Month: January 2014

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Tribute to Pete Seeger

Memorials and funerals are for the living, it is said. It is a time to remember loved ones as well to reflect on our own lack of immortality of existence. It is a time to review the impacts that person has had on our lives, to count our blessings, and yes to peer into the future as to our own demise. As I have grown older I have come to the conclusion that all of these events can be points of sadness or celebration. Attitude is really everything.As spirits on a human journey, we experience all of the human emotions, regardless of our want, to choose one over another as right or wrong, good or bad. We are all here as observers on behalf of the universal consciousness. Buddha speaks to this in much detail as well as the Tao Te Ching.  Although it is vital to experience all emotions, we have the individual ability to concentrate our focus on those that will lead to a joyful spirit. In my humble experience, emotions reflecting love are the only ones that terminate in hope. Hope is what gives us life.

A very close friend sent me an email today which conveys much of my beliefs in a beautiful story. It also culminates all my emotions surrounding the passing of Pete Seeger today. Suffice it to say his path has had a strong impact on my life. His music and lyrics struck a strong chord, so to speak, in my early twenties.

I have always wanted to world to be a better place because I was here. Perhaps I have not been the activists that I could or should have been, and that may change going forward. I have always been a fighter for the working man and woman who have labored and toiled for what seems like meager existence, living lives of quiet desperation, as Henry David Thoreau said.

To those much has been given, much is required, the Bible says. Then it is up to each one of us to give as much as possible to those we love and those in need. Activism is simply standing up for what is right, for if we do not stand for something, we will fall for anything.

Kathy and I were like-minded spirits in the late 60’s and early 70’s. We married and spent great times in Germany, Washington DC, Fairfax, VA and Columbus, Ohio. We are to this day, kindred spirits and share many resonant beliefs. Her intuitive insight from the following experience with her mother regarding Pete Seeger is both brilliant and soul touching. It includes much of Pete Seeger’s philosophy, which embodies mine.

Thank you, Kathy!

As spirits on a human journey, we experience all of the human emotions, regardless of our want, to choose one over another as right or wrong, good or bad. We are all here as observers on behalf of the universal consciousness. Buddha speaks to this in much detail as well as the Tao Te Ching.  Although it is vital to experience all emotions, we have the individual ability to concentrate our focus on those that will lead to a joyful spirit. In my humble experience, emotions reflecting love are the only ones that terminate in hope. Hope is what gives us life.A very close friend sent me an email today which conveys much of my beliefs in a beautiful story. It also culminates all my emotions surrounding the passing of Pete Seeger today. Suffice it to say his path has had a strong impact on my life. His music and lyrics struck a strong chord, so to speak, in my early twenties.

 

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Just Like Tom Thumbs Blues

It has taken me some time to record some of my own guitar playing. This is one of the first songs I ever learned from Gary Bolstad in Berlin, Germany in 1968. It is a Bob Dylan song, “Just Like Tom Thumbs Blues”. The melody and lyrics mimic some of my melancholy side in music. Most importantly, I play it on a 12 string guitar. The octave strings add such a rich sound.

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Baldwin Auditorium – Ciompi Quartet

Music is the window to the soul. Tonight a good friend, Mary,  took me to Duke University in Durham, NC. We experienced the Ciompi Quartet at the Baldwin Auditorium. It was exciting, entertaining and educational. If you ever get a chance to listen to live classical music, please do it. It will lift your soul and create another facet to your personality that cannot be removed. The memory is worth every effort.

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Carolina Blue with Snow

It snowed last night in Youngsville, NC where I am temporarily hold up. It is the first time it has snowed here in years. The locals were in a panic for most of the day, talking about what was about to happen. It is still beautiful with the blue sky the next morning.

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Contemporary Folk Night

Last night I was invited by a new friend, Ginny, to the most unusual venue I have ever attended for music. Prior to arriving I had little idea of the kind of music I was about to experience.

Here is an example of the group “Molasses Creek”

I was so inspired by their versatility and harmony that I made a decision to write two songs. One about my great, great grandfather, and a love song. Stay tuned.

One of the things that made the venue so unusual was that it was held in a home of a lovely couple in Raleigh, Bett and Bill. Here is the picture of their home, Little Lake Hill.http://www.bettpadgett.com/

Here a not so good picture of the band, Molasses Creek.

It was a lot, lot, lot of fun. Thanks!

Here is their website;

http://www.molassescreek.com/band

Here is a love song they wrote that really touched my heart.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIrignQPMwg 

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Melancholy Music

There is a melancholy and serious side to my music interests. Just Like Tom Thumbs Blues, Sam Stone, and If I Were Young and Didn’t Know, to name a few. Something in my heart of existence is triggered to gravitate to the down-trodden, in some form, is stimulated. Why is not important. What it exemplifies from me is important to me.\r\n\r\nTo me, it examples those tender, understanding, relatebley traits of myself that combine yin and yang, female and male exertions of my being. If melancholy is understood by many to be a sadness of some kind, then let it be. As an observer of the universe, there is no association between feeling and what is. Hmm….. not sure about that.

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Andersonville, GA

I visited my Great, great grandfather, Wesley Marken’s gravestone at Andersonville, GA. Myriad thoughts have gone through my head in the last 24 hours. Suffice it to say, the experience was awesome. I found myself quite emotional as I arrived at the museum. As I explained to the museum attendants that I was there to visit my relative’s grave, they began spouting historical trivia that could only be described as rewarding as they took so much glee and satisfaction in sharing their knowledge. They reminded me so much of my nephew Scott Bitner. He is a fine teacher and loves history. I knew he would be keenly interested.

Some of the things that left an impression on me were;

    • the horrific conditions that the POW endured, virtually no water for 33,000 men, limited rations, little to no protection from the elements, loneliness, desperation, fear, little to look forward to. It was described by POWs as hell on earth and living death.
  • historically, I learned that the camp was opened in 1864 in February. By August the Confederates figured that it was not a good idea and moved most prisoners elsewhere.
  • The last 4000 were left to die as they were not strong enough to move. My gggrandfather was one of those. He was hospitalized Oct 13 and died that day. Men did not want to be separated from their comrades and would rather die with friends than in the hospital.
  • Why would my gggrandfather leave his wife, family, and a 2 year, 9 month old son, to join a regiment in the Union army, when the war was clearly being won by the Union. Gettysburg was over, battles were taking place more in the south than the north, Washington was safe. Did he want to provide for his family financially? Was it an older brother that had died and he wanted revenge? Was he strongly opposed to the reunification of the States? Was he led to believe that he would be posted to protect the rail line in Baltimore, and therefore safe from injury or death? The emancipation proclamation had already been signed into law. Was he a strong believer in freedom for all?

I find it interesting that there were soldiers on both maternal and fraternal sides of my family. My grandfather’s grandfather fought in the Civil War. My father’s great grandfather most likely came over from Salzburg, Austria to fight as a Hessian in the Revolutionary War. My father was in the military in WWI. I was in the Army during the Vietnam Conflict.

I met a really nice young girl at a Chili’s in Milledgeville, GA today and we were talking about this. I told her that I had been attracted to the Army in 1967 because their motto was, “Join the Army, see the world”. She laughed and remarked, you missed the “join the Army” part and only saw the “see the world” part. I laughed out loud because it was so true. So, thank you Mechea. You made a difference in my life today.

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Painting #1

It struck me yesterday that I have a talent for painting and that I need to create something now. I want this because I want the adrenalin rush of having said I would do it, do ti, and celebrate that I did it!  I know, pretty base ego-driven motivation? So what, it doesn’t hurt anybody else. It increases my self-esteem, which none of us has enough of. It leaves a possible teaching lesson for future generations. It’s free.

Imagine a painting of a storm over Roratonga, Cooke Islands at sundown. The sky is pink, there are some cumulus clouds with thin white tops to their silver lining edge.  The water, smashing into the shore line, is pink as well, from the setting sun. Only white wave caps break the continuity with the sky and clouds. A silhouette of palm tree stark-ens the pink contrast.

Now paint this picture.  Challenge accepted!

And then this one.

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Why I Went Into Medicine

Kids; Our lives can be so complacent that we are carried on the currents of microscopic time into the next moment of existence.\r\n\r\nI was once asked why I wanted to become a doctor of medicine. It took me a few minutes to gain some clarity on the answer, however, this is what came to me intuitively. My father was diagnosed with prostate cancer when I was twelve. Most of what I remember was the fear on everybody’s faces. In those days, prostate cancer was a sticky note of death.\r\n\r\nI think, at age twelve, I had experienced enough guilt training that my grandiose child figured that I could become a health care professional and save my father. The accuracy of that is questionable, but the reasoning is interesting.

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New Years Day 2014

I have been working on the things that I am grateful for from 2013 and my goals and expectations for the fabulous year 2014.\r\n\r\nI love to dance. I took tap dancing when 8yrs old. My sister was taking ballet and I think my mother thought it would be a good idea to take two of us to lessons, rather than just one. I just like to move to the music. I can muster up a Foxtrot pretty easily and I found a Spanish nightclub where they teach Salsa. I just had to go. I might even take somebody with me some time. In the meantime, I am just having a blast.