The Wall

A southern border wall will be as useful and helpful as the Berlin Wall was.

Smoke

Navidad

. . . And she gave birth to her newborn son; and she wrapped him in cloths, and laid him in a box in their refugee camp, because there was no room for them in the developed world.

but . . . the angel said unto them, Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all people . . . today has been born a Savior, Christ

On Questionable Apples

Long, long ago and far, far removed from this present day and time, it is written
that our ancestress Eve was pondering an apple or something similar
on the infamous tree of knowledge of good and evil.
Whilst she pondered, neither weak nor weary,
o’er forbidden fruit of not-forgotten lore,
suddenly there came a hissing,
as of someone gently kissing,
kissing her cognitive mind
with a curious temptive find.
Her visitor, the serpent, was speaking.
Thereby was her curiosity peaking,
and as her imagination was being fed,
the subtle serpent said
take a bite
it’s all right.
If you do it, your eyes will be opened.
So she did, and they were;
her eyes were opened.
Meanwhile, back at the Eden ranch,
her significant other was wondering,
What’s up with Eve?
Where’s my woman to whom I cleave?
So he ambled over to that mysterious tree
to see
in what circumstance his Eve may be.
And there he found her partaking
and little did they know that history was in their making
when Adam grabbed the thing and took a bite
from that forbidden fruit which expanded their sight
because the serpent had said it would open their eyes,
as Genesis says indeed it did open their eyes,
so now they would know not only good but evil as well
and so from that pivotal tasting 'til now, all hell
breaks loose;
hence all the bad news
from then till now,
and all the trouble that human traffic will allow,
which only goes to show
what maybe you already know:
A little knowledge can be a dangerous thing.

 

Now in this present world we find
a similar situation in our mind.
When’er we partake of world wide web,
by a tree of virtual good and evil are we fed:
implanted with some good talkers and  bad stalkers,
and many types of souls and trolls,
with all stripes of porn and scorn,
even hateful tirades of race
opposed by traces of amazing grace.

So regarding any fruit therein you find
be judicious and take your time.
Don’t partake of anything in haste;
Be careful what you taste!
In the web of evil and good
be careful to partake of what  you  truly should.
 
So this ancient lesson to your mind I bring:
A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.

King of Soul

Religion Relapse

How odd it is—as a 21st-century scenario sets itself up—
we see the world gone mad preparing again to erupt.
So unforeseen it was that our great Argument of the Ages,
the dogmatic contentions of cadres and sages
should abandon the trappings of intelligent delusion
and revert to jihadic religious intrusion.

Europa intelligentsia had decided that God was indeed dead,
and they talked for a few generations of what to do instead:
whether a capitalist path or the communist wrath,
then a communist road or a big fascist goad—
And in the midst of all that
polarizing ideological spat—
we waged two world-class wars to settle the matter
of who should wield power and who should be scattered.

You know the drill;
it persists among us still:
Who should be in charge?
a strong-arm few or the people at large—
a fascist state or some proletarian rabble,
by authoritarian edict or sectarian babble? 

After all the holocaust horror and gulag gangrene
we plummet again to mucky slog of humanic bad dream.
Obsessive jihadi encircle the world;
believing their fanatic flag will fully unfurl.
Back at the hub the elite are perplexed,
while their technocrat cadres compute the complex
as the widening gyre of the jihadi fire
leaps higher and higher and higher and higher.  

Perhaps the privileged, enlightened elite
should renew communion with the (wo)man on the street
whose faith in a sacrificial, Prince of Peace deity

brings resurrection instead of  jihad enmity.
Could it be that the God who was tossed aside
by the godless secular bureaucratizing tide
is actually the same eternal entity
who spoke our world out of chaos infinity?
Oh, let us recover some providential indemnity,
and by this testament regain our serenity.
After the Enlightenment, the Ideology, the Decline and the Fall,
Think about it the repentative way: Selah, y’all.

King of Soul

The Ambassador

I was of that generation who wanted to save the world for democracy.When I was born, my country was fighting a war in a faraway land, trying to run the communists out of Korea. It was a valiant effort we made over there, but only—from a military and/or political standpoint—about half successful. By 1953, we had managed to help get that little Asian peninsula about half-saved for democracy.

Just like most everything in this life, we manage to get things right about half the time.That expedition did apparently turn out better than our other Asian deliverance mission—the one that ended, or so it seemed, in 1975 with our boys having to select which war refugees could be loaded onto an American helicopter and whisked away before the Viet Minh took Saigon and then later named it Ho Chi Minh City.

Like I said before, in this life we manage to get things about half right about half the time.
Which ain’t too bad really, when you consider what we’re up against.

I mean, life ain’t no bowl of cherries; it’s not a walk in the park. Sometimes it’s hard.
But you know, looking back on it all, there were the good times and there were the bad times. . .

When I was in high school, we thought it was cool to stay up late and watch the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. Johnny didn’t even show up on the airwaves until 10:30, CST, after the news, and so if you could stay up that late to catch his monologue etc, you were pretty cool. At school we’d try to make jokes as funny as Johnny could. Everybody loved Johnny—he was like the Jimmy Fallon of his day. He had really cool people on his show like Marilyn Monroe or Joe DiMaggio.

Famous people would always show up to talk to Johnny; he’d ask them questions about their careers in show business and Broadway and movies and whatnot and they’d talk about themselves, and Johnny always managed to crack a few jokes about whatever they’d be yapping about. Carson was so cool and we wanted to be like him.

Every now and then he’d have some serious person on too. But they’d still manage to have a good time.

Growing up in the ’50’s and ’60’s was pretty cool. We were the first generation to have TV, and that really changed everything, although nobody really knew what the outcome of all that boob tube influence would be. Public personalities became quite adept at blowing their own horns and making big scenes. Ultimately the guy with the loudest voice managed to bluster his way into the White House. And I guess it really should be no surprise to anybody the way things have turned out.

Who could have anticipated that there would come a day when the big 3 networks would slip into the background and the universe of media would be taken over by the likes of faceboook and twitter?

But of course there are always the folks in the background who quietly get through to people with an important message while so many others are busy running their mouths about all the great things they’re doing.

One thing I’ve learned about life during my 67 years: you gotta take the bad with the good. Shit happens, and you gotta deal with it, gotta get up the next morning and keep on truckin’. Ain’t nobody gonna feel sorry for ya. Well, maybe if you have a life mate to help you cope and get along, move on the next thing and all that, life can be a little easier to deal with. At least that has been my experience.

The good book says we oughta mourn with those who mourn and laugh with those who laugh. Who would’ve ever dreamed that, in our lifetime, two such different persons as these two would be laughing together?:

Life is good; sometimes we win and other times we lose. When Boris Yeltsin managed to take hold of the old Soviet Union! it was amazing. Who’d have ever dreamed of such a thing? Berlin Wall came down without a shot after Reagan suggested to Gorbachev to tear down that wall.  Amazing stuff in my lifetime. JFK, had he lived to see it, would have been proud.

I mean this life is very good in some ways. In other ways it’s not so favorable. You gotta take the good with the bad, and you gotta help people. We all need a little help. It’s good to help people along the way. Occasionally, every one of us need some really big help. I mean, while there are some victories, there are of course some terrible setbacks and tragedies.
So while the good book says we should laugh with those who laugh, it also says to mourn with those who mourn.

We gotta help each other from time to time. Everybody need a little help from time to time. In my lifetime, we tried to go over there and help the people of Vietnam to muster up some democracy, and maybe it didn’t work out so well, and maybe in some ways we even made a mess of it but hey, when my daughter visited there a few years ago, and she rode a scooter through Ho Chi Minh City (used to be called Saigon) she said the people over there love Americans, and they have a tender place in their hearts for us. Go figure!

Going back even further than that, and thinking once again about what all was going on when I was born into this world. . . we were trying to make Korea safe for democracy, we find that some really good things  somehow managed to came out of it.

I think it can be concluded that good things can indeed happen when every now and then someone comes along who is willing to—instead of tooting his own horn— work quietly and diligently as an Ambassador for the Prince of Peace.

“Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep.Be of the same mind toward one another; do not be haughty in mind, but associate with the lowly. Do not be wise in your own estimation.Never pay back evil for evil to anyone. Respect what is right in the sight of all men. If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men.”

I can think of one person, at least, who has managed to live in the manner described above by our brother Paul.

King of Soul

Livin' in the Dream

Walking through the BigStore we happen upon the BigWal of Big TVs’; they be flashin out the Dreamworld for all of us to enter into, enticing us to enter into the Great Collective Cloud of Imagining.

Since a (wo)man’s home is his/her castle, you gotta take advantage of the fact that the BigWal makes it oh so easy, so convenient and affordable  to pad your castle walls with the magic of the Dream Machine. 

Swipe the card; swipe the Dream. Load it into your wheels and haul the Dream home. Mount  the programmed Dream World on the Walls of your castle; then with a touch of fingertips there you are livin’ in the Dream. Through the electrified power of all those magnified digified images, take flight momentarily, for hours or even days at a time away from  the slings and arrows  of Real Life. There you are, livin’ in the dream, king/queen of your own domain.

Ya may not have forty acres in the back—maybe .40—but by golly there’s the Dream Machine up on the wall bringin the whole wild world right in your living room. Tap into it with  the touch of a remote, and there it is--hot diggedy--pretty as ever, just like bein’ at Jellystone or somewhere. Nature without the dangers of lions tigers bears, frostbite, getting lost, or never comin' back alive.

Take flight! high above the earth--far, far away from all your cares and sorrows. Problems at work? 

Fuhgeddaboudit! At least for a little while.

But don’t get too carried away. Sorry about the reality check here. You can’t afford to miss Monday morning! Get ready for re-entering the matrix and the credit card bill that enabled all your flights of fancy.

Glass Chimera

Czech out this Opus of our Messiah!

Messiah has come.

The people who walk in darkness (we) have seen a great light! Can you feel it? Open up your soul to the flood of good tidings.

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JH3T6YwwU9s

Listen to the great news--yes, Virginia, there is, in the universe, eternal presence of Joy. Yes, Roy, there is, in this world, a way of overcoming our bad decisions, bad government, terrible events, terrorist evil, massive tragedy, constant temptation, stupid politics, polarizing idiocy, universal iniquity, and even my own and your  very own personal sin. If you've never done anything wrong, just pretend I never sent you this opportunity to repent. But if you find yourself anywhere near feeling the urgency of Messiah's message of deliverance, give it a listen. Watch and listen.

Consider leaving behind  your stubbornness to not believe. Go ahead and  accept that there is a Good Creator of this world, a Corrector of our climate-changed, polluting life within it. Believe there is a Deliverer--Messiah, King of Glory, who has come into human activity  to show us the way out of our stupidity and iniquity.

Believe it! Accept it. He's looking for you, wants to sign you up for the Kingdom of Heaven that in the end prevails over the kingdoms, the democracies, the caliphates, the governments, the autocracies, the oligarchies, the dictatorships, the corrupt regimes of this world.

Watch this musical testimony about our ultimate triumph over injustice and enmity.

Be attentive to the counsel of ancient shepherds who beheld in the heavens never-before-seen signs of our ultimate delivery from pain and death.

If you will only believe the good news!

Victory, as demonstrated by Messiah--victory over the worst of the worst human suffering: torture, crucifixion, even death! It has been done already, and will be done again, inside of you. Go for it!

As bad as things are now, it's not over yet. It's not over 'til that alto lady sings: 

"He was despised, despised and rejected, rejected of men. . . a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief."

How many of us humans, through the history of mankind, have suffered the despisal of our fellow-humans? How many of us have endured rejection, how many have  been forced into immigrating from destructive human degeneracy, war, racism, holocaust, persecution, murder and mayhem ? How many have persevered through terrible sorrows. . . how many members of our human race have become "acquainted with grief" as Messiah himself was?

"Surely, surely he hath born our grief, and carried our sorrows!"

The savior of us all had to be a human acquainted with grief. We have no need for a jizya-wielding conqueror. What we require is a fellow-traveler--one who has been there, been here--in the world with us, and understands our plight.

"Emmanuel: God with us!"

'We seek, we need, we long for--as the wise men of old--Messiah who overcomes suffering and death itself, and shows us the way out of our depravity.Hallelujah!

Can you comprehend it? Listen on. Listen to this musicated oration of our great message of hope for all men and women. . . the profound enactment of Handel's Messiah, as only a bunch of passionate, young Czechs could perform it. Thank you, Vaclav Lucs

and Collegium 1704 of Prague! Thanks for renewing our faith in the next generation of creators and musicians. They're not all hung up on meaningless drivel and sensuous provocation.

   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JH3T6YwwU9s

Watch; Listen to the urgent message of the Ages:  the angelic experience given to shepherds who, in ages past, laid the nocturnal groundwork for Georg Friedrich Handel’s revelation of  Messianic visitation: divine intrusion into the sordid affairs of mankind!

Divine intervention in our world. The centerpiece event of human history, between Moses and Mohammed--one man's triumph over unbelief--one man's victory over torture and death!

If you will but believe it, 'tis yours to enter into: triumph over the injustice and tribulation of this life! and ultimate entrance into eternity!

The trumpet shall sound, and this corruption of ours made incorruptible for all time. Listen for the call in this symphony of saved life, and in your own seeking Spirit!



King of Soul