Some friends of mine just had a new baby girl. This was written for her and for her parents who place music as a high priority in their lives. Any child born in a house of music is blessed to have those sounds during their first thoughts. This is my take on what those thoughts might be. Music remains one of the most amazing and under-utilized civilized substances on the planet. It has powers that are yet to be discovered. The young mind hears it for what it is and feels its power, long before finding out that it is often just background noise for the average uncurious and unimaginative human ear. This child will be blessed to know the difference. Congrats to Mother Superior and Dr. Tsha.
The Eyes Have It
See the light as I look around,
voices ringing far and near.
I'm carried closer to the sound,
and now it's loud and clear.
Little things hangin' in my world today
"the eyes" are looking in on me.
Lay and listen it's another day,
I think my ears can start to see.
Don't know what it is, but I love that sound
long ago, it was far away.
But now it's close and comforts me,
I hope this is where I stay.
I hear it in the morning, when "the eyes" look in,
it follows us from room to room.
The eyes sound good when they look at me,
like those times in my mother's womb.
Those eyes bring me everything I need,
I love when they gather around.
I'll never mind how long they stare,
because their making sweet mother sounds.
Here is comes again, how I love that sound
those eyes sure have it when they look down.
Long long ago it sounded far away.
Now it's close, I know that I can stay.
May that sound never go away.
Wednesday, October 13, 2004
Friday, October 08, 2004
"Faces"
This is a song is about the faces we might see flash before us if we were drowning. You find out who your real friends and family are by how they respond to you when you are down or in crisis. Last year I was playing in the ocean with my little girl and a wave threw us to the bottom . I held her tight
trying to get us to the surface. As I did another wave pushed us under. In that moment, the true love I had for her and the true feelings I had for life came together in a mixed feeling. I was hot with fear and yet I was over taken my the sheer release that I was really going to die and nothing I could do would stop it. Fortunately we popped out, my leg was bleeding and I brought it all back to home by looking at her with a smile and saying WEEEEE with all my heart. Seeing her smiling face after that and the faces of thoses who care about me most in the ocean is where this song comes from.
Faces
Not until you're drowning will love began to show,
those faces flash at you on your way down.
Peering in your window as from a distant land,
they'll love you even as your fallin' down.
Close my eyes, breathless as I pray.
Don't let my darkest hour win the fight.
Hold my hand, walk me to my country home.
Let me see their loving faces,
as they guide me through the night.
Take the time
Just stop and look around
Who is there
To love you when you're down?
Close your eyes
Imagine all the faces
Who will be the faces that you see?
The faces that you'd see..
if you were drowning
Up in the clouds, I thought that I can see
Thiness in the air did choke my mind.
Couldn't hear the way so gently calling me,
didn't even recognize the sign.
If only I could fly to higher altitudes,
so clearly I could see from up above.
Until the pressure started squeezing in on me,
my mind will flash the faces,
the ones that show me love.
As we fall
They see us on the ground
Even then
They never let us down
Never will
Those faces ever judge
That face of love will always shine for me
The faces that we see
when we are drowning ...
when we are drowning
Copyright 2004
ASCAP
trying to get us to the surface. As I did another wave pushed us under. In that moment, the true love I had for her and the true feelings I had for life came together in a mixed feeling. I was hot with fear and yet I was over taken my the sheer release that I was really going to die and nothing I could do would stop it. Fortunately we popped out, my leg was bleeding and I brought it all back to home by looking at her with a smile and saying WEEEEE with all my heart. Seeing her smiling face after that and the faces of thoses who care about me most in the ocean is where this song comes from.
Faces
Not until you're drowning will love began to show,
those faces flash at you on your way down.
Peering in your window as from a distant land,
they'll love you even as your fallin' down.
Close my eyes, breathless as I pray.
Don't let my darkest hour win the fight.
Hold my hand, walk me to my country home.
Let me see their loving faces,
as they guide me through the night.
Take the time
Just stop and look around
Who is there
To love you when you're down?
Close your eyes
Imagine all the faces
Who will be the faces that you see?
The faces that you'd see..
if you were drowning
Up in the clouds, I thought that I can see
Thiness in the air did choke my mind.
Couldn't hear the way so gently calling me,
didn't even recognize the sign.
If only I could fly to higher altitudes,
so clearly I could see from up above.
Until the pressure started squeezing in on me,
my mind will flash the faces,
the ones that show me love.
As we fall
They see us on the ground
Even then
They never let us down
Never will
Those faces ever judge
That face of love will always shine for me
The faces that we see
when we are drowning ...
when we are drowning
Copyright 2004
ASCAP
Wednesday, October 06, 2004
Paradox Lost
Truth as found in paradox, may to some not really be truth at all. But one recipe used to balance an idea is to add the words"but not really" after any phrase you hear or think that seems to tilt the scales towards "absolute truth". Truth untested or unchallenged is suspect to real thinkers who have even the smallest knowledge of the history of ideas in the world. The first time I was exposed to this notion of "truth in paradox" was while playing music with Col. Bruce Hampton in Atlanta. Having survived the church "coming in and out of my brain whenever it pleased", my thinking at the time was limited by the "virus software" of the church and not much thinking of my own was really going on. However, I begin to understand music through this new "but not really" way of thinking, and it did one simple thing. I found when I ran that "but not really tool" through my software before I formed an opinion, that I was sparing myself the rigidity, that to me, was often the death knell to the creative part of my mind. Since then I have understood that for me at least, my greatest and most original work has come out of my most sincere and heartfelt moments of confusion. "Coming to conclusions" about anything in life should be done very carefully and in almost a sacred kind of way. But not really, because some things are lite weight and always will be. But not really, because even lite weight things can matter more than we realize at times. But not really, all things are heavy if we respect them as important parts of our short time here on earth. But not really.....
In short, we have lost paradox because of our enormous desire to be right and to come to conclusions. Information is as good as experience, but not really. As Col. Hampton would always say.. "I've changed but not at all" and "don't worry about nothing cause nothing's going to work out just fine".
Monday, October 04, 2004
Love the Verb, Hijacked by Love the Noun
So many of the our human connections, throughout life, are mistakenly passed off under the broad category of "love". Somewhere down the line though, a version of "love" as a noun came into play. Love as a "verb" historically was the usage that we understood. Even the term "God is Love" is referring back to Godlike behaviors that denote action and not just a description of some nebulous substance found within a good story, sweet romance, pop song or movie. Love as a verb admittedly loses some of the emotion and fantasy that we associate with "love" in its noun form, because if love is only a verb then we can't "feel it", "have it", "make it" or "fall into it". You can however "show it" and "demonstrate it" by your actions. Then, and only then, will you be "loving" actively by "doing something".
Having sex is not "making love". Sex is giving of your body in order to make another person and yourself physically feel better and to have intimacy because they want to be close to you and visa versa. It's the selfless giving of touch as pleasure. When a child is born of it, a process of loving that child begins, then out of the physical pleasure of sex is born a new person who wants and deserves "love" in its verb form. Along the way however, through the media in general, that child becomes aware of "love" in the noun form. If that form is all they see, and they don't receive the "verb form" at home but instead hear only the words "I love you", then they venture out into a dark sad journey in life trying to find "love". "Finding love" is impossible if love is an action word. If we don't know how to love ourselves, with the "verb form" of love, then we won't be able to show love in life. If we don't take care of ourselves or feel good about our life and who we are, we will search and search for the "noun form" of love. "Being loved" is the key and "letting ourselves be loved" is oft times a hurdle. No one who feels or thinks of themselves as "unlovable" will ever recognize unconditional verb-form type "love", even if it comes their way. A kind of awkward twitch begins inside of them when someone tries to show them love, as they quickly give back "love" out of guilt. Guilt then becomes a driving force in their relationships and "duty" becomes the mantra, which then annihilates freedom and real spiritual flow in that relationship. Dutiful love is suspect to not even being love at all. That person then begins to look for ways to feel better, think more clearly and desperately wants to be understood. They feel good in spurts of passion, so to speak, or in moments of fantasy-filled ecstasy, but when left alone they return to those sad feelings and that unlovable state of loneliness. No person can get through to them after a while, not even a child. Children bring into the world the purest need for true verb type love. If they don't get it, they begin to choose from the "sad choice platter" offered up by culture through the media.
Over time the media has successfully turned "love", the highest ideal we have ever achieved as evolved beings, into a way to market movies, songs, books, fashion and ultimately the marketing of love through the institution of marriage. The marriage contract means nothing and changes nothing about what two people need to really do in order to have a healthy human relationship. Yet we rely so much on the institution of marriage to somehow do for us what we can only do for ourselves. How could the government have possibly weaseled its way into deciding what love is, what family is and what form of it is socially acceptable or even worse what "God's will" is? Is the answer because evil people stopped loving, became selfish and over time the law has been changed to protect society from those few people who abuse children and each other? If you believe that you are deceived beyond measure. Marriage is only a public announcement of intended actions of love in the future, it's not love or proof of love. If government or the church can control love and what it should be, define family and what it is, then they can keep us feeling self-righteous about how good we are at "love". By "being married" as opposed to really "showing love", we dummy down human thought with fear, allowing us to continue in our deception that we know love "really is". We are continually duped into thinking we are "free" and that we are the "civilized" ones and even worse begin to feel that "God is on our side". Don't blame God for our lame institutions born out of fear! Do we really need the government or the church to help us define love, teach us how to raise our children, focus on our family or tell us how to live? In short we have become "the man". The "man" is us. We like "him". We will vote for him and in the end the polls will show that will do anything as a race of people to avoid really having to think about life and love in it's verb form. We don't want that responsibility. We will kill, rape and pillage any person or group until they finally give in and let us "love" them and bring them real "freedom". We know what is best for them right? Or do we want something from them because we don't love them or care for them in the "verb form of love"? So we bring them noun form "love" and "freedom" through war, and our culture that's centered around being a "loving people" and collecting material things that will be found deep in the ground as trash long after we have spent our time on earth. We were all thinking we were so right, weren't we just loving them and doing what was right for them, even if we had to kill them? Never did we find truth. Never will we find it the way we are "loving" right now. We never decided to love them by our actions. We never decided to forgive and try to understand ourselves and others. We never accepted any other opinions or apologized for our behaviors in the pass. We never evolved pass the killing of another man in the woods because we were scared of him. And as we watched the steam rise from his slain bloody body, we hear the birds sing and we have a slight thought ... who was this man, why was he here? Then out of nowhere his clan comes to kill us? No. Killing him kept the fear fed and we are in it still. Fear is here, right now more than ever, at a time when more truth is ignored then in all of human history. As humans, we have never done less with so much. Killing our enemies will make more enemies. Maybe the "global test" which we must pass is verb type "love" coming through diplomacy and the strength of our character and moral rapport in the world. Ignorance is marching forward blindly as one ignore any notion of the value of hind sight. If hind sight is 20/20 then we shouldn't we be the most enlightened humans to have ever lived on the earth? Why are we so shocked and perplexed at the hate we are seeing when we continue to propagate the lie that "love" is just a nice and noble high idea. Without action type love we will see the end of the world. The blood shed and the horror will continue if we don't accept love as a verb and truly demonstrate it's power by the way we treat others around the world. Our policies are our behaviors and our behaviors are our religion. Business is personal. We aren't showing or demonstrating anything that resembles love. The word "love" is held hostage by it's noun form evil twin and is sadly only made fun of nowadays. "Love" is misused as an outdated silly notion touted by religious zealots, new age hippies or weak minded sad bleeding heart bed wetting lost liberal humans like me who actually think that we can achieve peace in the world through diplomacy and moral leadership. But real verb type love won't ever be here again until we decide to "do" something.
As an American I don't feel very hopeful right now I must admit and love escapes my understanding most times, even though I have clear thoughts about it occasionally. However, "hope" is the emergency back-up system the brain uses to bail us out when our finger is on the button. I "hope" we can begin to love again. If that happens, power will be ignited and it, "love", will bring its civilized magic of survival back to us, creative thinkers will begin to invent new ways to live without destroying the planet and hope will again be brought back to the people of this world that simply want to live to see another day. May we again someday simply see "love" as an acceptable way of life in our world and as our only hope for a civilized future.
By Rev. Jeff Mosier
Atlanta,GA
10/04/04
Having sex is not "making love". Sex is giving of your body in order to make another person and yourself physically feel better and to have intimacy because they want to be close to you and visa versa. It's the selfless giving of touch as pleasure. When a child is born of it, a process of loving that child begins, then out of the physical pleasure of sex is born a new person who wants and deserves "love" in its verb form. Along the way however, through the media in general, that child becomes aware of "love" in the noun form. If that form is all they see, and they don't receive the "verb form" at home but instead hear only the words "I love you", then they venture out into a dark sad journey in life trying to find "love". "Finding love" is impossible if love is an action word. If we don't know how to love ourselves, with the "verb form" of love, then we won't be able to show love in life. If we don't take care of ourselves or feel good about our life and who we are, we will search and search for the "noun form" of love. "Being loved" is the key and "letting ourselves be loved" is oft times a hurdle. No one who feels or thinks of themselves as "unlovable" will ever recognize unconditional verb-form type "love", even if it comes their way. A kind of awkward twitch begins inside of them when someone tries to show them love, as they quickly give back "love" out of guilt. Guilt then becomes a driving force in their relationships and "duty" becomes the mantra, which then annihilates freedom and real spiritual flow in that relationship. Dutiful love is suspect to not even being love at all. That person then begins to look for ways to feel better, think more clearly and desperately wants to be understood. They feel good in spurts of passion, so to speak, or in moments of fantasy-filled ecstasy, but when left alone they return to those sad feelings and that unlovable state of loneliness. No person can get through to them after a while, not even a child. Children bring into the world the purest need for true verb type love. If they don't get it, they begin to choose from the "sad choice platter" offered up by culture through the media.
Over time the media has successfully turned "love", the highest ideal we have ever achieved as evolved beings, into a way to market movies, songs, books, fashion and ultimately the marketing of love through the institution of marriage. The marriage contract means nothing and changes nothing about what two people need to really do in order to have a healthy human relationship. Yet we rely so much on the institution of marriage to somehow do for us what we can only do for ourselves. How could the government have possibly weaseled its way into deciding what love is, what family is and what form of it is socially acceptable or even worse what "God's will" is? Is the answer because evil people stopped loving, became selfish and over time the law has been changed to protect society from those few people who abuse children and each other? If you believe that you are deceived beyond measure. Marriage is only a public announcement of intended actions of love in the future, it's not love or proof of love. If government or the church can control love and what it should be, define family and what it is, then they can keep us feeling self-righteous about how good we are at "love". By "being married" as opposed to really "showing love", we dummy down human thought with fear, allowing us to continue in our deception that we know love "really is". We are continually duped into thinking we are "free" and that we are the "civilized" ones and even worse begin to feel that "God is on our side". Don't blame God for our lame institutions born out of fear! Do we really need the government or the church to help us define love, teach us how to raise our children, focus on our family or tell us how to live? In short we have become "the man". The "man" is us. We like "him". We will vote for him and in the end the polls will show that will do anything as a race of people to avoid really having to think about life and love in it's verb form. We don't want that responsibility. We will kill, rape and pillage any person or group until they finally give in and let us "love" them and bring them real "freedom". We know what is best for them right? Or do we want something from them because we don't love them or care for them in the "verb form of love"? So we bring them noun form "love" and "freedom" through war, and our culture that's centered around being a "loving people" and collecting material things that will be found deep in the ground as trash long after we have spent our time on earth. We were all thinking we were so right, weren't we just loving them and doing what was right for them, even if we had to kill them? Never did we find truth. Never will we find it the way we are "loving" right now. We never decided to love them by our actions. We never decided to forgive and try to understand ourselves and others. We never accepted any other opinions or apologized for our behaviors in the pass. We never evolved pass the killing of another man in the woods because we were scared of him. And as we watched the steam rise from his slain bloody body, we hear the birds sing and we have a slight thought ... who was this man, why was he here? Then out of nowhere his clan comes to kill us? No. Killing him kept the fear fed and we are in it still. Fear is here, right now more than ever, at a time when more truth is ignored then in all of human history. As humans, we have never done less with so much. Killing our enemies will make more enemies. Maybe the "global test" which we must pass is verb type "love" coming through diplomacy and the strength of our character and moral rapport in the world. Ignorance is marching forward blindly as one ignore any notion of the value of hind sight. If hind sight is 20/20 then we shouldn't we be the most enlightened humans to have ever lived on the earth? Why are we so shocked and perplexed at the hate we are seeing when we continue to propagate the lie that "love" is just a nice and noble high idea. Without action type love we will see the end of the world. The blood shed and the horror will continue if we don't accept love as a verb and truly demonstrate it's power by the way we treat others around the world. Our policies are our behaviors and our behaviors are our religion. Business is personal. We aren't showing or demonstrating anything that resembles love. The word "love" is held hostage by it's noun form evil twin and is sadly only made fun of nowadays. "Love" is misused as an outdated silly notion touted by religious zealots, new age hippies or weak minded sad bleeding heart bed wetting lost liberal humans like me who actually think that we can achieve peace in the world through diplomacy and moral leadership. But real verb type love won't ever be here again until we decide to "do" something.
As an American I don't feel very hopeful right now I must admit and love escapes my understanding most times, even though I have clear thoughts about it occasionally. However, "hope" is the emergency back-up system the brain uses to bail us out when our finger is on the button. I "hope" we can begin to love again. If that happens, power will be ignited and it, "love", will bring its civilized magic of survival back to us, creative thinkers will begin to invent new ways to live without destroying the planet and hope will again be brought back to the people of this world that simply want to live to see another day. May we again someday simply see "love" as an acceptable way of life in our world and as our only hope for a civilized future.
By Rev. Jeff Mosier
Atlanta,GA
10/04/04
Friday, October 01, 2004
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