Musings on Great Songs —and on early Quakers’ Rejection of Music-Art

Musings, while spending hours in the new year listening to music, (instead of focusing only on opposing-lamenting current immoral, false political-social claims and actions).

1 What is the difference between spiritual songs versus ones that harm and even are destructive?
2 Songs that are sung by empty rote versus songs that fill us with Light?
3 How do we tell the difference?
4 What are some of the best songs of the last 60 years?

In no particular order:

Sounds of Silence by Simon and Garfunkel

“Hello darkness, my old friend
I've come to talk with you again
Because a vision softly creeping
Left its seeds while I was sleeping
And the vision that was planted in my brain
Still remains
Within the sound of silence

In restless dreams I walked alone
Narrow streets of cobblestone
'Neath the halo of a street lamp
I turned my collar to the cold and damp
When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a neon light
That split the night
And touched the sound of silence

And in the naked light I saw
Ten thousand people, maybe more
People talking without speaking
People hearing without listening
People writing songs that voices never share
No one dared
Disturb the sound of silence…”

The first time I heard this powerful reflection on the superficial nature of most human speaking--the woeful lack of deep communication-communion among us, I was driving through the night in a white wonder of a snowstorm down Van Dorn Avenue in Lincoln, Nebraska in 1966. Huge flakes of snow were silently hitting the wind shield, and Simon was talking to the darkness...

‘And the sign said, "The words of the prophets
Are written on the subway walls
And tenement halls
And whispered in the sounds of silence"

Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: Paul Simon
© Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Universal Music Publishing Group

This verse is almost bizarre! Because, usually, written words in subways, etc. are obscene, superficial, or shallow false slogans...
How is this graffiti at at all prophetic compared to the superficial miscomunication of humans?
"Sounds" has amazing powerful poetry with an expert rhyme scheme (because it isn’t sing-songy nor does it draw attention to itself like most such couplet rhyming does). --

Colored People by DC Talk
...
“Pardon me, your epidermis is showing, sir
I couldn't help but note your shade of melanin (shade of melanin)
I tip my hat to the colorful arrangement
'Cause I see the beauty in the tones of our skin

We've gotta come together (come together)
And thank the Maker of us all

We're colored people, and we live in a tainted place
We're colored people, and they call us the human race
We've got a history so full of mistakes
And we are colored people who depend on a Holy Grace

One, one, one, one
Two, two, two, two...

A piece of canvas is only the beginning for
It takes on character with every loving stroke
This thing of beauty is the passion of an artist's heart
By God's design, we are a skin kaleidoscope

We've gotta come together (come together)
Aren't we all human after all?

We're colored people and we live in a tainted place
We're colored people and they call us the human race
We've got a history so full of mistakes
And we are colored people who depend on a Holy Grace

Ignorance has wronged some races
And vengeance is the Lord's
If we aspire to share this space
Repentance is the cure, oh yeah

Well, just a day in the shoes of a colorblind man
Should make it easy for you to see
That these diverse tones do more than cover our bones
As a part of our anatomy

We're colored people, and we live in a tainted place
We're colored people, and they call us the human race
We've got a history so full of mistakes
And we are colored people who depend on a Holy Grace

We're colored people, and they call us the human race
(Oh, colored people)
We're colored people and we all gotta share this space
(Yeah, we've got to come together somehow)

We're colored people, and we live in a tainted world
(Red and yellow, black and white)
We're colored people, every man, woman, boy, and girl
(Colored people, colored people, colored people, colored people, yeah)

Source: Musixmatch
Songwriters: Toby Mckeehan / George C. Cocchini
Colored People lyrics © Achtober Songs

A transcendent morally real wonder of truth. Opposed to white supremacy and to BLMer WOKE-false narrative against all whites, the nuclear family, and police. INSTEAD of white "colored' racism or Black-victimhood, celebrate the wonder of the HUMAN RACE--in all its variations--so COLORFUL! --

A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall by Bob Dylan

Oh, where have you been, my blue-eyed son?
And where have you been, my darling young one?
I've stumbled on the side of twelve misty mountains
I've walked and I crawled on six crooked highways
I've stepped in the middle of seven sad forests
I've been out in front of a dozen dead oceans
I've been ten thousand miles in the mouth of a graveyard

And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard
It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall

Oh, what did you see, my blue-eyed son?
And what did you see, my darling young one?
I saw a newborn baby with wild wolves all around it
I saw a highway of diamonds with nobody on it
I saw a black branch with blood that kept dripping
I saw a room full of men with their hammers a-bleeding
I saw a white ladder all covered with water
I saw ten-thousand talkers whose tongues were all broken
I saw guns and sharp swords in the hands of young children..."
Copyright © 1963 by Warner Bros. Inc.; renewed 1991 by Special Rider Music

That startling lament against nuclear weapons and other forms of mass slaughter by Dylan is fairly easy to understand despite some of the very strange images. However, many of the best modern song lyrics are far more difficult to ascertain as to what their central meaning is.

While I like to write complex, imaged esoteric lyrics and listen to those difficult sorts of lyrics, many ambiguous literary lyrics often open up many possible contradictory meanings, even though they draw one deep into the lyrics’ allusions, archetypes and symbols.

Too many listeners will end up with wrong meanings--often immoral and destructive ones.

Consider the very famous rock song "(Don't Fear) the Reaper by Blue Oyster Cult:

All our times have come
Here but now they're gone
Seasons don't fear the reaper
Nor do the wind, the sun or the rain
We can be like they are

Come on, baby (don't fear the reaper)
Baby, take my hand (don't fear the reaper)
We'll be able to fly (don't fear the reaper)
Baby, I'm your man

La, la, la, la, la
La, la, la, la, la

Valentine is done
Here but now they're gone
Romeo and Juliet
Are together in eternity (Romeo and Juliet)
40, 000 men and women everyday (like Romeo and Juliet)
40, 000 men and women everyday (redefine happiness)
Another 40, 000 coming everyday (we can be like they are)

Come on, baby (don't fear the reaper)
Baby, take my hand (don't fear the reaper)
We'll be able to fly (don't fear the reaper)
Baby, I'm your man...

Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: Donald Roeser
© Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

When I first studied the lyrics, “Don’t Fear…” appeared to be a pro-suicide rock lament. But some commentators have stated, they don’t think that is true.
While the song is a lament it is affirming that life should be accepted, not fearing everyone’s eventual deaths.

Even the author of the lyrics, Buck Dharma, stated,
"I felt that I had just achieved some kind of resonance with the psychology of people when I came up with that, I was actually kind of appalled when I first realized that some people were seeing it as an advertisement for suicide or something that was not my intention at all. It is, like, not to be afraid of [death] (as opposed to actively bring it about). It's basically a love song where the love transcends the actual physical existence of the partners."
— Buck Dharma, lead singer
Lien, James (November 6, 1995). "Buck Dharma interview". College Music Journal. New York City: CMJ. And on Wikipedia.

And there is the infamous rock ballad by the heavy metal band Led Zeppelin:

Stairway to Heaven

There's a lady who's sure all that glitters is gold
And she's buying a stairway to Heaven

When she gets there she knows, if the stores are all closed
With a word she can get what she came for

Ooh, ooh, and she's buying a stairway to Heaven

There's a sign on the wall, but she wants to be sure
'Cause you know sometimes words have two meanings

In a tree by the brook, there's a songbird who sings
Sometimes all of our thoughts are misgiven

Ooh, it makes me wonder
Ooh, makes me wonder

There's a feeling I get when I look to the West
And my spirit is crying for leaving

In my thoughts I have seen rings of smoke through the trees
And the voices of those who stand looking

Ooh, it makes me wonder
Ooh, really makes me wonder

And it's whispered that soon if we all call the tune
Then the piper will lead us to reason

And a new day will dawn for those who stand long
And the forests will echo with laughter

Oh-oh-oh-oh-whoa

If there's a bustle in your hedgerow, don't be alarmed now
It's just a spring clean for the May queen
Yes, there are two paths you can go by, but in the long run
There's still time to change the road you're on...

Source: Musixmatch
Songwriters: Jimmy Page / Robert Anthony Plant
© Succubus Music Ltd., Sons Of Einion Publishing, Flames Of Albion Music, Inc.

This very unusual rock song with many religious symbols and images including biblical ones. It is unique and amazing, unlike any other music in the last 60 years..

But there have been contradictory commentaries written about the lyrics, some saying it is an anti-spiritual song, others disagreeing.
What do you think?


3. For What It’s Worth by Buffalo Springfield

There's something happening here
But what it is ain't exactly clear
There's a man with a gun over there
Telling me I got to beware

I think it's time we stop
Children, what's that sound?
Everybody look, what's going down?

There's battle lines being drawn
Nobody's right if everybody's wrong
Young people speaking their minds
Getting so much resistance from behind

It's time we stop
Hey, what's that sound?
Everybody look, what's going down?

What a field day for the heat (Ooh ooh ooh)
A thousand people in the street (Ooh ooh ooh)
Singing songs and they carrying signs (Ooh ooh ooh)
Mostly say, "Hooray for our side" (Ooh ooh ooh)

It's time we stop
Hey, what's that sound?
Everybody look, what's going down?...

Source: Musixmatch
Songwriters: Stephen Stills
© Cotillion Music Inc., Springalo Toones, Ten East Music, Richie Furay Music

What a distinctive seminal creative song! One's like "For What..." come once or twice in a generation. Its haunting lyrics somehow defined the protest movement.
In the fall of 1966, we used to go down to Hollywood’s Sunset Strip. As college students, we didn’t have money for concerts, but we hung out at coffee shops and philosophized and chatted, spoke against the Vietnam War and for civil rights and of our favorite music groups.

The song appeared shortly after the Sunset Curfew Riot, which we somehow missed. Maybe we Long Beach State students no longer hitchhiked or drove down to Hollywood because of the new 10 PM curfew.

How ironic--but very 60's contradictory--that allegedly nonviolent=promoting teens would riot!


Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning) by Alan Jackson

One of the very best poetic laments against war ever written.


Chimes of Freedom (Dylan) by The Byrds

It’s a lyric extoling human rights, justice, kindness, but the tragedy of how often goodness and the truth lose out to intolerance and persecution.


Monday Morning Church (Brent Baxter and Erin Enderlin) by Alan Jackson

Deeply sorrowful dirge with an incredible chorused metaphor. Sung by one of my favorite country ballad singers.

What If I Stumble by DC Talk

Very spiritual song of conscience and care; deeply spiritual, moral, and emotional-- without being formally religious

Desperado by the Eagles

Another example of lucid ballad poetry set to music; in this case the brief story of a Wild West gunman who is being
counseled by the singer through playing card imagery that love is the best choice, not killing and money.

The Gates of Eden by Bob Dylan

60’s folk song filled with surrealistic images and metaphors of protest.

Woodstock (Join Mitchell) by Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young

Paean to the most famous rock concert of all time.
Though the famous event led to countless immoral, unjust, and destructive future actions. How tragic for a concert whose music was fabulous, creative, often morally positive.

Gods of Men by Randy Stonehill

Spiritual satire against the finite idols that too many of us humans ‘worship’ instead of the Good, the True, the Just.

The Universal Soldier (Buffy St. Marie) by Donovan

An anti-war song that covers human history. While not excusing militarist leaders, the lyrics instead focus on how each of us as individual humans are responsible for war.

8 Miles High by The Byrds
The instrumentation in this rocker is amazing, though, correctly or not, many have claimed it is about drugs.

See My Life by Seals and Croft
Philosophical, reflective early song from these two Bahai's.

Somebody Must Be Praying for Me (Frank Vinci, Bob Mould, Kris Bergsnes) by Tim McGraw

A very meaningful spiritual song of how sometimes problems and loss of dreams if considered from a spiritual point can open up other possibilities including love.


Cats in the Cradle by Sandy Gaston and Harry Chapin

Poem and song filled with allusions and metaphoric images which warns the severe and tragic consequences of a father who is too busy succeeding in his career for his family.

Old Man's Rubble (Brown Bannister) by Amy Grant

Probably the best ever song of the danger of living contrary to what one sincerely believes.

Celebrate this Heartbeat by Randy Stonehill

Everything I Own by Bread

Written and sung for his father who died tragically young.

--

Since I am a poet/wannbe-songwriter, artist, and lover of music, (of all kinds except rap and opera), it was difficult (and still is) for me to understand the thinking of early Quakers.

And here's a quote
from one early Friend, an outstanding musician before abandoning his career in music to become a Quaker:
Early Friend Solomon Eccles:
From A Musick Lector
"a QUAKER (so called) being formerly of that Art, doth give his Judgment and Sentence against it; but yet approves of the Musick that pleaseth God."
Written by SOLOMON ECCLES, 1667

"So I see, that Musick pleases well that which is for destruction, and grieves that which God doth highly esteem and honour; Isa. 42.21.
--
Modern Friend Jon Watts:
“Solomon Eccles rejected his upper-class, baroque music profession, and took all of his instruments and manuscripts and burned them in a public demonstration of leveling. The early Friends were rejecting the social class system, which they deemed unjust and ungodly. How could I possibly hear about that and not write a song about it?"

Friends threw out anything that was formulaic. The idea was experiential—to have your own experience of the Spirit, to have the Living Spirit speak through you. If you’re going to be baptized, let the Spirit baptize you. If you’re going to take communion, take it because the Spirit is leading you to, not because it’s just a thing you do every Sunday.

If you’re going to sing, don’t let someone else write it for you. Sing it! So Quakers were the first jazz musicians, always improvising. The Spirit was their muse.

So when I’m playing a song I try to listen to the Spirit the same way one does in a meeting for worship when preparing to give vocal ministry. I wait until I’m quaking to write a song down. I wait until a song is streaming out of me, until it’s not me anymore. It’s as if I’m watching the song get written.”

Jon Watts, Quaker Musician, songwriter, and movement leader
from an interview in the Friends Journal, May, 2013
http://www.friendsjournal.org/bum-rush-the-internet/

And from A Musick Lector by Solomon Eccles:

"To obey the Lord, is better than to give all my goods to the poor, and my body to be burned; yet to let thee know the Truth of this thing; when I came to be convinced of this everlasting truth, I saw my Calling would not stand before it; I went, but not in the Counsel of the Lord, and sold most of my instruments;

"howbeit that would not cover me, for the Lord met with me; and as I was learning to sew, for I had formerly some insight of a Tailors Trade, but I was too high to bow to it, till the Truth came, and that is of power to make the strong man bow, and I sitting alone, with my mind turned in, the Voice of the Lord said, Go thy way, and buy those Instruments again thou lately soldest, and carry them and the rest thou hast in thy house to Tower Hill, and burn them there, as a Testimony against that Calling."

"So I obeyed the Lord, and bought them again, and carried them, and all I had in my house, to Tower Hill, and burnt them there, according to the uprightness of my heart before the Lord; which Books and Instruments did amount to more than four and twenty pound; and I had great peace. Glory be to God for ever. Amen."

"That Heaven will be shaken, and thy Song will be turned into howling; for such Musick and Singing was never set up of God, but of men; and it takes with that part in man that serves not God aright, but is for wrath and judgement, Heb. 12.26. 1 Cor. 2.24."

"But what effects hath Musick brought forth, that men so highly esteem it? What fruit did Nebuchadnezzars Musick bring forth in his day, was it not to murder? But the three servants of the Lord would not bow to his Image at the sound of his Pipes and his Fiddles, though others did.

"And how did Musick and Dancing take the heart of the foolish King Herod, by means whereof he committed murder, and caused John Baptists's Head to be cut off, who was a blessed man, approved of God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, and was greater than the prophets; and because he reproved him for having his Brothers Wife, rankor lay in the heart of the Damsels Mother, and when the Fidlers did strike up, and the Wench began to dance, his affectionate love began to be enflamed to the Girle, that he killed the Lords servant in coole blood. O ye Fidlers and Dancing- Masters, let this President break you off from your filthy practice;"

"Why do you dance without the Ark? Where is your Ark? What President have you in Scripture for your Dancing? You set up the Devils Kingdom by your proud Calling: You set their Bodies in postures to enflame and take with the lustful Nature in men, and with proud Apparrel, and Spots on their Faces. Woe to the Crown of Pride."

"What account will ye give to the Lord, ye Dancing- masters, from whence came ye, where is your Ark? David danced before the Ark. O repent ye shameless men, will you not blush at your doings? If my Calling was unlawful, much more is yours; O do not provoke the Lord any more; haste, haste, and leave off your practice before it leave you, for what thank will it be to you then, when you shall break off sinning because you can sin no more?"
--Quaker Heritage Press
http://www.qhpress.org/index.html

BUT, why can't good music be creatively planned?

Why must songs always be only, allegedly, spontaneous from the Divine?
Surely, the Light has also given humans the amazing ability to think rationally, morally, mathematically, scientifically...
To create not only via inspiration but through carefully engaged creativity.
This negation of the arts, especially music shows how lopsided the early Friends were when trying to get rid of hypocrisy, formalism without reality, and destructive
influences.

But early Quakers didn’t get rid of business, medicine, science, new technology,

No, on the contrary, Quakers excelled in the sciences and in business, neither any more holy or spiritual than music or any other art.
In fact, business probably is far more an occasion to err, even to destroy than music ever has been.

Do you have a suggestion of a song to add to Great Music?

Quaker rock to rock;-).

In Light,

Daniel Wilcox

Unusual Place where Millions of Characters from Literature Exist and Interact

Somewhere, characters from countless selections of literature and media exist and interact.

Making educated guesses based upon your chosen individuals from novels, movies, etc., take us on a mystery tour of their conversations, actions, and views.

To write your adventure, assume your main character's 1st-person point-of-view, though any other point-of-view would also be fine. (Mention each title in brackets or parentheses).

Place the interacting characters in a particular novel or real-life setting.

Another fascinating possibility is to have them talk and interact with actual famous individuals of human history or the present.

For instance, Huck Finn (Mark Twain's novel) and Wolf Larsen (Jack London's The Sea Wolf) meet John Proctor (the real individual of history or the fictional character in Arthur Miller's The Crucible) one of the falsely accused at the Salem Witchcraft Trials.

Playing around with time and space is a possible option, too.

What if Europeans didn't discover the Americas?!

Or what happens if a current American political leader shows up in 1859 and meets Rhett Butler and Scarlett O'Hara (Margaret Mitchel's Gone with the Wind)?

The possibilities in this imaginative literary lounge are limitless:-)


In the Light,

-Dan Wilcox

The Nature of Reality; and why I became a Friend

Most of my life, I have been of the Friend-Quaker lifestance.

In the past, in 1967, during my conscientious objector service in a Pennsylvania hospital for emotionally disturbed teens, I regularly attended BackBench young adult meeting in Philadelphia. Later in California, I (and my sweetheart) became members of California Yearly Meeting and later I was a member of Pacific Yearly Meeting.

One of the main reasons I was drawn to Friends-Quakers in 1967, beside commitment to peacemaking, is because of Expectant meeting. In those open open, transcendent meetings, I experienced the Immanence of the Light--the Good, the True, the Just, the Caring.

Besides that day-to-day Friends lifestance, what view of Reality of billions of humans is closest to the truth?
I am not a philosopher, just a rather average guy who reads a lot of books on cosmology, philosophy, and biology and advocates for human rights.

Here's a brief description of the Process view of Reality which I think is true and try to live up to:

#1 All reality is coming about by the everlasting but limited cosmic reality that is becoming. Essential reality is Process influencing matter and energy. This is the view of brilliant thinkers such as philosopher and mathematician Alfred North Whitehead.

This cosmic but limited ultimate/transcendent reality--God, the Light--who is far beyond human understanding works toward changing matter and energy and conscious, creative life such as homo sapiens into increasing patterns and forms of beauty, meaning, and purpose. This is also the view of some liberal Jews.

But where is the evidence for this?
Process thinkers explain that consciousness, reason, ethics, mathematics, natural law, creativity, aesthetics, life itself, etc. are the evidence.

We are living in a universe about 27 billion light-years across, and about 13 billion years old and, according to cosmologists, the cosmos will last more billions of years.

This view aligns well with liberal Quakerism, but most of the technical philosophical explanations are BEYOND my understanding. I'm a relatively average teacher and former mental health worker (who got born with a "why" in his throat;-).

But to function, we need to take a stand somewhere in order to live and create.

However if my speculative understanding is incorrect, what are other--many far more popular--views of Reality exist?

#2 All reality came about by cosmic chance. Seemingly the view of the French biologist Jacques Monod in Chance and Necessity, a powerful book I read a few years back, and the view of the evolutionary biologist Stephen Jay Gould.

My take on this as an average person: I think this view is possible. I guess given cosmic time even the "laws" of nature, math, reason, life, ethics, consciousness could all blip into existence.

#3 All reality came about by a cosmic determinism of meaningless matter and energy which is eternal. Everything is lock step. There are no choices, not for what I supposedly ruminate on having for lunch or whether or not to commit murder or what to choose for my career.

Based on our studying this at university, and for many years since, and many times trying to imagine my "I" as an illusion who is only 'done to' by the cosmos, I think this is one of the least likely views of reality. But the view is very popular these days--sort of an atheistic version of Creedal Christianity.

#4 All reality came about somehow by a temporary, finite, imperfect, even distorted, expression of the perfect eternal Ideal Forms of Platonism.

#5 All reality came about by emergent possibilities in a quantum singularity vacuum or some unknown ultimate reality. But where did the quantum singularity vacuum come from? Here goes "turtles all the way down."
This view seems to posit an eternal physical reality with no "super" reality 'transcending' it.
Humankind is a "fluke," an "accident," a "lucky" break.

#6 All reality came about by an impersonal ultimate reality of cosmic beauty. Scientists such as Albert Einstein stated this was his view, that he thought the impersonal god of Spinoza was true. But this seems similar to a combination of #3 and #4.

The emergent-possibility cosmos isn't meaningless and purposeless, but filled with meaning.
Interesting, but I doubt it.

#7 All reality came about as just one of an infinite number of universes of an infinite multi-verse, the view of some modern cosmologists. What is the ultimate of the multi-verse is unknown or maybe the multiverse itself is ultimate.

Intriguing, but seems too speculative for me. However, I'm not as skeptical as Martin Gardner, one of the co-founders of the modern skeptical movement who wrote a scathing dismissal of this view.

#8 All reality came about by the impersonal Brahma God of Hinduism and some modern New Age leaders such as Ken Wilber with his Integral Theory, and Deepak Chopra, etc.

The impersonal Ultimate, Brahma is conducting a cosmic dance in which it forgets its self and dreams into billions of separated forms including in one minor edge of the universes, thinking humans.

But all is illusion. And all events both good and evil are produced by Brahman. That is why Ken Wilber and other such leaders claim that Brahman caused 9//11, causes all murders, all rapes, etc.

Given that I am a human rights worker from way back, for about 55 years, obviously this isn't my cup of philosophical tea. Also, I still vividly remember as a Gandhi devotee being shocked when a Hindu priest in L.A. tried to persuade me to go to Vietnam to kill (when I was drafted), saying insects are killed all the time in reality.:-(

#9 All reality came about by unknowable factors. Everything beyond and before the Big Bang is such a complete unfathomable mystery that it will probably not ever be solved by finite humans at least not for a very long time.

Allegedly the view of the Mysterians such as the skeptic Martin Gardner, Roger Penrose, etc.

#10 All reality continually comes about by infinite impersonal reality which never had a beginning. No creator god exists. Some forms of Buddhism are atheistic and nihilistic, though other forms are theistic.

--

What do you think?


In the Light,

Dan Wilcox

Side Bio Note: My career for many years was as World and American literature and writing teacher after I dropped out of seminary and quit being a youth minister. However, I've also worked driving a caterpillar on a kibbutz farm in Palestine-Israel, driven a chrome truck, and been an assistant manager of a backpacking-camping store.

FINDING WHAT IS TRUE

“Am I committed to any ‘truth’ so deeply that I am willing to die for it, and willing to live moment-by-moment,
hour-by-hour, year-by-year for that truth, until my death?

How does one find what is the Good, the True, the Just, the Beautiful?

How does any individual discover whether a philosophical, moral, or political claim is genuine, is true,
is ‘truth,’
is an accurate reality

NOT
misinformation,
confirmation bias,
social distortion,
myth,
cultural dysfunction,
mass delusion, or
intentional deception?

At 72 years of age, now, I look back…

Of Moose and Men

Of Moose and Men: Redux

Like moose drool down from his jaw
Liquid drip of much after thought,
The human chews his abstract cud.

Drooling brought-back cussedness

This brainy mammal with his huge
Mental jaw ruminates and masticates
Difficult philosophical concepts.

He chews and chews and chaws
Minding repeatedly, and pondering
Into his daily life for good or ill

Drooling, brought-back cussedness

The meta-conundrums, the ones
He can't stomach, that ethical gristle
Imponderable quandaries.

Like the massive moose of yonder glen,
Man stands as king and all get out
In this damned lake he calls civilization;

Drooling brought-back cussedness

Then walking admidst verbal tall trees, he
Rummages through this forest of ideas,
Philosophical redwoods towering above.

And he peers up searching the heights, but
Stands sludged mired in his soggy morass,
The moral muddle of his shallow bog.

Drooling brought-back cussedness

What festering future, or fertile destiny
Awaits this drooling race of primate
Caught in the quagmire, a hypocrite?


Any St. Bernard dog, as Thoreau said,
Has more basic moral sense than
Most men who swallow gross wrong whole,

Drooling and drooling and drooling...


--Daniel E. Wilcox

First pub.
Dark Energy,
by Diminuendo Press

Guest Post: How the Ebola Virus Taught Me About the Gospel

How the Ebola Virus Taught Me About the Gospel: Read that article. It is an excerpt from Canadian professor Randal Rauser's book, What’s So Confusing About Grace?

Intriguing! Rauser writes about compassion, NOT dogma or doctrine or even religion!


The "Ebola Virus..." article demonstrates very powerful ethical concern vividly!

BUT it also brings in a counter storm of theodicy. Of countless philosophical, cosmological, and ethical questions...

Rather than list my own as I usually do, I would be interested in hearing from any passersby who have troubling questions to ask.


Inspired and Troubled,

Daniel Wilcox

Reflection on Dead Poets Society and Whitman's Poem, O Life!

from Dead Poets Society:
*Literature teacher Keating waited a moment to let the lesson sink in. Then Keating grabbed onto his own throat and screamed horribly. "AHHHHGGGGG!!" he shouted.

"Refuse! Garbage! Pus! Rip it out of your books. Go on, rip out the entire page! I want this rubbish in the trash where it belongs!"

--

So begins Dead Poetry Society, a troubling, but powerful movie that grabs us by the throat with unexpected shock--a teacher telling students to rip pages out of their expensive hardbound literature books.

Caution: I didn’t like the movie’s depressing climax--though I do admit that it is realistic, reminding me of the tragedies of students' lives here where I taught literature for many years. One brilliant girl cut herself repeatedly, responding to the emotional abuse of her often absent father.

Nor do I agree with some of the film's philosophical and ethical points. Like most Hollywood movies, it seems to glorify various ethically wrong actions.

BUT:

Robin Williams as teacher, John Keating, dramatically inspires and is life-changing. Williams creates an incredible acting performance as the idealistic professor at a strict New England prep school.

The character, Keating, reminds me of one of our most creative teachers back when I was a naive teen growing up in Lincoln, Nebraska. Our teacher, Mr. Keene, (yes, that was his real name:-) had a similar eccentric, quirky humorous, thought-provoking way of taking us beyond rote learning, of making texts jolt alive and getting us plunged ocean-deep into thinking, reflecting, and creating.

From the screen play:
*The following morning John Keating sat in a chair beside his desk. His mood seemed serious and quiet.
"Boys," he said as the class bell rang, "open your Pritchard text to page 21 of the introduction. Mr. Perry" - he gestured toward Neil - "kindly read aloud the first paragraph of the preface entitied 'Understanding Poetry'."

The boys found the pages in their text, sat upright, and followed as Neil read:
"Understanding Poetry, by Dr. j. Evans Pritchard, PhD. To fully understand poetry, we must first be fluent with its meter, rhyme, and figures of speech, then ask two questions:
1) How artfully has the objective of the poem been rendered and
2) How important is that objective?

Question 1 rates the poem's perfection, question 2 rates its importance.
Once these questions have been answered, determining the poem's greatness becomes a relatively simple matter. If the poem's score for perfection is plotted on the horizontal of a graph and its importance is plotted on the vertical, then calculating the total area of the poem yields the measure of its greatness.

A sonnet by Byron might score high on the vertical but only average on the horizontal. A Shakespearean sonnet, on the other hand, would score high both horizontally and vertically, yielding a massive total area, thereby revealing the poem to be truly great."

Keating rose from his seat as Neil read and went to the blackboard. He drew a graph, demonstrating by lines and shading, how the Shakespeare poem would overwhelm the Byron poem.

Neil continued reading. "As you proceed through the poetry in this book, practice this rating method. As your ability to evaluate poems in this manner grows, so will your enjoyment and understanding of poetry."

Neil stopped, and Keating waited a moment to let the lesson sink in. Then Keating grabbed onto his own throat and screamed horribly. "AHHHHGGGGG!!"

"Refuse! Garbage! Pus! Rip it out of your books. Go on, rip out the entire page! I want this rubbish in the trash where it belongs!"

He grabbed the trash can and dramatically marched down the aisles, pausing for each boy to deposit the ripped page from his book. The whole class laughed and snickered.

"Make a clean tear," Keating cautioned. "I want nothing left of it! Dr.j. Evans Pritchard, you are disgraceful!" The laughter grew, and...

Keating strutted back to the front of the room, put the trash can on the floor and jumped into it. The boys laughed louder.

Fire danced in Keating's eyes. He stomped the trash a few times, then stepped out and kicked the can away.

"This is battle, boys," he cried. "War! You are souls at a critical juncture. Either you will succumb to the will of academic hoi polloi, and the fruit will die on the vine - or you will triumph as individuals.

"Have no fear, you will learn what this school wants you to learn in my class; however, if I do my job properly, you will also learn a great deal more. For example, you will learn to savor language and words because no matter what anyone tells you, words and ideas have the power to change the world."

Keating slammed his hand on the wall behind him, and the sound reverberated like a drum. The entire class jumped and turned to the rear.

"Well," Keating whispered defiantly. "I say - drivel! One reads poetry because he is a member of the human race, and the human race is filled with passion! Medicine, law, banking - these are necessary to sustain life. But poetry, romance, love, beauty? These are what we stay alive for!"

"To quote from Whitman, "O me! O life!... of the questions of these recurring; of the endless trains of the faithless... of cities filled with the foolish; what good amid these, O me, O life?"

"Answer. That you are here - that life exists, and identity; that the powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse. That the powerful play *goes on* and you may contribute a verse."

"What will your verse be?"



Later, in the film, Keating emphasizes the romantic and pagan manifesto: "Carpe Diem."

If "Carpe Diem" means "Live Up Today" in the usual secular meaning, then it isn't a worthy lesson to teach students. Think of how many young people wasted their lives because they took that sort of advice in the last few generations.

However, one can--with a little creative license--turn Keating's meaning into one of deep significance, "Carpe Transcendence."

The latter is what the social activist, peacemaker, and reconciler Thich Nhat Hanh means when he writes:

In the Light,

Daniel Wilcox

My Philosophical Journey Across Brief Time

While lapping up long lengths of the swimming pool last night, another reflective project splashed (like the proverbial salmon or cod) into my consciousness.

Enclosed is the beginning of a philosophical timeline of my life--less than a quantum blink in cosmic time--which shows how I came to the place I am now, and the journeying and struggles and radiances. Hopefully, my own backwards reflection and chewing of life's cud will spark (to change metaphors midstream;-) your own musings and reflection of your lives.

One Philosophical Time Line:

1) From my earliest memories (maybe 4?), I recall that I badgered my folks (and later many other adults) with WHY questions. It appears that I was born with a 'why' caught in my throat and mind;-)

When I was still young, and about to meet a new person, my parent would remind me not to ask questions, or talk a lot.

2) At a small age, before first grade, my Aunt 'Barbrie' used to often child-sit me, because both of my parents worked late jobs. She was a wild (in an innocent sort of way) young woman who at bedtime told me incredibly creative science fiction stories she made up on the spur of the moment.

Great space ships left earth to other planets; the planets were strange and different. And she told me about a boy, just like myself, who built a space ship in his backyard. Maybe those early stories were a factor in my childhood--and life-long--love of science?

3) By the time I was 5 or 6, I began trying to figure out God, this mystery that everyone talked about, and my father, as a Baptist minister, preached about every Sunday morning. I did this, partially during the sermons, while I moved a little toy car about in my winter coat sleeves and on top of it; and remembering I mustn't say a word or ask questions until the end of the service.

Contrary to the caricature of what atheists claim all Christians and theists believe--that God is "Sky Father/Super Person,"
I never thought that.

Rather, in my little imagination and beginning of abstract reasoning, I thought God must be like gas:-), like the air, invisible but everywhere.

4) Then by 8 years of age, I became very aware of ethics and my own part in it. Consciousness and conscience met.

A dramatic conversion experience on the way home from Adams. I leaned forward and asked my dad to stop the Chevy. He pulled over on the shoulder of the gravel road in Southeast Nebraska on a Thursday night in 1955. Since I've told that life-changing story in past blogs, I won't repeat it here. (This is to be a short time line, not a tome;-)

5) In elementary school (3rd or 4th grade), a librarian used to lend me new books (beyond my years) and I learned about Neanderthals, the prehistoric, and more about dinosaurs, and science fiction.

My dad used to talk with me about prehistoric times, as well as space travel. He was a history teacher, Baptist preacher, carpenter, small town farmer, and handy-man.

As far as I know, no one in our family was ever "young creationist" in the sense that is meant by most conservative Christians and secularists now. While such labels may describe many or most fundamentalists and evangelicals, my own growing up years were very different.

I guess we would have fit in the "Old Earth" category, because we thought the world was very old as proven by dinosaur skeletons, and that prehistoric men had existed as evidenced by Neanderthals' remains found in excavations in Germany and elsewhere. We did believe in the Genesis Flood.

Categories:
--Naive Faith
--Adapted religion with budding reason and science
--Moral Realism (or Moral Objectivism)and Moral Universalism
--Theism
--Anabaptist Version of the Christian religion
--Infants innocent, no O.S.
--Free Will


6) But my devout naive faith and hope came crashing down at the fairly young age of 11 years. Our Sunday School teacher told us God sent bears to punish kids who were making fun of the prophet Elisha's bald head!

I immediately raised my hand, very upset. This chasm opened up severe doubt within me. How could the Bible and adult Christians believe such horrific things about God?

I refused to accept such stories. The God I hoped in wasn't at all like that.

7) About this time, or maybe a little later, I learned the Baptist view (at least of our church) that St. Augustine was a false teacher, that Original Sin and infant baptism were horrific wrong beliefs which Roman Catholics believed.

We Baptists didn't accept the Creeds of the Catholics, Lutherans, Methodists, etc. We were non-creedal and humble of it;-).

8) Then as an early teen, I discovered the passages in Scripture which condoned, supported, and caused slavery!

If the Bible was God's Word, how could it be so wrong about this horrific evil?

This ethical contradiction bothered me deeply for years, as well as other horrific actions, stories, and demands in Scripture.

9) By the time I was 13 or 14, I quit thinking the Bible was inerrant. Too many wrong parts. It couldn't be, though, I continued to think that many key passages were inspired by God.

When I asked my dad and to other Christian leaders, and read books which explained problems in the Bible, their answers didn't satisfy, not in the least.

This controversial issue--and plenty of other wrongs and errors in the Bible--still troubles me.

And how is it possible that many bright, even brilliant, highly educated adults really think the Bible is "inerrant"?
Why do so many churches and denominations insist that Scripture is error-free, perfect?

Clearly, despite their irrational faith, the Bible is in error in many places. And, of course, later when I studied textural criticism, etc., I learned of the many thousands of other errors, of serious historical errors, of grievous scientific errors, copy errors, and so forth.

10) Summer camp! Ah, those exciting times. At 13 years old, I got to go. (Normally, my parents couldn't afford the cost.)

What a rousing time with campfires, games, Bible studies, exultant singing, and the fun of running through the night, knocking down the wood braces which kept the wood window covers open in the campers' cabins.

I don't remember if I actually ever did that, but rooted for those few who did; what fun:-)! Especially if it was one of the girls' cabins. By the time I had reached 12, I was completely girl-crazy.

There at that Baptist summer camp, philosophy showed up vividly and got personal, too.

I dedicated my life to God one inspirational night after a powerful sermon about how we need to choose to commit our lives totally to God and to change the world.

Strangely though when I got home and excitedly told my folks, they were dismissive of my experience. They told me I was already a Christian, and, basically, 'don't get carried away'!

I guess this shows how moderate--middle of the road-- my folks were in their fundamentalism, not extremists.

They had met those extreme "fundamentalists--the GARB ones in college, a very bad experience for them. Whenever I got "too religious," like the time I went around our small town putting evangelistic tracts on car windows, they cautioned me to be moderate.

My dad and mom were practical people, not given to dramatic religious experience. They also thought no miracles--like the ones in the Bible took place now. TV preachers, according to them, were con-artists, fakes.

Rather, what counted in life was being a strong Christian who lives right and good, succeeds, treats others equally, and helps those in need.

11) The older I got, the greater my questioning. I'm surprised I didn't turn into a question mark;-).

When I was 16 (15?) and asking and thinking deeply about philosophy and religion, and always involved in reading religious books, I came to view God as the "Ground of All Being."

And the more I studied and thought, I began to accept other such 'liberal' views. (This, of course, worried my parents, but they didn't normally speak of it.)

Categories:
--Skeptical faith
--Religion and Science together
--Moral Realism (or Moral Objectivism)and Moral Universalism
--Theism
--Liberal Baptist
--Ultimism
--Free Will
--Separation of Church and State


12) An added burst to my already questioning mind, came as a junior in high school, when I chose to sign up for an elective, Philosophy class. (Our high school was one of the few high schools in which philosophy was offered as a class.)

We read Plato's The Cave, and complex explanations of famous philosophers, and talked and talked, etc. My understanding of the world, life, existence, the universe kept expanding.

This exciting class was taught by my favorite teacher, who also taught history and debate.

He was an agnostic, had a dry sense of Mark Twainian humor, and made side comments against religion, politically correct ideas, and so forth. Later when I became an educator, I modeled my teaching on his methods and style.

And that year, we studied Transcendentalism in American literature. Emerson's and Thoreau's view of reality greatly influenced me, though I opposed some of their beliefs.

Additional Categories:
--Ideals, Essence, the Good
--Mysticism
--Civil Disobedience
--Questioning about relationship of Nature and Science and God

13) But then, at 17, another life-changing crisis blasted forth--one struggle which has lasted for 53 years!

I encountered Christian Calvinism, Reformed theology.

The Christian leader was our teen Bible study teacher in Lincoln, Nebraska.
(How did a 'free-will' Baptist like me, end up in a Christian group led by a Calvinist?
No idea.)

The Vietnam War had ignited and was raging. And I was struggling with whether or not to go into the military--
probably the Navy, like my dad, after high school as planned--
and go to Vietnam.

When I asked (questions, again) this Christian leader, he declared that Christians ought to kill for God.

Shocked at his certainty and the way he stated it, I responded, "I don't think God would ever command us to kill others."

He proceeded to quote passages from the Old Testament. According to him, God would sometimes command Christians to do what is "immoral."

Quickly, it got terrible. I learned the worst--Calvinists, Augustinians, and Lutherans think most of the billions of us humans are foreordained to hell, to eternal damnation, condemned before the whole cosmos began!

Calvinists claim that God doesn't love everyone, but only loves a limited number of humans.

What!!!!!:-( I've never gotten over the shocked horror of that.

The bears, even slavery, now seemed minor issues; this new horror was like falling from a 10-thousand-foot cliff.

:-((((((((

Other Christian leaders claimed that only the Creeds are true Christianity, not our Baptist beliefs--those are "heretical."

Whew...

So for the first time, I checked out these infamous "Creeds." Got a large tome from the public library.

To say I was devastated and baffled is an understatement.

These creedal statements were NOTHING like our Baptist faith, nothing like the Christianity that I deeply trusted in.

The creedal theology was so contrary to everything we believed about life and existence.

And the Creeds made very bizarre statements such as that Jesus is totally God and totally human, etc. They seemed irrational, ridiculous, and absurd.

How could any thinking human possibly believe that Jesus was God?!

14) Then at 18/19 years of age, I went off to university, first to the University of Nebraska, then transferred to Long Beach State in California. At the latter, most of the professors were outspoken atheists.

Very brilliant men, I looked up to. Two great profs were agnostics, the second one a Jewish agnostic. It was the fall of 1966, a very volatile time. The best of times, the worst.

I learned so much. But fairly quickly I came to see that Christianity probably isn't true, at least not what I had believed, and certainly not denominational religion.

At one point while crossing the university quad, I came to a marrow-deep crisis point, probably the central one of my entire life:
I was at a 50% versus 50%
'two roads'--

EITHER/OR:

Stay with liberal Baptist religion
(our Baptist campus minister said he leaned toward Deism)

OR

Change to Atheism
(like our profs and most of the students I knew).

The tipping point came in that dramatic crisis moment,
as I stood on the quad,
torn between 2 opposite directions,
2 opposite roads,
2 diametrically opposed lives.

While organized Christianity didn't seem to fit with some of the evidence we were learning in anthropology, geology, and philosophy,
on the opposite side
Atheism generally rejected the reality of objective ethics, and was in very serious error in claiming to know for sure about the ultimate nature of the cosmos, of Reality.

We often discussed philosophical, ethical, and political issues between classes, disagreeing, reflecting, and countering.

How could anyone know that the vast cosmos was "meaningless" and "purposeless"?!

True, as a liberal Baptist, I thought that existence was "meaningful," but I didn't "know" that; rather I had faith it did.

So though Christianity had deep problems, (and I strongly rejected the major Christian traditions of the Creeds), I knew that ethics are real, not "subjective" stuff humans make up. I could see that in the Civil Rights Movement, and other issues. My first protest march was against Apartheid in South Africa.

Another troubling factor was the unethical behavior of some of the professors and atheist students. When they defended unethical actions, and lived them, I realized, I didn't want to go down that river.

My two best friends were atheists. Worst of all, I saw how their nontheistic lifestance was harming them.

That was then...

But now--over 50 years later--I wish I could have a second chance at that drastic decision on the quad.

I wish I could live that crisis over again, now that I know there are far more than only those 2 extreme contrary options,
that Life isn't an
either/or--

EITHER

Baptist Christianity

OR

Atheism.

No, there are many different philosophical lifestances humans can consider, think about, and choose from.

There are at least 10 very different views of Reality. (See my other blog post for specifics.)

I do know I would reject Atheism again.

After over 50 more years of studying Atheism, reading lots of books by many famous atheists, talking with thousands of them, I am more intellectually convinced that Atheism is incorrect. Besides, I don't identify my central views by what I am not.

BUT what I would change, is that I would leave organized Christianity.

TO BE CONTINUED--

Would you like to share your own philosophical timeline?


In the LIGHT,

Daniel Wilcox
lightwaveseeker@gmail.com

I refuse to accept despair as the final response to the ambiguities of history. I refuse to accept the idea that the 'isness' of man's present nature makes him morally incapable of reaching up for the eternal 'oughtness' that forever confronts him.
Martin Luther King

Learning to Listen--"Listening to the Other"

from MUSALAHA, a movement and organization working toward reconciliation
in Palestine/Israel

This also speaks to what we need in the U.S. now! between various political,
religious, and philosophical enemies.

"This weekend, June 17-18, 2016 was a highlight in my work in reconciliation. More often than not, recruiting for events is very challenging, and in our anything-can-change last-minute culture, it is difficult to get people to commit to a weekend-long meeting. Why would people take their precious weekends to stare into a mirror, and perhaps see things that need to change?"

"Listening to the Other"


"The Ahlan women’s group is different...We started the weekend with a barbeque, allowing families to join us for a few hours and be involved in what we are trying to accomplish..."

"Ronza, Musalaha’s West Bank Women’s Coordinator, and a facilitator in the Ahlan group, took us through a series of ice breaker games..it was her first time to lead one of Musalaha’s joint Israeli-Palestinian groups.
--

"Later, when the husbands left, our 28 women gathered and we started a teaching on “Listening to the Other,” which covered how to listen without preconceived notions or judgments...

"...on putting our thoughts on hold and being present in order to be able to hear the person in front of us. This conversation will only happen once. Be in the moment. You don’t get do-overs in life, so make the most of it and listen."

"Rula also taught us not to listen in order to answer."

"How many times do we sit on the edge of our chairs, hoping the other person takes a break to breathe so that we can start our rebuttal?"

"Toward the end of the conference, many of the women expressed their gratitude...Some women came from a small town outside of Ramallah – a place most Israelis have never heard of, let alone visited...."

-Hedva Haymov

"We seek to accomplish through the following:

To train women in leadership and reconciliation
To multiply our women’s Israeli and/or Palestinian groups in different regions
To impact our societies through community projects
To empower women through education, community development, democracy, networking, project management, and social change
To establish women’s groups in remote regions"

Read the whole story at
https://www.musalaha.org/articles/discovering-my-culture-by-learning-about-the-others-culture/
--



In the Light,

Daniel Wilcox

Friendly Musings about Some of the Best Songs

Or (in the tradition of those long-winded controversial "Or" titles of the 1600's)
it's time to take a brief break from dealing with so many world tragedies including the tragic terror in San Bernadino/Redlands. And at the end of this list, will be a reflection concerning the early Quaker rejection of music and the arts versus modern Quakers' love of music.

What is the difference between spiritual songs versus ones that harm and destroy? Songs that are sung by empty rote versus songs that fill us with Light? How do we tell the difference?

Musings of the Last 60 years--
(in no certain order)

1. Sounds of Silence by Simon and Garfunkel
The first time I heard this powerful reflection, I was driving through the night in a white wonder of a snowstorm down Van Dorn Avenue in Lincoln, Nebraska. Huge flakes of snow were hitting the wind shield, and S&G were talking to the darkness…

2. Stairway to Heaven by Lead Zeppelin
Am not much of a heavy metal fan, but this very unusual rock song is unique and amazing. Also, there have been various commentaries written about the lyrics, some saying it is an anti-spiritual song, others disagreeing. What do you think?

3. For What It’s Worth by Buffalo Springfield
This is one of those seminal creative songs that come once or twice in a generation. Its haunting lyrics somehow define the protest movement. In the fall of 1966, we used to go down to Hollywood’s Sunset Strip. As college students, we didn’t have money for concerts, but we hung out at coffee shops and philosophized talked, of opposition to the Vietnam War, and of our favorite music groups. The song appeared shortly after the Sunset Curfew Riot, which we somehow missed. Maybe we no longer went there because of the new 10 PM curfew.

4. (Don’t Fear) The Reaper by Blue Oyster Cult
Actually when I analyzed the lyrics, this appeared to be a pro-suicide lament rather than an anti-death song of protest. But ever since it appeared in the famous science fiction miniseries classic, The Stand by Stephen King, its poetic, allusionary lyrics have been unforgettable.

5. Yesterday (McCartney) by the Beatles
Probably the best melancholy love ballad of the 60’s. Released in September of 1965

6. Mr. Tambourine Man (Dylan) by The Byrds
First heard this great rock song when walking into the college café at the University of Nebraska in the June of 1965. A longhaired graduate student told me that it wasn’t the Byrds’ song but had been written by a young man named Bob Dylan. Thus began a long following of the bard of rock. There are questions of the lyrics being praise of a drug dealer who alerts his customers by playing his tambourine but Dylan has always denied that it is a drug song.

7. Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning)
One of the very best poetic laments against war ever written.

8. Monday Morning Church (Brent Baxter and Erin Enderlin) by Alan Jackson
Deeply sorrowful dirge with an incredible chorused metaphor. Sung by one of my favorite country ballad singers.

9. What If I Stumble by DCTalk
Very spiritual song of conscience and care; spiritual without being formally religious

10. Desperado by the EaglesAnother example of lucid ballad poetry set to music; in this case the brief story of a Wild West gunman who is being counseled by the singer through playing card imagery that love is the best choice, not killing and money.

11. The Gates of Eden by Bob Dylan
60’s folk song filled with surrealistic images and metaphors of protest.

12. Woodstock (Join Mitchell) by Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young
Paean to the most famous rock concert of all time.

13. I Am a Rock by Simon and Garfunkel
Another poetic inner reflection from the harmonic duo.

14. Gods of Men by Randy Stonehill
Spiritual satire against the finite idols that too many humans ‘worship.’

15. The Universal Soldier (Buffy St. Marie) by Donovan
An anti-war song that covers human history. While not excusing militarist leaders, the lyrics instead focuses on how each of us as individual humans are responsible for war.

16. 8 Miles High by The Byrds
The instrumentation in this rocker is amazing.

17. Chimes of Freedom (Dylan) by The Byrds
Another Dylan song which done by the Byrds comes out harmonious. It’s a lyric praising human rights, justice, but the tragedy of how often goodness and the truth lose out to intolerance and persecution.

18. Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands/ Stuck in Mobile by Dylan
Used to listen to this ballad (enjoying the power of Dylan’s words, and trying to figure out its hidden meanings) every night in the fall of 1966.

19. Birthday of My Thoughts by Seals and Croft

20. See My Life by Seals and Croft
Philosophical, reflective early song from these two Bahai's

21. All I Really Want to Do (Dylan) by Cher
Unusual serious love song with an almost Ogden-Nash strikingly strange rhymes.

22. Eve of Destruction by Barry McGuire
Most famous protest song

23. You’re the Reason God Made Oklahoma by David Frizzell & Shelly West and Blake Shelton & Miranda Lambert
What does this romantic song of longing love say to the tragedy of Blake and Miranda's recent divorce?

24. Somebody Must Be Praying for Me (Frank Vinci, Bob Mould, Kris Bergsnes) by Tim McGraw
A very meaningful spiritual song of how sometimes problems and loss of dreams open up other possibilities including love.

25. Cats in the Cradle by Sandy Gaston and Harry Chapin
Poem and song filled with allusions and metaphoric images which warns the severe and tragic consequences of a father who is too busy succeeding in his career for his family

26. Daniel by Elton John
Another relationship song of emotional dept

27. Revolution by The Beatles
Anti-revolution song against the extremists who do wrong to bring about their version of utopia.

28. Old Man's Rubble (Brown Bannister) by Amy Grant
Probably the best ever song of the danger of living contrary to what one sincerely believes.

29. The One by Elton John

30. Celebrate this Heartbeat by Randy Stonehill

31. Positively Fourth Street/Like a Rolling Stone by Bob Dylan
Negative song against a former love that somehow comes out positive.

Like a Rolling Stone by Bob Dylan
First long play rock song that won air time and became famous.

32. Sunshine of Your Love by Cream

33. Let's Try and Get Together by The YoungBloods

34. Hey Jude (McCartney) by The Beatles

35. Gypsies, Tramps, and Thieves by Cher
Yes, this has a bit of pop, but the variation in the instrumentation and voice has stayed with me for years. A really powerful rock song.

36. Born to Be Wild by Steppenwolf
Not good lyrics but the song has such instrumental power and drive

37. Me and Bobby McGee (Fred Foster and Kris Kristofferson) by Kris Kristofferson

38. You're So Vain by Carly Simon
Very negative song about an egotistical sexist guy, but the lyrics and Simon's voice turn the dirt into gold!)

39. Nights in White Satin by The Moody Blues

40. For Annie by Petra
Cry for those who give up and commit suicide. And what we can do.

41. Kicks (Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil) by Paul Revere and the Raiders

42. Why Don't You Look Into Jesus by Larry Norman
Jesus movement rocker

43. Without Love You Are Nothing by Larry Norman

44. I Wish We'd All Been Ready by Larry Norman

45. Everything I Own by Bread

46. In Da Gadda Da Vidda (Ingle) by Iron Butterfly
First heard this classic even before it was recorded. Listened to it one day in Panhandle Park in San Francisco, after I had hitched up there to live in Haight Asbury, January 1967.

47. In the Year 2525 by Zager and Evans
Really haunting science-fiction/ apocalyptic song with unusual scoring. Very unusual. Can’t think of any other s-f rock song except for Rocket Man by Elton John.

48. You're in My Heart and my Soul by Rod Stewart

49. For Your Love (Graham Gouldman) by The Yardbirds

50. Ruby Tuesday by The Rolling Stones
So many of the Rolling Stones songs represent the immoral and the self-centered, but this ballad doesn't and is a wonder.

51. Wipeout (Bob Berryhill, Pat Connolly, Jim Fuller, and Ron Wilson) by the Astronauts

52. Proud Mary by Creedance Clearwater Revival

53. Rocket Man (Bernie Taupin) by Elton John
Inspired by a short story in The Illustrated Man novel by Ray Bradbury.

54. I Hold On (Dierks Bently and Brett James) by Dierks Bentley

55.Telluride (Bret James) by Tim McGraw

56. Riser (Dierks Bentley, Travis Meadows and Steve Moakler) by Dierks Bentley

57 Cry Out to Jesus by Third Day

58. Live Like You Were Dying (Tim Nichols and Craig Wiseman) by Tim McGraw

57. Picture by Kid Rock and Sheryl Crow
One of the best duets in rock/country history. Really emphasizes true love, despite breakup and sleeping with others. The latter and drug/alcohol abuse in the lyrics are troubling. Strongly demonstrates the contrast between how many men perceive themselves differently from women.

58. The Cowboy in Me (Jeffrey Steele, Al Anderson and Craig Wiseman) By Tim McGraw

59. 25 or 6 to 4 by Chicago
Big band sound (not usually my cup of java) but the instrumentation in this melodious crooner has stayed in my mind for 45 years, while other songs (ones which I originally liked much better) have faded away, some leaving only the name of the title!

60. The Star Spangled Banner, American Anthem by Jimi Hendrix
Need I say more?! Tragic how drugs ended this great guitarist’s life all too young, only 27.

61. I Don’t Dance by Lee Bryce
New romantic married love ballad

62. I Pledge My Head to Heaven by Keith Green

62. (I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone (Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart) by The Monkees
Too bad the Monkees’ best songs weren’t written by them. Similar to the country star, Tim McGraw, they popularized great lyrics of others giving them an English rocker sound. According to Wikipedia, “at their peak in 1967 the band outsold the Beatles and the Rolling Stones combined”!

63. I’m a Believer (Neil Diamond) by The Monkees

64. Bus Stop (Hyme and Graham Gouldman) by The Hollies

65. Paint It Black by The Rolling Stones (I, of course, don't agree with the lyrics, but I think it is their best rocker.)

66. Summertime Blues (Eddie Cochran)

67. Building Block by Noel Paul Stookey

68. Somebody to Love (Darby Slick) by Jefferson Airplane

69. White Rabbit by Jefferson Airplane

70. Help Me, Rhonda by The Beach Boys (One of my very favorites though I know it is not a great song; but it brings back a flood of 60's feelings:-)

71. Horse with No Name by America

72. Galveston (Jimmy Webb) by Glen Campbell

73. Jesus Commands Us to Go by Keith Green

74. American Pie by Don McLean

75. Album Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd
Probably best and most creative concept album. Though not songs to sing a long to.

76. Drinking Class (Josh Kear, Dvid Fraiser, Ed Hill) by Lee Bryce
The sort of a song that has great music and a fine vocal, but destructive lyrics. Why do so many country songs emphasize and fixate on getting drunk? Tragic in real life, sometimes in song. When I listen to the song, tapping my way, on long drives, I change the word to the "thinking class":-)

77. Soldier Boy by the Shirelles (I know this is bubble gum, but hey, I like the song and the memories; at least I didn't add "Johnny Angel" by Shelly Fabares; I liked that, too, but now it seems childish as I listen to the song in my head; the lyrics seem silly and stupid. I haven't heard the song in at least 20 or 30 years! Amazing how the mind sometimes calls up these old files just like hypertext on the Web.)

78. Brightest and Best by John Fischer

79. Cherish by The Association

80. Summer in the City by The Lovin’ Spoonful

--

Since I am a poet/wannbe-songwriter, artist, and lover of music, (of all kinds except rap and opera)--

First, a few comments about Friends and their rejection of music in the 1600’s:
To those early Quakers who rejected music and the other arts, a modern liberal Friend, Jon Watts, explains why they were in error. Watts is an accomplished musician and Quaker movement advocate.

Early Friend Solomon Eccles:
From A Musick Lector
"a QUAKER (so called) being formerly of that Art, doth give his Judgment and Sentence against it; but yet approves of the Musick that pleaseth God."
Written by SOLOMON ECCLES, 1667

"So I see, that Musick pleases well that which is for destruction, and grieves that which God doth highly esteem and honour; Isa. 42.21.
--

Modern Friend Jon Watts:
“Solomon Eccles rejected his upper-class, baroque music profession, and took all of his instruments and manuscripts and burned them in a public demonstration of leveling. The early Friends were rejecting the social class system, which they deemed unjust and ungodly. How could I possibly hear about that and not write a song about it?"

Early Friends threw out anything that was formulaic. The idea was experiential—to have your own experience of the Spirit, to have the Living Spirit speak through you. If you’re going to be baptized, let the Spirit baptize you. If you’re going to take communion, take it because the Spirit is leading you to, not because it’s just a thing you do every Sunday.

If you’re going to sing, don’t let someone else write it for you. Sing it! So Quakers were the first jazz musicians, always improvising. The Spirit was their muse.

So when I’m playing a song I try to listen to the Spirit the same way one does in a meeting for worship when preparing to give vocal ministry. I wait until I’m quaking to write a song down. I wait until a song is streaming out of me, until it’s not me anymore. It’s as if I’m watching the song get written.”

Jon Watts, Quaker Musician, songwriter, and movement leader
from an interview in the Friends Journal, May, 2013
http://www.friendsjournal.org/bum-rush-the-internet/

More quotes from A Musick Lector by Solomon Eccles:

"To obey the Lord, is better than to give all my goods to the poor, and my body to be burned; yet to let thee know the Truth of this thing; when I came to be convinced of this everlasting truth, I saw my Calling would not stand before it; I went, but not in the Counsel of the Lord, and sold most of my instruments;

"howbeit that would not cover me, for the Lord met with me; and as I was learning to sew, for I had formerly some insight of a Tailors Trade, but I was too high to bow to it, till the Truth came, and that is of power to make the strong man bow, and I sitting alone, with my mind turned in, the Voice of the Lord said, Go thy way, and buy those Instruments again thou lately soldest, and carry them and the rest thou hast in thy house to Tower Hill, and burn them there, as a Testimony against that Calling."

"So I obeyed the Lord, and bought them again, and carried them, and all I had in my house, to Tower Hill, and burnt them there, according to the uprightness of my heart before the Lord; which Books and Instruments did amount to more than four and twenty pound; and I had great peace. Glory be to God for ever. Amen."

"That Heaven will be shaken, and thy Song will be turned into howling; for such Musick and Singing was never set up of God, but of men; and it takes with that part in man that serves not God aright, but is for wrath and judgement, Heb. 12.26. 1 Cor. 2.24."

"But what effects hath Musick brought forth, that men so highly esteem it? What fruit did Nebuchadnezzars Musick bring forth in his day, was it not to murder? But the three servants of the Lord would not bow to his Image at the sound of his Pipes and his Fiddles, though others did.

"And how did Musick and Dancing take the heart of the foolish King Herod, by means whereof he committed murder, and caused John Baptists's Head to be cut off, who was a blessed man, approved of God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, and was greater than the prophets; and because he reproved him for having his Brothers Wife, rankor lay in the heart of the Damsels Mother, and when the Fidlers did strike up, and the Wench began to dance, his affectionate love began to be enflamed to the Girle, that he killed the Lords servant in coole blood. O ye Fidlers and Dancing- Masters, let this President break you off from your filthy practice;"

"Why do you dance without the Ark? Where is your Ark? What President have you in Scripture for your Danceing? You set up the Devils Kingdom by your proud Calling: You set their Bodies in postures to enflame and take with the lustful Nature in men, and with proud Apparrel, and Spots on their Faces. Woe to the Crown of Pride."

"What account will ye give to the Lord, ye Dancing- masters, from whence came ye, where is your Ark? David danced before the Ark. O repent ye shamless men, will you not blush at your doings? If my Calling was unlawful, much more is yours; O do not provoke the Lord any more; haste, haste, and leave off your practice before it leave you, for what thank will it be to you then, when you shall break off sinning because you can sin no more?"
Quaker Heritage Press

http://www.qhpress.org/index.html

BUT, why may not good music be creatively planned?

Why must songs always be only, allegedly, direct from the Divine?

This negation of the arts, especially music shows how lopsided the early Friends were when trying to get rid of hypocrisy, formalism without reality, and destructive influences.

Did those early spiritual revolutionaries also get rid of medicine, science, technology, etc.?

No, on the contrary, Quakers excelled in the sciences and in business, neither any more holy or spiritual than music or any other art. In fact, business probably is far more an occasion to err, even to destroy than music ever has been.

Do you have a suggestion of a song to add to Greatest Hits?

Quake to rock;-).


In Light,

Daniel Wilcox

The Best and Worst List

While I continue to work on various long writing projects, I decided to get down a quick list of my favorites and the dissed--the best and worst about living, from the vital and significant to the mundane and inane:-)

THE BEST LIST:

Creative Writing--love getting the writer's flow, so into creating that one misses lunch, stays barnacled to the chair, streaming word rivers.

Swimming, snorkeling, backpacking, hiking, photographing

Transcendence/Ought--our ability of alternative choice, freedom, and creativity

Compassion, equality, human rights, honesty, kindness, empathy, truth-seeking, non-violence, forgiveness, fidelity, mercy, justice, gentleness, generosity, courage, perseverance

Long in-depth discussions and acceptance and sharing with others, even brief meaningful talk and/or joking at checkout lines

Getting published, achieving accolades

Why Questions, philosophical reflections and discussions

Libertarian-democratic socialist, parliamentary form of government

Romantic dates

Traveling, hopefully weekly outings, and at least one out-of-state vacation a year; visiting foreign countries in depth (though I no longer have the means or the stamina for that)

Energy of youth and early adult years

Spontaneity

Curiosity

Humor, puns, jokes

Long historical tomes, scholarly biographies
The Great Upheaval by Jay Wink, Albion's Seed by David Hackett Fischer, Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder, Ringside Seat to a Revolution by David Dorado

Scientific books especially on astronomy, cosmology, anthropology, geology, biology, etc.
How It Ends by Chris Impey, The Ancestor's Tale by Richard Dawkins

Philosophy, worldview study
The Whys of a Philosophical Scrivener by Martin Gardner, Sophie's World by Josteen Gaarder

Imagistic and narrative poetry

Art especially oil and tempera scenes, Impressionism, Expressionism, Realism, Van Gogh, Goya

Movies, TV Mini-series and shows—The Stand, Heaven and Earth (Vietnam War), Sommersby, Savior, Bruce Almighty, What Dreams May Come, Sleepy Hollow, Terminator 2, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Breaking Bad

In books—vivid suspenseful speculative/futuristic/alternate-history plots, and long historical fiction

Music-- Folk rock, ballads, rockabilly, hard rock, catchy worship music

Mountain Dew , in all flavors—Pitch Black, Distortion, Livewire, Regular, Baja Blast, Sangria Blast, Code Red, Game Fuel

Food--This became more significant after middle age:
Crab rolls, cream of crab soup, King Crab
Blackened Alaskan salmon, seasoned tilapia, cod, Cajun catfish, etc.
Wedge-cut seasoned French fries
Fish Veracruz-style

Pizza—thick buttery crust, lots of cheese, mushrooms, red peppers…
Rubio's grilled gourmet fish, Taco Bell's Baja Chalupa
Hot peppers such as jalapeños and spicy sauces (enough to make my ears smoke;-)
Kiwis, oranges, blackberries, razzle berry pie, large figs

Weather—sunny, hot and dry (from 85 degrees to 95)

Places—Pacific Coastline, Yosemite, Redwoods, Grand Canyon, Hawaii, especially Maui beaches, Sierras, Big Sur, tall trees

Historical trips such as C.W. Trails and Museums of Virginia and South Carolina

Animals—cats:-) hamsters, meerkats, dolphins, whales, seals, otters, beavers, talking parrots, song birds such as meadowlarks, hummingbirds, raccoons, iguanas, spiders; Sea World, zoos

Architecture—Modern Wright-style, Victorian

To be continued--

In the Light,

Daniel Wilcox

Good Friday?

Isn’t that like saying Good Assassination?

Good Murder?

Good Holocaust?!

Yes. This is so as the Jewish writer and Holocaust-survivor Elie Wiesel so powerfully and cogently demonstrates in one excruciating story in his memoir of the Holocaust—Night.*


How can there be good-evil?

Yes what an oxymoron.

What a contradiction and ethical absurdity where human grieving never ceases.

At first, all of this may seem like past history. Most people know about the Shoah (Holocaust). And many probably have heard of "Good Friday" since it still occurs on calendars. But nowadays most people put little focus on history unless forced to do so, and most work or study or spring-break party right through “Good Friday,” unless they are devoutly liturgical in their religion.

Years ago back in the 1950’s in the Midwest, all religious people commemorated the special Friday, and many attended very long services. I remember as kid sitting through 3-4 hour services where 4-5 ministers took turns preaching on and on. But that was then, this is now.

Looking back on that yearly event now seems very strange: how those religious leaders taught us about the torture and execution of a Jewish leader by the Romans 2000 years ago and why it was vitally important to us, even elementary children.

Even more baffling—at least to everyone not convinced of the Christian faith—is why speak to the general populace in the present of such a capital punishment by ancient governing authorities so long ago? And why claim this execution has anything, indeed everything, to do with humans today?

Last and most incomprehensible of all, why claim that this execution is “good”?!

How can moral evil, especially when conducted by civilization’s leaders ever be considered “good”?

How as human beings can we ever deal with moral atrocities—so many horrendous massacres throughout blood-gushed/disgusting history?

This is the beginning of the philosophical and ethical question that Elie Wiesel asked in his book Night, speaking of the murder of so many by the Nazi death camps including his father, mother, and sister:

“Never shall I forget those flames which consumed my faith forever. Never shall I forget that nocturnal silence which deprived me, for all eternity, of the desire to live. Never shall I forget those moments which murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to dust. Never shall I forget these things, even if I am condemned to live as long as God Himself. Never.”

Then Wiesel tells the story of a young boy executed by the Nazis:
"The three victims mounted together onto the chairs. The three necks were placed at the same moment within the nooses. ‘Long live Liberty!’ cried the adults. But the child was silent.

"'Where is God? Where is He?’ someone behind me asked. At a sign from the head of the camp, the three chairs tipped over. Total silence throughout the camp. On the horizon, the sun was setting.

"'Bare your heads!' yelled the head of the camp. His voice was raucous. We were weeping. ‘Cover your heads!’ Then the march past began. The two adults were no longer alive. Their tongues hung swollen, blue tinged. But the third rope was still moving; being so light, the child was still alive..."

"For more than half an hour he stayed there, struggling between life and death, dying in slow agony under our eyes. And we had to look him full in the face. He was still alive when I passed in front of him. His tongue was still red, his eyes not yet glazed."

"Behind me, I heard the same man asking: ‘Where is God now?’ And I heard a voice within me answer him: ‘Where is He? Here He is — He is hanging here on this gallows'"

"Where is God? Where is He?"

And I heard a voice within me answer him: "Where is He? Here He is — He is hanging here on this gallows..."


To be continued

In the Light,

Daniel Wilcox