Got a letter in the mailbox from a Jehovah’s Witness assuring me and his other neighbours that the way the world appears to be problematic is ok because God has a plan which promises peace. When I was small they used to sometimes come to the door and my mother was alarmed. She thought they targeted us specifically because we are Jews. She might have been right but they also might have just divided up the block and knocked on every single door. She went to Hadassah and obtained pamphlets on Judaism so she could beat them to it. She couldn’t wait until the next time, you could hear her inner voice going touché.
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So times have changed. In his letter he supplied a link to a digital bible. My atheism makes more sense to me than does believing in the big G but then again, am I any different, considering in song often I address what I find troubling and offer solutions. Is it just the human condition to try to solve things, make sense out of life. The signature of plants and animals is more unique, no need to try making sense of life. It is a more incredible language.
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I saw Bruce Cockburn play the Playhouse in Winnipeg when I was a teenager. I couldn’t believe how amazing he was. How original I found his guitar and beautiful his voice, especially the high note in Dialogue With The Devil. I bought all his records and I didn’t realize he also sung so much about Jesus. It surprised me but just was one more interesting thing about him. I found it impressive that he was unapologetic laying it all out, this is what I know and this is what I think meaningful in life. I sense something changed over time for him, I don’t think he sings about that, not in the way he did in those 1970s records but I could be wrong, I haven’t studied his works in recent years. At some point in the eighties he took a rock band turn and lost me. His rock music and mine were not compatible. Sometimes I wish I could trap him and not set him free until he writes music again like what blew me away about him in the first place.
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I finished The Blind Side. I watched an interview with the author, Michael Lewis. Liked the way he talked about why he wrote it. I remember as a movie ten years ago but did not look as interesting as did listening to him explain how he wrote it. About how the NFL changed its perception regarding who is the most valuable player. For decades it always was the quarterback and now it is the offensive lineman. They sometimes are paid millions more than the quarterback. That’s what I love about the Freakonomics stories, they illuminate the hidden side. But the Hollywood version of The Blind Side didn’t focus on the real story as much as it did the wealthy people who adopted a poor kid who also happened to be athletic. That’s how they told it. I mentioned reading the book to my friend who then gave me an earful about white women saving black men and how disgusted he was about those types of stories in Hollywood. Did you read the book or see the film I asked? I wouldn’t stoop that low he replied. I understood what he was saying about tropes or cliches but it did not seem to me that was the author’s point. I tried to explain my perception, but no dice, it was as if I was selling digital bibles.