in the wardrobe of the knight, to don what armour that we might. . . to assign what code that we may find, perhaps ahead, perhaps behind. . .to do the best we can, so Left can do the same as Right again. . . just like the ole days!” The prince of DOjE gave me a funny look; a grokkish smile came across his face. I think from his sleeve he had pulled up an ace, or it might have been a face. We sat there face to face. “Book it,” said he. “and you can take that to the bank. It’s the art of the steal,” said he. “Say what?” “The art of the steal. We’re going to deal your job away, or your social mercurial chek, depending on which comes first. Butt not to worry; ’t’is not nearly so bad as a mad train wreck, such as folk would find in nineteen twenty-nine, or nineteen thirty-nine, or nineteen eighty four, whichever one will close the door. “The door?” said Ai. What door are we talking about here? I need to know which way to turn. . . when, y’know, when zero checks come in the mail, and my golf score is beyond the pale... I mean, I’m like, clueless, like kevin when he met shoeless joe jackson. I thirst, said I. Please give a drink in this dry and dreary land. Or tell me what it is—this new Doje plan. I would like to grok it if I can.” “Hey” said he. ’T’is no big deal; rather, ’t’is the art of the steal. UlAi get over it, by ’n by, in the sweet bAi and bAi.”

And with that, he twittered away, with no Xplanations. Stepping on board his starblink, while I stood there, by and by. Let us think, then, you and Ai: What fearsome hand or Ai, can program thy fearful symmetrAi? But hey! You gotta roll with the punches, n’est que ce pas? As B’lingo had crooned, back in the good ole days. . . “Now it’s time to say good night; good byte, stream to the Right. Dream sweet dreams. . . in coded streams. Dream sweet dreams.” And Ai told him that! Glass half-Full

Andre Rieu and Joy

In the annals of orchestral music, there is no conductor whose audience appreciation could surpass the showmanship of Andre Rieu. If you attend, or watch online, a performance by the orchestra and chorus conducted by this Dutch genius, you understand my enthusiasm.

I write “genius” because it is the truth. Andre took the ancient, formal, rather stuffy tradition of orchestral music and turned it around 180 degrees. He and his performers have done for classic music what the Beatles did for popular music. There is a precedent for Andre’s historic role. Johann Strauss had composed and conducted waltzes in Vienna, back in the late 19th century. Johann had the people dancing instead of just listening. I suppose that is why Andre calls his ensemble the “Johann Strauss Orchestra.” This nominal recognition of his Viennese forebear is appropriate. To behold a Rieu concert online is an experience unprecedented in the history of music. There is perhaps another predecessor for Andre’s contribution: Ludwig Van Beethoven. This comparison may seem strange when we consider that Ludwig, the Bonn genius who revolutionized 19th century Romantic music, is known for his gruff facial expression in the pictures that we see nowadays. But Ludwig saw the light. While nearing his life-end, Beethoven composed his last—his 9th symphony—as a tribute to Joy. That last labor of Ludwig’s love featured a libretto, a Schiller poem, “Ode to Joy”. T’was a great labor of love, a great onus of orchestral and vocal celebration. I devoted a whole chapter to it in my novel, King of Soul, So, yes, that hyper-serious genius laid the groundwork for Andre Rieu’s 2-centuries-later joyful inspiration. But hey! What Andre does with his people is beyond comparison, beyond tradition, beyond description. If you don’t believe me, see for yourself. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVH89ggy1fY Glass half-Full