Where the wild things are: Summa This & Summa That here today at jitterbuggingforjesus.com, the blawg that is saving the world with its wit, wisdom, provocations and stimulations while possibly (probably!) alienating whole towns, nations, cities and states.
“Old man take a look at my life . . . . “
I see my old friend every day when I walk to town for morning papaya and sometimes wonder if he’ll make it another step, so slow moving is he. But he’s a most doggedly determined man–determined to keep moving and living till the last card.
How to contend with life’s hard knocks: Keep putting one foot in front of the other and moving on.
And now from the Jitterbug Music Therapy Archives . . . .
Love this oldie from one of the most enduring old hippie road-dog bands, “Poco,” whose alums have included greats like Jim Messina (a co-founder of the group) and Timothy B. Schmidtt, who went on to The Eagles fame by replacing an Eagle who was a Poco alum with Schmidtt.
Rock band history has all these weird connections that are quite fascinating to those of us who actually have a weird fascination with rock history.
This is Poco with their excellent love song and ode to New Orleans and did I mention that I love this dreamy song? (More on that aforementioned Poco band history here.)
The “Wisdom Tree”: Placencia Beach
Love this (slightly edited) quote from Pico Iyer’s book The Lady and the Monk about his year living a monkish life in Kyoto, Japan:
“Every child is a born adventurer and every traveler a born-again child.”
Pico is one of the world’s better travel writers, not to mention spiritual writers and writers, period.
More on Pico in this Rolff Potts’ interview with him at Potts’s “Vagabonding.”
Potts is an interesting globe trotter himself, but globe trotters are always the most interesting people on earth and quite often the most enlightened. Can find many interviews with vagabonds who write for a living at Potts site.
Life’s a beach.
Lots of nice houses for sale on the Lagoon side of the 16-mile Placencia Penisula, for a pretty penny and then some. (If you have to ask you can’t afford.)
Christians around the world are mourning the death of the legendary Brennan Manning, U.S. Marine Corps sports writer turned deep-water Christian and writer of great books including the classic Christian book The Ragamuffin Gospel. (CLick here for a bit more on Manning and his life journey.
He was a total original whose faith, compassion and love of the Gospel–and life living out the Gospel–ran deep as deep as the sea.
“Because salvation is by grace through faith, I believe that among the countless number of people standing in front of the throne and in front of the Lamb, dressed in white robes and holding palms in their hands (see Revelation 7:9), I shall see the prostitute from the Kit-Kat Ranch in Carson City, Nevada, who tearfully told me that she could find no other employment to support her two-year-old son.
“I shall see the woman who had an abortion and is haunted by guilt and remorse but did the best she could faced with grueling alternatives; the businessman besieged with debt who sold his integrity in a series of desperate transactions; the insecure clergyman addicted to being liked, who never challenged his people from the pulpit and longed for unconditional love; the sexually abused teen molested by his father and now selling his body on the street, who, as he falls asleep each night after his last ‘trick’, whispers the name of the unknown God he learned about in Sunday school.
‘But how?’ we ask.
Then the voice says, ‘They have washed their robes and have made them white in the blood of the Lamb.’
There they are. There “we” are–the multitude who so wanted to be faithful, who at times got defeated, soiled by life, and bested by trials, wearing the bloodied garments of life’s tribulations, but through it all clung to faith.
My friends, if this is not good news to you, you have never understood the gospel of grace.”
— Brennan Manning
Paul, I love the picture (2nd) of the grizzled old man holding what has to be an arthritic knee. Nice shot!