A Willie Nelson Picnic
At the end of day when work was over
I can see us sitting 'round the table
Now this old world of ours is filled with trouble
I can see us sitting 'round the table
There's a family Bible on the table
Its pages worn and hard to read
But the family Bible on the table
Will ever be my key to memories.
And when the evening meal was done
Dad would read to us from the family Bible
And we'd count our many blessings one by one.
When from the family Bible Dad would read
And I can hear my mother softly singing
"Rock of Ages, Rock of Ages, cleft for me."
This old world would oh so better be
If we found more Bibles on the table
And mothers singing "Rock of Ages, cleft for me."
When from the family Bible Dad would read
And I can hear my mother softly singing
"Rock of Ages, Rock of Ages, cleft for me
Rock of Ages, Rock of Ages, cleft for me."
Rough edges and a message
I guess you'd call me a fan of "Country Outlaws" like Willie Nelson. (Including Waylon Jennings and Merle Haggard). But as much as I love Willie Nelson, I also love such artists as "Highwaymen" Johnny Cash and Kris Kristofferson. There's something so down to earth, yet often, even in the "salt of the earth" authenticity, to me there is also a message, almost. No, not an airy, fairy syruppy sanctimonious one, but a down on the ground, humble "Dusty Road" kind of gospel.
Salt of the Earth
Like Kris Kristofferson's new album, 'This Old Road.'
Our contemporary, dog-eat-dog, win-at-any-costs culture could do worse than to remind itself of such simple values as some of our 'outlaws' and 'highwaymen' have tried to bring to our attention. These crusty prophets, how often their message is unsettling. Yet as Longfellow suggested, Sometimes the greatest firmness is the greatest mercy. Like Kris asks, "What on earth would you do for heaven's sake."
Am I young enough to believe in revolution?
Am I strong enough to get down on my knees and pray?
(song by Kris Kristofferson)
Reflections by Bob Shepherd
Here's a pic of Bob Shepherd
What part of did you not understand? -- GOD |
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Older men declare war. But it is the youth that must fight and die. And it is youth who must
inherit the tribulation, the sorrow, and the triumphs that are the aftermath of war. [Herbert Hoover] There never was a good war or a bad peace. [Benjamin Franklin] The world will never have lasting peace so long as men reserve for war the finest human qualites. Peace, no less than war, requires idealism and self-sacrifice and a righteous and dynamic faith. [John Foster Dulles] Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. [It leads, in the end, to ] degeneracy of manners and of morals. No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare. [James Madison] Who overcomes by force hath overcome but half his foe. [John Milton] Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron. [Dwight D. Eisenhower] War is, after all, the universal perversion. We are all tainted: if we cannot experience our perversion at first hand we spend our time reading war stories, the pornography of war; or seeing war films, the blue films of war; or titillating our senses with the imagination of great deeds, the masturbation of war. [John Rae] Our power grows through its prudent use; our security emanates from the justness of our cause, the force of our example, the tempering qualities of humility and restraint. [Barack Obama] |
