French, Daughters, and Adventures

I remember going to my future high school as an eighth grader and selecting classes for my upcoming freshman year.  This was an exciting time for a fourteen year old who’d spent the previous eight years in a parochial school, with fairly limited—though profitable—course options.

I spied the foreign language department and its course offerings in the curriculum of Lapeer East High during orientation.  I’d been fascinated by foreign languages, having learned snippets of Spanish, French, Hebrew, and, of course, Latin throughout my years at Bishop Kelley Memorial.  That fascination, along with rumor that the French Department was chaired by a lovely young blonde, was enough for me.  I was in.

Over the next four years, a superficial fascination with language and a pretty teacher turned into a full-fledged love for French and a deep respect and affection for our teacher, Madame Essex.

A few years after graduation, I took my love for French to college and studied it for five semesters there as well.  I even taught it in a variety of settings over the next dozen years or so.  I’ve added other languages to my learning but French was and is my first love when I take leave of my mother tongue.  It is a thing of beauty, discipline and purity.  There’s nothing quite like it.

In a poignant twist of irony, it is now the province—linguistically and geographically—of my daughter Anna, who today moved to the southern part of France near Avignon to work at a school.  My daughter, Emily, is conversant in French as well and I expect she will use it as she pursues her various callings and avocations as well.

It is a delight for parents to watch as their children head off into the sunset or sunrise in pursuit of their dreams, their callings, their fortunes, their destinies.  We miss Anna already—Emily is close by, thankfully—and look forward to seeing her, sooner rather than later would be our preference.  Et j’espere c’est dans le pays de la France.  Mais bien sur!

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Less Is More

One of the most fascinating books I’ve read over the past ten years or so is Inside Steve’s Brain by Leander Kahney.  In this book, the author unpacks some of the keys to the design and marketing philosophy of Steve Jobs and Apple.  Some of the chapter titles are provocative (Focus: How Saying “No” Saved Apple; Elitism: Hire Only A Players, Fire the Bozos).

Jobs was leery of trying to do too many things with Apple.  In fact, when he took over Apple again in 1997 after a twelve year absence, he slashed and mothballed a lot of projects in the works.  Apple was in deep trouble financially.  He made the decision to focus on a few key products and make them superior to anything in the market.

One of the gnats he had to dispense with early on in his second tour with Apple was feature creep.  “Feature creep” is the IT design practice of creating all sorts of bells and whistles for any new piece of technology, thus increasing the product’s versatility and, therefore, sales.

Steve Jobs had no patience for feature creep.

This impatience was an outgrowth of his Zen minimalism which, in design terms, meant making technology as simple and user-friendly as possible.  So he and his colleagues worked painstakingly to do a few signature Apple devices extremely well.  As Jobs’ famous mantra says, “Focus means saying no.”

In the summer of 2011, Apple passed Exxon Mobil as the most profitable corporation in our country.  Jobs really knew what he was doing.

As a musician, it’s taken me quite a few years to learn that less is more.  Young musicians tend to want to overplay, to “express themselves,” to get everything possible out on their instruments.  Over many years, however, I’ve learned that the spaces between the notes I play are as important, sometimes more, as the notes themselves.  Or, as Dan Fogelberg said as a young studio musician, “I learned that it’s not what you play, it’s what you don’t play.”

What have you been given?  What do you do well?  What can you pare down or eliminate to simplify and focus, bringing your contributions to a higher level of excellence? Some suggestions:

• Social media: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn.  All fascinating platforms but they tend to eat time the way SUV’s suck gas.  Limit your involvements–and unnecessary participation in the drama of others, something you really don’t have energy and patience for anyway.
• News media: Consider some other outlet to get your news than the Big 5.  BBC or NPR are good places to start.  Again, do you really need five different viewpoints on a story?
• Pour the extra time and effort thus gained from limiting your involvements in pointless, time-wasting pursuits into honing skills in your vocation and your avocations.  As the song from the Franco Zeffirelli film “Brother Sun, Sister Moon” (1971) says, “Do few things, but do them well.”

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The Spell of the Yukon

There is snow on all the trees in my hamlet this evening.  The ground is insulated with over a foot of new, white powder.  Winter has finally arrived.  There is something about the cold that is at once frightening and peaceful. There are few things that invigorate the soul like walking at night with the chill, Arctic air in your face.  You move forward, face to the wind, keeping the pace.

This poem by Robert Service describes both the pursuit of gold that drew men into the cold to seek their fortunes, and the rugged Yukon.  Somehow the seeking and struggle ended up being more valuable to these sturdy men than the precious metal.  Stillness, chill, perspective, and peace.

The Law of the Yukon

I wanted the gold, and I sought it,
I scrabbled and mucked like a slave.
Was it famine or scurvy — I fought it;
I hurled my youth into a grave.
I wanted the gold, and I got it –
Came out with a fortune last fall, –
Yet somehow life’s not what I thought it,
And somehow the gold isn’t all.

No! There’s the land. (Have you seen it?)
It’s the cussedest land that I know,
From the big, dizzy mountains that screen it
To the deep, deathlike valleys below.
Some say God was tired when He made it;
Some say it’s a fine land to shun;
Maybe; but there’s some as would trade it
For no land on earth — and I’m one.

You come to get rich (damned good reason);
You feel like an exile at first;
You hate it like hell for a season,
And then you are worse than the worst.
It grips you like some kinds of sinning;
It twists you from foe to a friend;
It seems it’s been since the beginning;
It seems it will be to the end.

I’ve stood in some mighty-mouthed hollow
That’s plumb-full of hush to the brim;
I’ve watched the big, husky sun wallow
In crimson and gold, and grow dim,
Till the moon set the pearly peaks gleaming,
And the stars tumbled out, neck and crop;
And I’ve thought that I surely was dreaming,
With the peace o’ the world piled on top.

The summer — no sweeter was ever;
The sunshiny woods all athrill;
The grayling aleap in the river,
The bighorn asleep on the hill.
The strong life that never knows harness;
The wilds where the caribou call;
The freshness, the freedom, the farness –
O God! how I’m stuck on it all.

The winter! the brightness that blinds you,
The white land locked tight as a drum,
The cold fear that follows and finds you,
The silence that bludgeons you dumb.
The snows that are older than history,
The woods where the weird shadows slant;
The stillness, the moonlight, the mystery,
I’ve bade ‘em good-by — but I can’t.

There’s a land where the mountains are nameless,
And the rivers all run God knows where;
There are lives that are erring and aimless,
And deaths that just hang by a hair;
There are hardships that nobody reckons;
There are valleys unpeopled and still;
There’s a land — oh, it beckons and beckons,
And I want to go back — and I will.

They’re making my money diminish;
I’m sick of the taste of champagne.
Thank God! when I’m skinned to a finish
I’ll pike to the Yukon again.
I’ll fight — and you bet it’s no sham-fight;
It’s hell! — but I’ve been there before;
And it’s better than this by a damsite –
So me for the Yukon once more.

There’s gold, and it’s haunting and haunting;
It’s luring me on as of old;
Yet it isn’t the gold that I’m wanting
So much as just finding the gold.
It’s the great, big, broad land ‘way up yonder,
It’s the forests where silence has lease;
It’s the beauty that thrills me with wonder,
It’s the stillness that fills me with peace.

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Inspirations

I read an interesting article some months ago about Viggo Mortensen and his influences.  Viggo is an actor of no mean accomplishment and a Watertown native.  He spent a number of his growing up years here in the North Country.  People who frequent neighboring Clayton see him from time to time as he comes back to visit family.

The article was not so much commentary as it was comprehensive lists.  Being a list junkie, I found it fascinating and invigorating.  You can read about it here.

I heard a wise speaker remark once that we are all a composite of the people who influence our lives, whether directly or through their work.  I resonated with this observation and it helped put to bed the nagging urge to “be an original.”

So I thought I would list some of my own, collected over forty-eight years.  I’d be interested in yours if you choose to comment.

I am a Christian man and so the biggest influence, without question, is Jesus Christ.  He is the summit.

I am also a husband, father, son, IT professional, musician and writer.  So here goes:

People:  My wife, Kath.  My daughters, Anna and Emily.  My extended family and friends. My teachers and ministers. My employers and colleagues.

Guitarists:  Phil Keaggy, Julian Bream, Christopher Parkening, Jeff Beck, Alvin Lee, David Russell, Jimmy Page, Jimi Hendrix, Brian May, Chuck Berry, Andres Segovia, John Williams, Earl Klugh, Larry Carlton, Ted Nugent, Paul O’Dette (lute), Joe Satriani, Eric Johnson, Slash, Steve Howe, Eric Clapton, Joe Fava, Konrad Ragossnig (lute), Tommy Emmanuel, David Gilmour, Rick Foster, Angel Romero, Wes Montgomery, Jacob Moon, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Anthony Phillips.  And many more.

Music and Artists: Dan Fogelberg, Keith Green, Richard Souther, Elton John, The Allman Brothers, Paul Clark, The Beatles, 2^nd Chapter of Acts, Donovan, Honeytree, Sara Groves, Vineyard Music, Maranatha Music, Hillsong Music, James Taylor, Larry Norman, John Michael Talbot, Yes, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Luciano Pavarotti, Frank Sinatra, Michael Buble, Jethro Tull, Randy Stonehill, The Eagles, Billy Joel, Kemper Crabb, Lamb, Peter, Paul & Mary, Queen, Simon & Garfunkel, Twila Paris, Yo-Yo Ma, Michael Card, Bob Bennett, Cat Stevens (Yusuf Islam), Brian Doerksen, Debby Boone, Kenny G, Norah Jones, Andrea Bocelli, Crosby, Stills & Nash, Dave Brubeck, Ralph Sharon, Tony Bennett, Neil Young, Jascha Heifetz, Glenn Gould, Malcolm & Alwyn, Phil Ramone.  And many more.

Composers: Johann Sebastian Bach, John Dowland, Gaspar Sanz, Ralph Vaughn Williams, Erik Satie, G.F. Handel, Ludwig Von Beethoven, Jimmy Webb, Francesco Da Milano, Henry Purcell, Pyotr Illich Tchaikovsky, Domenico Scarlatti, Enrique Granados, Isaac Albeniz, Michael Praetorius, Joaquin Rodrigo, Antonin Dvorak, Ennio Morricone, Maurice Ravel, Claude Debussy, Rachel Portman, Felix Mendelsohn, James Newton Howard, John Williams, Mychael Danna, Stephen Schwartz, George Gershwin. And many more.

Film: Al Pacino, Meryl Streep, Robert Redford, Marlon Brando, Matt Damon, Robin Williams, Johnny Depp, Steve McQueen, Ben Kingsley, Anthony Hopkins, Liam Neeson, Sir Laurence Olivier, James Caan, Sean Connery, Harrison Ford, Alec Guinness, Steven Spielberg, Gus Van Zandt, Jim Caviezel, Franco Zeffirelli.  And many more.

Writers: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Morris West, Will & Ariel Durant, Viktor Frankl, Chaim Potok, Ralph McInerny, M. Scott Peck, J.R.R. Tolkien, Michael D. O’Brien, William Manchester, Dan Brown, Daniel Silva, Leo Tolstoy, Randy Alcorn, Joel Rosenberg, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Elie Wiesel, Sol Stein, Mitch Albom, Mortimer Adler, Will Strunk & E.B. White.  And many more.

Christian – Protestant: A.W. Tozer, R.C. Sproul, C.S. Lewis, J.C. Ryle, Francis Schaeffer, A.W. Pink, Derek Prince, Jack Hayford, Ravi Zacharias, Chuck Missler, John MacArthur, Robert Shank, Gordon Lindsay, Leonard Ravenhill, David Wilkerson, John Piper, J.I. Packer, Richard Foster, Jonathan Edwards, Eugene Peterson, Gordon Fee, Dallas Willard, Robert Dick Wilson, John Bevere, D.M. M’Intyre, Watchman Nee, John Wimber, Jack Deere, Bill Johnson, Thomas Oden, Edward J. Young, Hobart E. Freeman, J. Barton Payne, Gene Edwards, William Branham, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Smith Wigglesworth, Josh McDowell, Dave Hunt, Chuck Smith, Robert Murray M’Cheyne, Ronald Enroth, Larry Burkett, Jack Van Impe, A.T. Robertson, Martin Luther, John Calvin, Charles Colson, John G. Lake, Paul Livermore, Michael Brown, Richard Baxter, John Bunyan, John Wesley, Charles Finney, Bill Hybels, John Eldredge, Billy Graham, Jim Elliot, Chuck Swindoll, Charles Spurgeon, Alfred Edersheim.  And many more.

Christian – Catholic: St. Francis of Assisi, Thomas Merton, Francis MacNutt, Louis Bouyer, Karl Adam, Msgr. Ronald Knox, Scott Hahn, Peter Kreeft, Thomas À Kempis, Mark Shea, Romano Guardini, Thomas Howard, Madame Guyon, G.K. Chesterton, Fr. John Hardon, Dietrich Von Hildebrand, Joseph Ratzinger (Benedict XVI), Karol Wojtyla (John Paul II), Angelo Roncalli (John XXIII), Raymond Brown, Brennan Manning, Joseph Girzone, John Henry Newman, Karl Keating, Malachi Martin.  And many more.

Leadership and Self-Development:  Jim Rohn, Peter Drucker, Michael Gelb, John Maxwell, J. Oswald Sanders, Jack Canfield, Dean Karnazes, James Allen, Napoleon Hill, Brian Tracy, Anthony Robbins, Stephen Covey, Earl Nightingale, Dale Carnegie, Warren Bennis, David Schwartz, Zig Ziglar, Warren Bennis. And a few more.

Politics and Economics:  George Will, Henry Kissinger, Abba Eban, Ronald Reagan, John Kenneth Galbraith, John F. Kennedy, George Schultz, Thomas Sowell.  And a few more.

Science and Technology:  Leonardo Da Vinci, Thomas Edison, John D. Rockefeller, Albert Einstein, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, E.F. Codd, Stephen Hawking.  And a few more.

Enough for now.  Who inspires you in your talents, work and avocations?

Bron-Yr-Aur and Creative Spaces

I am a guitarist.  I took up this amazing instrument in the mid ‘70’s.  I saw a friend of mine play three songs—“Time In A Bottle”, “Dream On” and “Smoke On the Water”–the riff that launched thousands of guitarists in those days.  I freaked.  And fell in love.  The love affair continues thirty-five years later.

I owe a great deal of my early formation as a guitarist to Led Zeppelin in general and Jimmy Page in particular.  I learned a lot of the classic rock Zeppelin tunes in those days.  But I was especially drawn to their acoustic work.  It was just so interesting.  Rare chords.  Alternate tunings.  Mandolins.  J.R.R. Tolkien in the lyrics.  Multiple overdubs creating marvelous sonic textures.  A world of wonder and colorful sounds. A fair amount of Led Zeppelin’s creativity in those days emerged as Jimmy Page and Robert Plant retired to a little cottage in the Welsh countryside.  Bron-Yr-Aur.  It was here that music was inspired and created that endures to the present day.  They even named music after this quaint locale, pictured above.

Where are your creative spaces?  A cottage?  Water?  Forests (my personal favorite)?  Urban life?

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The Fire of Autumn

“A hidden fire burns perpetually upon the hearth of the world…. In autumn this great conflagration becomes especially manifest. Then the flame that is slowly and mysteriously consuming every green thing bursts into vivid radiance. Every blade of grass and every leaf in the woodlands is cast into the great oven of Nature; and the bright colours of their fading are literally the flames of their consuming. The golden harvest-fields are glowing in the heart of the furnace…. By this autumn fire God every year purges the floor of nature. All effete substances that have served their purpose in the old form are burnt up. Everywhere God makes sweet and clean the earth with fire.”

–Hugh Macmillan

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Bill Cosby On Humor

“Through humor, you can soften some of the worst blows that life delivers. And once you find laughter, no matter how painful your situation might be, you can survive it.”

–Bill Cosby

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Phil Keaggy Casts A Giant Shadow

I’ve been playing the guitar for thirty-six years now.  I started as a twelve year old in 1976, pulled into the music world by the incredible coolness of watching friends play “Smoke On The Water,” “Dream On” and “Time In A Bottle.”

I started studying under a fine guitarist named Don.  Don had the good sense to teach me how to read music.  He had a fine ear as well.  And so, along with learning the rudiments of guitar and music, he taught me the music of my heroes.  Led Zeppelin.  Jimi Hendrix. Yes.  The Allman Brothers.  It was an exciting time to learn.

Very early on, Don kept telling me about an amazing guitarist named Phil Keaggy.  I didn’t know who Phil Keaggy was.  I knew that, like Don, he was a Christian and I had not been exposed to the Jesus Music of the 1970’s.  Was I in for a surprise.

I left my lessons in the late 1970’s carrying home records of all my favorites and recordings of Phil Keaggy as well.  I was stunned.  This gifted guitarist could play lead guitar and fingerstyle equally well.  He played incredibly fast, something that got my attention in the days where Eddie Van Halen was breaking in and breaking speed records on six strings.

Like Phil and Don, I eventually became a born again Christian and Phil’s music occupied a big part of my life and repertoire.  My favorite album of Phil’s, to this very day, is The Master and the Musician.  It is an instrumental album trading in all different genres for the guitar.  Classical.  Folk.  Jazz.  Rock.  Fingerstyle.  It has it all.

Phil has made a career of uniquely overdubbing multiple guitar parts when recording, creating rich textures of sound.  It opened a new world for me and taught me to listen more carefully to music.  Not just the melodies and tunes, but to the architecture.  In that way, he carries on very much in the tradition of Jimmy Page, who also specialized in multi-layering of guitar parts.

Here are some other unique Phil facts:

• Phil is missing the middle finger of his right hand.  He lost it in an accident at his family farm when just a wee lad of four.  This makes his fingerstyle work all the more stunning.
• Phil is highly in demand as a studio musician but does not read a note of music.
• Phil is about five feet, five inches tall.  And yet he casts a large shadow in the world of the guitar.
• For acoustic guitars, Phil favors handmade instruments from luthier James Olson.  In his earlier years, he played a handmade Mark Evan Whitebook.  The sounds of these instruments are stunningly rich and full.
• For his electric work, he favors his sunburst Gibson Les Paul.  His 1971 flame top Gibson Les Paul Deluxe, which he used in his band Glass Harp, now rests in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
• Phil lives in Nashville TN but is a native of Ohio.  For about five years in the 1970’s, he lived near Ithaca NY—close to my home—and friends of mine were instrumental in bringing him to upstate New York.

Buy Phil’s albums.  The Master and the Musician is a fine place to get acquainted with this remarkable musician.  You’ll be glad you made the effort.

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Yom Kippur

…In the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall afflict your souls, and you shall not do any work … For on that day he shall provide atonement for you to cleanse you from all your sins before the L-RD. -Leviticus 16:29-30

This is post is courtesy of www.jewfaq.org     

Yom Kippur is probably the most important holiday of the Jewish year. Many Jews who do not observe any other Jewish custom will refrain from work, fast and/or attend synagogue services on this day. Yom Kippur occurs on the 10th day of Tishri. The holiday is instituted at Leviticus 23:26 et seq.

The name “Yom Kippur” means “Day of Atonement,” and that pretty much explains what the holiday is. It is a day set aside to “afflict the soul,” to atone for the sins of the past year. In Days of Awe, I mentioned the “books” in which G-d inscribes all of our names. On Yom Kippur, the judgment entered in these books is sealed. This day is, essentially, your last appeal, your last chance to change the judgment, to demonstrate your repentance and make amends.

As I noted in Days of Awe, Yom Kippur atones only for sins between man and G-d, not for sins against another person. To atone for sins against another person, you must first seek reconciliation with that person, righting the wrongs you committed against them if possible. That must all be done before Yom Kippur.

Yom Kippur is a complete Sabbath; no work can be performed on that day. It is well-known that you are supposed to refrain from eating and drinking (even water) on Yom Kippur. It is a complete, 25-hour fast beginning before sunset on the evening before Yom Kippur and ending after nightfall on the day of Yom Kippur. The Talmud also specifies additional restrictions that are less well-known: washing and bathing, anointing one’s body (with cosmetics, deodorants, etc.), wearing leather shoes (Orthodox Jews routinely wear canvas sneakers under their dress clothes on Yom Kippur), and engaging in sexual relations are all prohibited on Yom Kippur.

As always, any of these restrictions can be lifted where a threat to life or health is involved. In fact, children under the age of nine and women in childbirth (from the time labor begins until three days after birth) are not permitted to fast, even if they want to. Older children and women from the third to the seventh day after childbirth are permitted to fast, but are permitted to break the fast if they feel the need to do so. People with other illnesses should consult a physician and a rabbi for advice.

Most of the holiday is spent in the synagogue, in prayer. In Orthodox synagogues, services begin early in the morning (8 or 9 AM) and continue until about 3 PM. People then usually go home for an afternoon nap and return around 5 or 6 PM for the afternoon and evening services, which continue until nightfall. The services end at nightfall, with the blowing of the tekiah gedolah, a long blast on the shofar. See Rosh Hashanah for more about the shofar and its characteristic blasts.

It is customary to wear white on the holiday, which symbolizes purity and calls to mind the promise that our sins shall be made as white as snow (Is. 1:18). Some people wear a kittel, the white robe in which the dead are buried.

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From The Horse’s Mouth

I had an interesting discussion with a friend this afternoon.  He is trained and makes his living in the biological sciences.  We discussed a variety of topics related to his discipline—Charles Darwin, natural selection, evolution, Intelligent Design and the book of Genesis.

I told him that one of the things that bothers me—a pet peeve, to be honest—is the way in which people comment upon and dismiss out of hand concepts about which they know little or nothing.  Most of the people I know who eschew anything remotely connected to Charles Darwin and evolution have probably never read On The Origin of Species.  If you mentioned the word “beagle” to them in context of a discussion about Darwin, they’d think you were talking about a dog rather than a ship.

Disclaimer: I’ve never read On The Origin of Species, though I’d like to in order to hear Darwin on his own merits.  And for my purposes here, I’m not even discussing my own personal beliefs about how the universe came to be.

What I’m after is giving people a fair hearing on every matter rather than going on hearsay.  This leads to libel, slander and all sorts of misunderstanding.   And it gives ignorance a platform it doesn’t deserve.

When I attended seminary years ago, one of the strengths of the program in which I was enrolled was its insistence on reading primary sources.  In other words, we got our information from the horse’s mouth, rather than from those who kept—or thought they kept—the horses.  For example, we didn’t read an analysis about Clement of Alexandria; we read Clement of Alexandria.  You encounter trouble rapidly when you get your information second-, third-, or fourth-hand.

So……..

• How much do you know about President Barack Obama or Governor Mitt Romney from a) their own writings, b) their public lives and service, c) their respective voting and executive records, and d) their tax returns? You get this from going to the source.  And that source is their own lives, their tax returns, public records and writings, not necessarily mainstream media.
• Where, in the Scriptures, is the verse “God helps those who help themselves?”
• What did C.S. Lewis and Martin Luther believe about the Virgin Mary, the Lord’s Supper and the communion of the saints? (You will be surprised!)

These are some teasers.  You can find your own.  You must do your homework–you can’t outsmart the work.  But whatever you do, have the integrity to get your information first-hand.  From the principals themselves, not their defenders or critics.

That is, from the horse’s mouth.

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