When Nothing's Sacred

A few weeks ago I saw this song by Billy Sprague on Spotify and was touched by how relevant it still is.  

 Most of the lines of the song start with People need or But. So in the notebook my daughter gave me for Christmas, I made two columns.  On one I wrote "People need ...  " and the other I wrote "but..." I have reprinted it without permission below.  But, I will add that the song was written by Billy Sprague and appears on his 1993 album The Wind and The Wave.  I just like how when laid out like this it looks like a list poem.  Even when you add the music it really is.

Note: There is a chorus in the middle of the song which also repeats at the end.  I will write the chorus at the end and put an * each time the chorus appears in the song.

When Nothing's Sacred

by Billy Sprague

People Need...                                                       But...

True love                                                              Chase infatuation

A hope                                                                  Live on short supply

Wisdom                                                                Get more education

Forgiveness                                                          Settle  things eye for eye

Identity                                                                 Satisfied with titles

A living God                                                         Seem content with idols

Destiny                                                                  Settle for careers*

Faith                                                                       Place their bets on science

A refuge                                                                  Stay out in the rain

Each other                                                              Rely on self reliance

Christmas                                                               Settle for a holiday

Dignity                                                                   Survive on ego

Truth                                                                       Will take an alibi

A savior                                                                   Much prefer a hero

(Most) long for heaven                                           Have settled for the sky*

And the soul remains unsettled and the world a wilderness.

In a time when nothings sacred and souls settle for less.

I really wanted to share a live performance of this song and could not find one of Billy Sprague performing it but did find this video of Gary Hall Peck covering it. I think this is a very good rendition of it.

 

Wes King on Bob Bennett

I found this message from Wes King in a FB chat room. It is from CCM musician Wes King about Bob Bennett.  Wes does end the post pass it on.  So I took this as permission to copy and paste it here:

Per my last post about the great Bob Bennett. 

I think, for some reason, that we get little glimpses of heaven here on earth. 

The obvious ones for me are my wedding, my kids being born, surviving cancer are big ones.
I do remember well, the first time I heard Bob Bennett. I lived in a little town in Georgia, Winder; there were no bookstores or music stores in my blessed hometown. I had to drive to Athens, GA to a place called The Carpenters Shop, I think. I would drive there every weekend to see if the Pat Terry Group had released anything new. I obviously had no idea how the music biz worked. I was simply starving for Jesus music. I would make the weekly 35 minute drive and would go and ask the cashier if Pat Terry had put anything out. He would do his best not to roll his eyes and say that, no, they haven't. 

So I would wonder as I wandered over to the music section and see if I could spend the $9.99 in my pocket on something else. I was as curmudgeonly back then as I am now about music, so often I would come home ten bucks richer minus a penny. 

That is how I found Bob Bennett. I must have been around 16, maybe 17, because I was getting pretty good at guitar. I put on his record in my room and I knew there was a heaven. I can still see the glossy wood floors of my bedroom and the chest my record player sat on. I put that record on and I was alive.

I was more alive after the first song. 

I was intrigued. The lyrics were captivating, his voice was butter, his guitar was... what the heck was HE DOING!!! QUICK, WHERE'S MY GUITAR. WAIT, I CAN'T PLAY THAT, WHAT KIND OF FREAK IS THIS? WHO IS THIE GUY? WHY HAVEN'T I HEARD OF HIM YET? 

Footsteps in the Garden changed my life. 

It changed the way I play guitar. This guy is a unique talent that only a few people fall in, in my opinion.
I won't tell you who I think doesn't fall into this category, but I will a few who I think do.
(I have other categories, btw, but this is the singer, songwriter, poet, philosopher category),
Here is a sampling of those for me.
Mark Heard.
Pat Terry.
Well, it kind of stops there for me. 

So many songs of his I love. One that was mentioned was Mountain Cathedrals. 

One of my favorites. I got to sing in a few amazing cathedrals in my day. Bob's song was ringing in my head as I played.
As an artist, Bob is a cathedral to me. His music is a beauty clothed in humility and brokenness.

As much as we all hate facebook, and are freaked out by the big brother thing that is happening. It was a Facebook post that made me go down memory lane and remember a slice of heaven in this poor fallen world. 

Oh, and I agree with the post that someone mentioned about Andrew Peterson. Listen to his new song Is He Worthy, maybe you will think of heaven with me. 

Pass it on.

I added all the music referenced from Spotify.

S is for Stonehill Fan

My A to Z Challenge Theme this year is the ABC's of me.  Each day in the month of April with the exception of Sundays I will be posting about one aspect of my life that begins with the letter of the day. 

It's time for some  A to Z catch-up. , I am currently 3 posts behind.  The next letter is  S so let's get right to it shall we?

A was for Amateur Parodist

B was for Blogger

C was for Christian

D was for David Davidovich

E was for Evangelical Sans the Trump Kool-Aid

F was for Father of 3 Adult Children

G was for Giraffe Lover

H was  for Husband of One Amazing Wife

I was for Iguchi Appreciator

J was for Jester

K was  for Kindergarten Clear

L was for Library Lover

M is for Muppet Man

N was for Narnian

O was for Optimist

P was for Poet

Q is for Quintessential Worker

R was for R.I.T.A. Republican In Theory Anyway

S is for Stonehill Fan

Randy Stonehill is one of my five favorite singers.  Collectively I call these artists the Big 5.  I have seen them all multiple times in concert and am more than familiar with each one's entire body of work.  I have been listening to Randy since 1982 and like just about everything he puts out.  Stonehill still performs and I had the opportunity to see him two times in a 6 month period bettween October of 2023 and March 2024. Here are some sights and sounds from those concerts. 

Randy Stonehill & Phil Keaggy

10/7/23/ South Holland Illinois

Randy Stonehill , Leslie Stonehill & Phil Keaggy 10/7/23

South Holland Illinois

Randy Stonehill 3/2/2024

Concord Missouri

Randy Stonehill

Concord, Missouri 3/2/24

Randy Stonehill - This Old Face

A few years ago I wrote a review of Stonehill's most recent album The Lost Art of Listening.  This is what I said about This Old Face:

This Old Face- Whimsical wisdom amid evocative imagery is one of the thing's I've come to expect from Uncle Rand these many years and This Old Face does not disappoint. This song could be titled turning 70 as this is something Stonehill, born in 1952, will be doing sooner than later. Featured lyrics: It's been weathered by the wind of sadness and of sin but it shines whenever Heaven's love appears

Randy did a children's album called Uncle Stonehill's Hat and Emma , Amy and I were able to se him perform as Uncle Stonehill when Emma was little.  The next 3 videos are Randy performing a song form that album at the concert in March 2024

.:

Randy Stonehill - Stormy Winds Intro

Randy Stonehill - Stormy Winds Part I

Randy Stonehill - Stormy Winds Part II

Randy Stonehill Returning To Depart

So a little musical interlude from one of my favorite artists to add to my ABC's of me.

A to Z Challenge Home Page

A to Z Challenge Master List

Coming up The Art of Teaching

F O G .... E L Berg

 My Daughter Lucy formerly known on this blog as both Puppy and Wolfina  is now a  19 year old adult in her first year at college at the University of Illinois.  She is a double major in Creative Writing and English.  She continues to sing in a choir and is rehearsing for her 3rd and 4th plays of the school year.  Same old busy dynamo.  Lucy is one of those students who seem to excel in everything she does.  When she was applying at colleges this made it difficult for her to choose a major on her applications.  I think she had a different major chosen for each  school got applied at.   At  heart though she's a theatre/music/writer/artist type of person.  

I'm sorry, this post is not supposed to be about Lucy, but about Dan Fogelberg.  Earlier this week a new  Fogelberg song was released posthumously.  Fogelberg died at the age of 56 in 1997.  The song, I know a Thief, was released on streaming services like Spotify as part of the celebration surrounding the 50th anniversary reissuing of Souvenirs.

   

So, what does that have to do with Lucy you ask, Is she a thief?  Well she did steal my heart, but that's not quite what the connection is.  Fogelberg matriculaed at the University of Illinois and while there studied Theatre and Art as well as writing, performing and beginning to record  his future hits.  

I visited Lucy quite a bit during her first semester at school.  I went so often mainly to watch football games but we hung out as well.  (Mostly kidding I hope.). Speaking of football games, If you didn't understand the title of this  post, (and let's face it who did?),  it is an allusion to the cheer they make at home football games for every first down, touch down , field goal and extra point U of I makes. The announcer says ILL and The crowd responds INI.  Still don't get it? Now you know how my family feels.

On my way around campus especially on game days I've passed by a place called the Red Herring Cafe.  I've always been interested to know a little of it's history.  Well that turns out to be precisely where Dan Fogelberg performed and recorded many of his early works. 

Dan Fogelberg  at The Red Herring 2003
From Dan Fogelberg Facebook page

Red Herring Coffee House Poster 1972

Folk Festival @ Red Herring 1969
Both Posters from Smile Politely Article

My two favorite all time songs frim Fogelberg are Same Auld Lang Syne and Leader of the Band. The latter was also my only attempt at solo karaoke.  I found out today through an article in the Champaign Urbana News Gazette written shortly after Fogelberg's death that both songs have U of I roots, The meeting of the old girlfriend on New Years Eve in Same Old Lang Syne was a Champaign girl friend, the grocery store was on the corner of Green and Neil in Champaign, and at the end of the song when he talks about  feeling like he was back at school he was referring to being on campus.  

Fogelberg did not graduate from the U of I, he ended up dropping out to pursue his music. His Dad reluctantly agreed saying "to take a year of and see how it went".  That is where the line "Thank you for the freedom  when it came my time to go" in Leader of the Band comes from,  which precede the lines I bawled at during my karaoke rendition -

"I thank you for the kindness and the times when you got tough 

And papa, I don't think I said I love you near enough"

That about it does it for my midweek music break talking about Peoria Native Dan Fogelberg, his posthumous release, and his time at the University of Illinois at the Red Herring.

Speaking of red herrings, people stopping by from my link at Weekly Writer's Workshop must feel like I attached the wrong link.  The truth is, I have had such fun researching and writing this post I absolutely wanted to force it into the workshop and so I have. 

 This weeks prompt's were

1. Write a post based on the word positivity. 
2. Write a post in exactly 9 lines (sentences). 
3. Got any big plans for spring (Easter) vacation? Tell us about them! 
4. Tell us about the most disastrous date you’ve ever been on.
5.  List some (1-5) podcasts you listen to.
6.  Daylight Saving Time — love it or hate it?

There are several  I could do and I may come back and do a few more but today, I will focus on #4 as their is a Champaign/Urbana U of I connection.

Tell us about the most disastrous date you've ever been on?

It was November 1st 1985.   I was in a long distance relationship with a girl who lived near Springfield IL.  We at met at a college conference in 1984 when I was in a long term relationship with my high school sweet heart,  The girl from the conference and I maintained a correspondence and talked on the phone occasionally.  After a mutual break up with my high school girlfriend that lasted 2 years after graduation, we went on a few dates together,  This girl was way out of my league but she did not know it.  We bonded over our love for CCM Contemporary Christian Music and humor.  I was working my first full time job and taking some time off college that year, I was still living at home so the full time job gave me funds for travelling back and forth between Chicago and Springfield.  

As I recall, I was kind of playing the field for the first and only time in my life that summer  and had gone out on dates with 2 or three other girls since the spring.  Those dates  were mainly platonic and similar to what we would have done as friends.  Somewhere along the line things were getting more serious with the girl from Springfield, at least for me, and I stopped going on other dates. 

She and I were both huge Amy Grant fans and we decided to go to Champaign and see Amy play at what was then called Alumni Hall on the U of I Campus. The concert was on a Friday and I think I spent Halloween visiting  with friends at Eastern Illinois University. 

 I think we spent most of Friday together and at some point she told me she just wanted to be friends again.  Most of our relationship  before and during our dating period was via correspondence.  She had decided that I was not the guy for her.  I was at the point where I was thinking maybe I was.  She seemed to think that we could just enjoy the concert as friends because of course I had 4-8 hours to process it.  When I was a young man going to a concert with a girlfriend was all about holding hands during the love songs, and Amy Grant  is all about the love songs. 

 The opening act was Bob Bennett who did a great set.  He wasn't then but he now is one of my five favorite musical artists.  His brand of   adult contemporary  kind of Fogelbergesque  CCM does not give you too much to worry about on the love song angle.  Amy Grant was her Unguarded self. She brought the dancing, the cuteness, and the love songs.  We supplied the awkward. What was supposed to be a night to remember was quickly becoming one to forget.  

  

This is a ticket from the concert I went to but not my ticket.

This is what big named Christian Concerts cost back in the 80's.

   After the concert, we went our separate ways  (although later we did resume our friendship by correspondence).  I drove back to EIU and some of the awkward continued, because one of the girls I had gone on a few dates with earlier that year was the ex-girlfriend of the friend I was staying with. He seemed to think that I did it behind his back, which I don't know which way his back was pointed when we went out, but I never told him about it.  He had found out that summer, and this was the first time we had spent any time together since.  So it was kind of a bad night all around.  

For a short time Champaign and Assembly Hall and even Amy Grant were all reminders of that horrible date.  Long before Lucy got accepted there the place  came to mean much more than failed romance.

I went to two mission conferences  at U of I  in 1987 and 1990.  Both of these conferences were pivotal on the road God was leading me to missions work in my first few years after college.  At the 2nd of those mission conferences I went with a group form my college and in that group was a young woman who was quickly becoming my best friend and rather slowly (7 1/2) years becoming my wife.  Her name is Amy and I try to take her for Granted.  (Sorry had to work it in, I'm contractually obligated to make a certain number of groaner puns). Also at that 2nd conference Amy and I and the other 20,000 delegates were treated to a conference ending year ending concert at Assembly Hall by another one of my top 5 performers of all time Randy Stonehill.  (Yes, it would be a better ending to my post  if it was Dan Fogelberg singing Same  Auld Lang syne at the Assembly hall as he did twice in his career, especially singing it on New Years Eve.) Even the date of the Amy Grant concert, if it ever lived in infamy, has been redeemed as one of our 3 precious children was born on Nov 1st.

Thus ends my story about the influences of Champaign. I'll try to do one more midweek music break before the A to Z challenge begins next month, To at long last get back to The Weekly Writer's Workshop hosted by John Holton at the Sound of One Hand Clapping click here.  

Bob Ayala: Joy By Surprise - A Heard It For The FIrst Time Review

I know a lot about contemporary Christian music (CCM)  and a pretty good amount about the history of CCM/ Jesus Music.  Bob Ayala was a CCM Pioneer. While these first two sentences are correct, I just heard about Ayala today.

 I am in a number of FB CCM groups and someone mentioned his 1976 debut album Joy By Surprise.  Spotify is my go to for finding music like this but they only had one Bob Ayala album  or Bob Ayalbum if you will, and it wasn't Joy By Surprise.  I was able to find it on You Tube and have shared it below.  My plan is to listen to it now and give you a quick as I'm hearing it review.  

The album is about 33 minutes long and has 10 songs. Joy By Surprise begins with Stephanie, With Love which is a nice consoling song about a girl who loved and lost.

 The next song  Do You Know Him? starts with a description of God "He is a poet in the wind a sculptor  of the sky line. " 

Nice guitar work and some good front ground la la las which are very typical of this  time frame.  

 Try And Keep The Pace 

Opening lyrics: You were always haunted by the girl you hated standing in your mirror.  The little I read about Ayala stated a  couple Keith Greenesque qualities. These qualities are on full display in this song.    This song also reminds me of more positive less satire look at the issues Randy Stonehill explored in cosmetic fixation and Barbie nation. 

 To The Ancient of Days seems to be the most famous song from this album according to notes on the FB page and the You Tube comments.  One commenter stated he could not listen to it with out thinking of Narnia, this is not too difficult for an album whose cover art is the singer encountering Aslan.  These songs are quick but they have good production value and I can imagine listening to them again and again,

Peace  is the next song and starts with the sounds of the outdoors at night.  The lyrics continue that theme with a nice guitar accompaniment. The person who shared this album on You Tube stated "that the music drifts further to the middle of the road than one would like".  Speaking for myself, this one likes the middle of  the road just fine.

1/2 way through the album as we pause to turn the record over I'll say that so far I like it.  The songs are quick but they have good production value and I can imagine listening to them again and again.  

I enjoyed Silent Witness,  which seems to be a love song from an unbelieving husband  to his  believing wife. There was a really good lyric in the beginning that I couldn't write down quick enough.  I look forward to hearing it again on a subsequent listen.  

 Joy By Surprise, the title track has a Don Francisco country twang to it which I quite enjoyed.  The lyrics also reminded me of C.S. Lewis a) because Lewis's autobiography is called Surprised by Joy and b) since some of the lyrics talk about scales being removed which is so very Eustace Clarence Scrubb. 

 The Song of Joseph is next and while there are many Joseph's in the Bible,  This one is definitely about Mary's husband.  I found it the most uneven of the songs I've heard so far.  Of course this is just one listen in, and often songs have a way of surprising me after multiple hearings.

 Lord is the penultimate song on this collection.  Where Joseph's song is an Advent song, Lord, is a Good Friday song.  The music is slow and sad and helps you imagine Jesus carrying his cross on the way to  Calvary. If it wasn't obvious before that this was a1970's album this song brings that idea home with an sledge hammer masquerading as an exclamation point.   

 

To end an album with  a song called New Beginnings is kind of different.  It's a good song and is very Michael Cardish with the vocals and the orchestration.  

A couple of final vinyl thoughts that I'd like to spin.  I recognized the names of a couple musicians on the album.  First there is  Billy Batstone   who wears lots of hats,  singer, songwriter, worship leader, bassist, guitarist and of course becomes Captain Marvel when he say Shazam.   Then I read about the drummer Al McDougal and I was thinking that name sounds very familiar.  Then I realized it was probably Alex MacDougal who used to drum for Daniel Amos.  Sure enough he has is credited in Discogs for his work on this album.  

I like this album and kind of want to finish this review quickly so I can listen to it again.  One of the blogs I read mentioned him in early 2020 as still being alive. Apparently in the Fall of that year he passed away while visiting his sister perhaps due to some vertigo issues he had been experiencing.  It was kind of strangely sad discovering he died nearly 5 years prior to my discovery of him.  In a sense I wish I discovered his music earlier, but in another way it's kind of nice to discover old music that's new to you.  

Weekly Writer's Workshop: For God So Hugged The World

Here are the prompts for this week’s Writer’s Workshop:

1.  Write a post based on the word hugging. 
2. Write a post in exactly 13 sentences. 
3. How do you cope with days where you’re stuck in the house due to bad weather? 
4. What are your favorite food items to order online? 
5. If evidence of intelligent life elsewhere in the universe were discovered, would it alter your core beliefs or sense of self? 
6. List your five most recent favorite things.

I am combining 2 prompts today, #1 and #5.  It's not exactly one from column A and one from column B, but it gets the job done.

For God So Hugged The World

John 3:16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (NIV)

My older sister asked me once what  John 3:16 meant.  So, I told her what the verse said, and her reaction was, "That has nothing to do with football"

I saw my sister right after Christmas as I was at the wedding of my oldest niece, her daughter.  There was an hour or so between the end of the wedding and the reception.  So my family being who we are, took a side trip to a local library between gigs.  While we were there my daughter Lucy emerged triumphantly from the lobby to say that she had found a 1984 Thesaurus in the free stuff bin,  She spent the next few days of the trip regaling us with synonyms from the book.  I have asked her to read me the synonyms for hug. Here goes: embrace, hold, clasp, press to the bosom, hold close, clutch, squeeze, cuddle, snuggle, nestle, and (wait for it) cling together.

As I contemplated the meaning of John 3:16, especially what it meant for God to so love the world, I thought of hugs.  I thought of a child who seemingly gave up on physical expressions of love to their parents initiating a hug with me for no particular reason.  I thought of how hugs show one's love for another but also leave room for a reply. 

 I thought of Jesus in that sense as a hug from God.  To put it back in the context of John 3:16,  our sins had separated us from God.  We were on a path to perishing without a chance to have that relationship mended. God reached out to us, extending his Son as a way to eternal life.  We must reach back to God completing that hug by accepting Jesus as the only way to God.  

This brings me rather clumsily to prompt 5: If evidence of intelligent life elsewhere in the universe were discovered, would it alter your core beliefs or sense of self? 

My short answer is no.  My core beliefs and my sense of self,  emanate from my understanding of biblical Christianity.  Larry Norman a pioneer of Jesus Music broached the subject in the bridge of his song U.F.O.

And if there's life on other planets 

Then I'm sure that He must know 

And He's been there once already 

And has died to save their souls.

Those lyrics have always resonated with me. I have never meant much of a subscriber to the notion of life on other planets.  I like the science-fiction element of extraterrestrial life but that's where it ends. However farfetched I might find it, if confronted with proof that there is life on other planets, I would lean in on Norman's thought process.  To extend my previous thoughts on John 3:16, I can imagine the Lord of the Universe loving other intelligent life so much that he would reach out and hug them through the person of his Son as well.  

Just like I don't jettison my faith when difficult times come my way, I plan to always trust in God no matter what other things may come to challenge my world view.  

A Snapshot of the pioneering christian rock musician Larry Norman taken following concert in Defiance, Ohio on October 20, 2001.

By Ekiledal - http://upload.wikimedia.org/, Public Domain, Link

Thanks to John Holton of The Sound of One Hand Typing for this week's prompts.  To participate more in this Week workshop click here.

Michael Card Christmas Concert 2020 | Grace Bible Church

Z is for the Zenith of the American Revolution

 

For The A to Z Challenge this year, I am focusing on everyday holidays. Each day there are multiple unusual things to celebrate. Every day of the challenge I look for an event taking place that day and pair it with the letter of the day. I have also made up 5 holidays to coincide with the vowel days of the challenge. At the end of each post I will share a special song of the day for that day's letter. At the end of the month, these songs will be assembled in an A to Z keepsake playlist on Spotify. Every day is a celebration, let's unwrap today's together.

April 30th 2024 is the 235th anniversary of George Washington being inaugurated the first President of the United States.

George Washington

By Gilbert Stuart, Public Domain, Link

On April 30th 1789 George Washington was innaugurated the first President of the United States of America in Federal Hall in New York City.  Here is the transcript of his address ...

Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives: 

 Among the vicissitudes incident to life no event could have filled me with greater anxieties than that of which the notification was transmitted by your order, and received on the 14th day of the present month. On the one hand, I was summoned by my Country, whose voice I can never hear but with veneration and love, from a retreat which I had chosen with the fondest predilection, and, in my flattering hopes, with an immutable decision, as the asylum of my declining years--a retreat which was rendered every day more necessary as well as more dear to me by the addition of habit to inclination, and of frequent interruptions in my health to the gradual waste committed on it by time. On the other hand, the magnitude and difficulty of the trust to which the voice of my country called me, being sufficient to awaken in the wisest and most experienced of her citizens a distrust-ful scrutiny into his qualifications, could not but overwhelm with despondence one who (inheriting inferior endowments from nature and unpracticed in the duties of civil administration) ought to be peculiarly conscious of his own deficiencies. In this conflict of emotions all I dare aver is that it has been my faithful study to collect my duty from a just appreciation of every circumstance by which it might be affected. All I dare hope is that if, in executing this task, I have been too much swayed by a grateful remembrance of former instances, or by an affectionate sensibility to this transcendent proof of the confidence of my fellow-citizens, and have thence too little consulted my incapacity as well as disinclination for the weighty and untried cares before me, my error will be palliated by the motives which mislead me, and its consequences be judged by my country with some share of the partiality in which they originated. 

Such being the impressions under which I have, in obedience to the public summons, repaired to the present station, it would be peculiarly improper to omit in this first official act my fervent supplications to that Almighty Being who rules over the universe, who presides in the councils of nations, and whose providential aids can supply every human defect, that His benediction may consecrate to the liberties and happiness of the people of the United States a Government instituted by themselves for these essential purposes, and may enable every instrument employed in its administration to execute with success the functions allotted to his charge. In tendering this homage to the Great Author of every public and private good, I assure myself that it expresses your sentiments not less than my own, nor those of my fellow- citizens at large less than either. No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the Invisible Hand which conducts the affairs of men more than those of the United States. Every step by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency; and in the important revolution just accomplished in the system of their united government the tranquil deliberations and voluntary consent of so many distinct communities from which the event has resulted can not be compared with the means by which most governments have been established without some return of pious gratitude, along with an humble anticipation of the future blessings which the past seem to presage. These reflections, arising out of the present crisis, have forced themselves too strongly on my mind to be suppressed. You will join with me, I trust, in thinking that there are none under the influence of which the proceedings of a new and free government can more auspiciously commence. 

By the article establishing the executive department it is made the duty of the President "to recommend to your consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient." The circumstances under which I now meet you will acquit me from entering into that subject further than to refer to the great constitutional charter under which you are assembled, and which, in defining your powers, designates the objects to which your attention is to be given. It will be more consistent with those circumstances, and far more congenial with the feelings which actuate me, to substitute, in place of a recommendation of particular measures, the tribute that is due to the talents, the rectitude, and the patriotism which adorn the characters selected to devise and adopt them. In these honorable qualifications I behold the surest pledges that as on one side no local prejudices or attachments, no separate views nor party animosities, will misdirect the comprehensive and equal eye which ought to watch over this great assemblage of communities and interests, so, on another, that the foundation of our national policy will be laid in the pure and immutable principles of private morality, and the preeminence of free government be exemplified by all the attributes which can win the affections of its citizens and command the respect of the world. I dwell on this prospect with every satisfaction which an ardent love for my country can inspire, since there is no truth more thoroughly established than that there exists in the economy and course of nature an indissoluble union between virtue and happiness; between duty and advantage; between the genuine maxims of an honest and magnanimous policy and the solid rewards of public prosperity and felicity; since we ought to be no less persuaded that the propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right which Heaven itself has ordained; and since the preservation of the sacred fire of liberty and the destiny of the republican model of government are justly considered, perhaps, as deeply, as finally, staked on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people. 

Besides the ordinary objects submitted to your care, it will remain with your judgment to decide how far an exercise of the occasional power delegated by the fifth article of the Constitution is rendered expedient at the present juncture by the nature of objections which have been urged against the system, or by the degree of inquietude which has given birth to them. Instead of undertaking particular recommendations on this subject, in which I could be guided by no lights derived from official opportunities, I shall again give way to my entire confidence in your discernment and pursuit of the public good; for I assure myself that whilst you carefully avoid every alteration which might endanger the benefits of an united and effective government, or which ought to await the future lessons of experience, a reverence for the characteristic rights of freemen and a regard for the public harmony will sufficiently influence your deliberations on the question how far the former can be impregnably fortified or the latter be safely and advantageously promoted. 

To the preceding observations I have one to add, which will be most properly addressed to the House of Representatives. It concerns myself, and will therefore be as brief as possible. When I was first honored with a call into the service of my country, then on the eve of an arduous struggle for its liberties, the light in which I contemplated my duty required that I should renounce every pecuniary compensation. From this resolution I have in no instance departed; and being still under the impressions which produced it, I must decline as inapplicable to myself any share in the personal emoluments which may be indispensably included in a permanent provision for the executive department, and must accordingly pray that the pecuniary estimates for the station in which I am placed may during my continuance in it be limited to such actual expenditures as the public good may be thought to require. 

Having thus imparted to you my sentiments as they have been awakened by the occasion which brings us together, I shall take my present leave; but not without resorting once more to the benign Parent of the Human Race in humble supplication that, since He has been pleased to favor the American people with opportunities for deliberating in perfect tranquillity, and dispositions for deciding with unparalleled unanimity on a form of government for the security of their union and the advancement of their happiness, so His divine blessing may be equally conspicuous in the enlarged views, the temperate consultations, and the wise measures on which the success of this Government must depend.

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The song of the day is Zion by Aaron Shust

The A to Z Challenge is complete!  The Spotify Leap of Dave A to Z playlist is complete.  They both have been a lot of fun.  I will be back soon with my A to Z reflections.

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To go to the home of the A to Z challenge click here, to see the 2024 master list of participating blogs click here. Enjoy the 2024 A to Z challenge, and Happy Holidays!

A to Z 2024: W is for Warmly Embrace Austalians

  For The A to Z Challenge this year, I am focusing on everyday holidays. Each day there are multiple unusual things to celebrate.  Every day of the challenge I look for an event taking place that day and pair it with the letter of the day.  I have also made up 5 holidays to coincide with the vowel days of the challenge.  At the end of each post I will share a special song of the day for that day's letter.  At the end of the month, these songs will be assembled in an A to Z keepsake playlist on Spotify.  Every day is a celebration, let's unwrap today's together.

April 26th is Hug an Australian Day.

Australia is the lone continent that is also one entire country.  Australia Day is celebrated each year on January  26th marking the 1788 landing of the first fleet into Sydney Harbor and the subsequent raising of the Union Flag  of Great Britain.  3 months to the day later you can celebrate Australians all over again by hugging them.  

Originated in 1996 in Melbourne, Hug an Australian day promotes warmth and wellness.

Wallaby,Dhammagiri Forest Hermitage, Buddhist Monastery, Brisbane, Australia www.dhammagiri.org.au 

 Not everyone can visit Australia.  However everyone can promote good will to Australians everywhere by wishing all Auissies you meet well wishes and perhaps even a warm embrace.  Here's a cute video of someone hugging a koala bear.

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Today's Song of the Day is We are Here by Randy Stonehill & Buck Storm

23 songs for the playlist

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To go to the home of the A to Z challenge click here, to see the 2024 master list of participating blogs click here. Enjoy the 2024 A to Z challenge, and Happy Holidays!

A to Z 2024: V is for Various Holidays

  For The A to Z Challenge this year, I am focusing on everyday holidays. Each day there are multiple unusual things to celebrate.  Every day of the challenge I look for an event taking place that day and pair it with the letter of the day.  I have also made up 5 holidays to coincide with the vowel days of the challenge.  At the end of each post I will share a special song of the day for that day's letter.  At the end of the month, these songs will be assembled in an A to Z keepsake playlist on Spotify.  Every day is a celebration, let's unwrap today's together.

April 25th: Multiple Holidays Abound

Everyday of the year there are a plethora of holidays,  My job for the challenge was to scour through those holidays and find one that somehow relates to the letter of the day.  Since todays letter is V, I thought I might give you a variety pack of holidays, events, and occurrences to celebrate today.

Holidays

National Hairstylist Appreciation Day Held on the 25th April since 2012.  Prior to that it was celebrated on April 30th, but alas, that wasn't it's "permanent" day.

International  Delegates Day - United Nations The current U.S. Ambassador for the U.N. is  Linda Thomas Greenfield.  The last former U.S. ambassador to the U.N. that I voted for for President of the U.S. was Nikki Haley.

World Penguin Day Statred in 1972, April 25th coincides with he day that Adelie penguins begin their northern migration.  It is a little confusing because I thought it was March of the Penguins, not April.  

3 Adelie PenguinsCC BY-SA 2.0, Link

License Plate Day On April 25th 1901 the state of New York made the first law requiring automobiles to have license plates.  Speaking of license plates click here to see the I holiday Indicted Illinois Governors Day.

Born On April 25th

Al Pacino - American Actor 1940- present

Edward R Murrow - Radio and Television Journalist - 1908-1965

Edward R Murrow Public Domain,

David Strathairn As Murrow in Good Night and Good Luck

Guglielmo Marconi - Inventor and Physicist 1874-1937

Died on April 25th

Ginger Rogers - American Actress and Dancer.  Died in 1995 at the age of 83

Rogers and Fred Astaire

By RKO Radio Pictures Public Domain, Link

John Havlicek - Boston Celtics Basketball Star died at the age of 79 in 2014

Bea Arthur- Actress best know for her roles on t.v. shows Maude, and Golden Girls-  died at the age of 86 in 2009 

Happened on April 25th ...

2021 - Chloe Zhao win's Best Director Oscar for the film Nomadland.  Frances McDormand won the Academy award for Actress in a Leading Role for Nomadland, which also won the Oscar for Best Picture.  

1990- Hubble Space Telescope Sent Into Orbit.This hour video show the Space Shuttle bringing the telecope into space and then releasing it into orbit.  

 

This poster shows many of the great pictures taken with the telescope.

By Unknown author Public Domain, Link

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Song of the Day The View From Here Bob Bennet  

There is an entire house concert from 2019 on this video, if I have set this up correctly, the intro to the song should start as you open the video.  There are 22 songs on the A to Z Spotify playlist now. Just like today it houses a lot of variety.

To go to the home of the A to Z challenge click here, to see the 2024 master list of participating blogs click here. Enjoy the 2024 A to Z challenge, and Happy Holidays!  

A to Z 2024: U is for Undecided, Undeclared & Uncertain Day

  For The A to Z Challenge this year, I am focusing on everyday holidays. Each day there are multiple unusual things to celebrate.  Every day of the challenge I look for an event taking place that day and pair it with the letter of the day.  I have also made up 5 holidays to coincide with the vowel days of the challenge.  At the end of each post I will share a special song of the day for that day's letter.  At the end of the month, these songs will be assembled in an A to Z keepsake playlist on Spotify.  Every day is a celebration, let's unwrap today's together.

A Very Special Installment Today

Dave Out Loud Presents Undecided, Undeclared & Uncertain Day

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Song of the Day: Under The Sun - Michael Card

21 letters 21 songs assembled in a playlist.  5 more remain.  Here is what we have so far.

To go to the home of the A to Z challenge click here, to see the 2024 master list of participating blogs click here. Enjoy the 2024 A to Z challenge, and Happy Holidays!

A to Z 2024: T is for Table Tennis

  For The A to Z Challenge this year, I am focusing on everyday holidays. Each day there are multiple unusual things to celebrate.  Every day of the challenge I look for an event taking place that day and pair it with the letter of the day.  I have also made up 5 holidays to coincide with the vowel days of the challenge.  At the end of each post I will share a special song of the day for that day's letter.  At the end of the month, these songs will be assembled in an A to Z keepsake playlist on Spotify.  Every day is a celebration, let's unwrap today's together.

April 23rd is World Table Tennis Day

I'm gonna be honest.  Most of these holidays I am highlighting for the challenge.  I am going to forget about for next year.  Some I've probably already forgotten.  World Table Tennis Day is one holiday I don't want to forget.  In fact, I am kind of bummed that I probably won't ping some pong today.  Ping some pong is what I call playing ping pong or table tennis.  

When I think of table tennis the first thing that pops into my head is this commercial from when I was a kid.  

Gnip Gnop not only sparked a passion for ping pong but  also a passion for gnikaeaps sdrawkcab  (speaking backwards) which turned into my love for all things palindromic.  

When other  people think of ping pong this scene from Forrest Gump may pop in their head ...

I love playing table tennis.  I may lack the Gumpian endurance or skill  but what I lack in endurance and talent I make up in zeal.  In college I played a lot of table tennis, it is a great way to spend time between classes or as a study break.  It is both social and athletic.  I even had an album that I thought was the best accompaniment for playing ping pong.  It was Jacob's Trouble's debut album, Door Into Summer.  When I hear other people incorrectly say that this group has better albums, my initial thought is not to play ping pong with. You listen and you tell me if the beat doesn't want to make you ping some pong.

 

One fun thing to on World Table Tennis Day would be to play a variation called round robin.  It is basically a cross between table tennis and musical chairs.  You play with 2 paddles and as many people as can fit around a ping pong table. Instead of describing it, here is play in action ...

 

To get a full ping pong experience play the round robin clip without volume while listening to the  Jacob's Trouble and you'll see what I'm talking about.  So, ping some pong today if you get a chance and if you can't that's just how the ball bounces.

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The song of the day today is Tell It Again by J.J. Heller

20 songs now comprise the A to Z playlist.

To go to the home of the A to Z challenge click here, to see the 2024 master list of participating blogs click here. Enjoy the 2024 A to Z challenge, and Happy Holidays!

A To Z 2924:I is for Indicted Illinois Governors Day

For The A to Z Challenge this year, I am focusing on everyday holidays. Each day there are multiple unusual things to celebrate.  Every day of the challenge I look for an event taking place that day and pair it with the letter of the day.  I have also made up 5 holidays to coincide with the vowel days of the challenge.  At the end of each post I will share a special song of the day for that day's letter.  At the end of the month, these songs will be assembled in a to z keepsake playlist on Spotify.  Every day is a celebration, let's unwrap today's together. 

April 10th is Indicted Illinois Governors Day

In U.S. history there have been 25 state governors  who have been convicted of federal crimes.  4 of these have come from the state of Illinois.  .  That's righr 4 of the last 10 Illinois governors have served in federal prisons.  

As a non public official of the state of Illinois with all the power invested in me by this great state, I proclaim April 10th as Indicted Illinois Governors Day.  

There have actually been 5 Illinois governors to be indicted. 

Joel Aldrich Matteson, the 10th governor of Illinois (1853-1857) was charged in 1859  in the Canal Scrip Fraud Scandal.  Matteson redeemed Scrip for the Canal for himself.  He was indicted but then acquitted and returned the majority of the funds to the state.  

Otto Kerner Jr,  was governor of Illinois from 1961-1968.  In 1972 He was a Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals when he was indicted on multiple charges including mail fraud, & income tax evasions.  Charges he was eventually convicted og.  Kerner served six months on a three year sentence.  His crimes went back to 1962 when as a governor he colluded with race track owners. 

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Dan Walker was governor of Illinois from 1973-1977.  Unlike Kerner, Walkers convictions came from crimes committed after his time as governor. As CEO of a savings and loan siphoned bank money for his own use,  Walker was indicted, convicted and served 17 months of a seven year sentence.

George Ryan was governor of Illinois from 1999-2003 and was the Il Secretary of State prior to that,  As Secretary of State he presided  over a huge bribes for licenses scheme.  This scheme was exposed after a truck killed 6 children in the same family  and it was revealed that the trucker had paid bribes for his license.  Ryan  was sentenced to 6 1/2 years of prison and was released in 2013.

Rod Blagojevich was governor of Illinois form 2002 - 2009 when he was impeached by the Illinois General Assembly.  When Blagojevich (Blago) rand in 2002 his mantra was no more business as usual.  This was in the wake of the Ryan scandals.  The problem is Blago missed his own memo, and went back to business as usual, and business was booming.  Blago was caught on tape trying to sell the senate seat of President Elect Obama, and was charged with conspiracy to commit fraud and solicitation of bribery.  He was convicted and sentenced to 14 years and was in prison from 2012 to 2020 when hw was pardoned by Donald Trump.

While it's true that our last 3 governors have not gone to jail.  We could use the growth mindset, and say they have not gone to jail yet.  Why do so many of the governors of my state go to jail.  It may just be a matter of linguistical expectations.  What do governors and convicts have in common.  They both serve terms.  So in a way their first career sets up their second.  

While I made up this holiday, I unfortunately did not make up the history.  

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Song of the day: I Believe In You - Bob Dylan

The playlist is really taking shape now.   

That's it for me .  Feel free to add a comment before moving on with your day.

To go to the home of the A to Z challenge click here, to see the 2024 master list of participating blogs click here. Enjoy the 2024 A to Z challenge, and Happy Holidays!