Beltin' Melton The Bill Melton Story

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.

If the Playoffs Were Today ... (With WHYDFML 7 Game Index)

 One of my favorite bits when I was younger was to look at the standings in a sport and proclaim: 'What If the Playoffs were Today?".  

Here in Chicago. much has been made lately of the fact that the Bears are now tied for the best record in the National Football Conference.  Of course that may all change this weekend when the Bears take on the hated Packers.  Every Tuesday from now until the playoffs actually begin,  I hope to show you what the first round of the NFL playoffs would look like if the playoffs would actually begin on that day.

I will also include a stat called the What Have You Done For Me Lately (WHYDFML) 7 Game Index.

The index assigns 1 point for a win and -1 point for a loss over a 7 game period.  It then weights those wins and losses from 7 to 1 most recent to least recent.  The New England Patriots have won all 7 of their last games.  

W W W W W W W

7   6   5   4   3  2   1  

When you add this up they have 1 7 Game WHYDFML of 28

The Bears have won their last 5 games since losing to the Baltimore Ravens and had won the game previous to that so their WHYDFML looks like this:

W W W W W L W

7   6   5   4   3 -2 1

Which makes their index +24

There are many different WHYDFML indices that I use but the 7 game one is very front loaded.  If the Packers prevail against the Bears this weekend, their index will plummet from +24 to +12.  The Packers will not only jump a 1/2 game ahead of the Bears in the standings, but their WHYDFML will increase from +14 to + 18.  

Confused?  It will grow on you.  Or it won't. But until we're sure, here is the NFL Playoff Schedule if the Playoffs Began today...

AFC

1st Round Bye New England Patriots (#1 Seed) AFC East Division Champion (11-2) +28 

Buffalo Bills (#7 Seed) #3 AFC Wild Card (8-4) +6 @ Denver Broncos (#2 Seed) AFC West Division Champion (10-2) +28

Indianapolis Colts (#6 Seed) #2 AFC Wild Card (8-4) -6 @ Jacksonville Jaguars (#3 Seed) AFC South Division Champion (8-4) +14

Los Angeles Chargers (#5 Seed) #1 AFC Wild Card (8-4) +12 @ Baltimore Ravens (#4 Seed) AFC North Division Champion (6-6) +12

NFC

1st Round Bye Chicago Bears (#1 Seed) NFC North Division Champion (9-3) +24

San Francisco 49ers (#7 Seed) #3 NFC Wild Card (9-4) +16  @ Los Angeles Rams (#2 Seed) AFC West Division Champion (9-3) +14

Green Bay Packers (#6 Seed) #2 NFC Wild Card (8-3-1) +14 @ Philadelphia Eagles (#3 Seed)  NFC East Division Champion (8-4) Even

Seattlle Seahawks (#5 Seed) #1 NFC Wild Card) (9-3) +18 @ Tampa Bay Buccaneers (#4 Seed) NFC South Division Champion (7-5) -6

Instant Analysis:  The AFC home teams (division champs) all have a higher or equal WHYDFML # than their opponents. The NFC home teams all have a lower WHYDFML than their opponents.

I'll be back next Tuesday with another exciting installment of ...

If the Playoffs were today  ...

Full documentary: The Edmund Fitzgerald (2025)

50 Years ago today the Edmund Fitzgerald sank in Lake Superior. The disaster inspired Gordon Lightfoot's 1976 hit "The Wreck of The Edmund Fitzgerald"

If You get a chance you may enjoy this hour long documentary.

The Storm Before The Calm - Poetry Friday

Today is Poetry Friday. I haven't been blogging very much at all recently, let alone writing poetry.  But this morning   I was playing with the phrase "storm before the calm" and inverted it to" calm before the storm" which I have used before.  

While I was walking  towards my Mom's room in the nursing home she's been staying at since August, "The Poet That Lives Inside of Me" was helping me assemble this poem which I typed here as soon as I could get to my I-Pad.  

 I didn’t go to work this week

To spend time with my Mom

Was it the calm before the storm

Or the storm before the calm?

During Co-vid we saw glimpses 

That she wasn’t aging well

And we are all quite resistless

To that upcoming death knell

But hospice and declining

Are new vocab to see

And since I’m her med POA

A lot of weights on me.

So I've been here each morning

To feed her and observe

I'm not sure what to tell her

And I do not have the nerve 

For now, she is in rehab

Hope she relearns to walk

Walking could restore her

But that seems like idle talk

What I know of rehab

Is that it builds from day to day

So if you can’t remember rehab

What more is there to say?

Most times she does remember me

At times thinks that I'm Dad

But He’s a good role model

So that’s not all that bad

He calls her every morning

Cross town - both stuck in bed

I tell her I am David Charles

And he is David Fred

They’ve been apart since August

When they found a blood clot in her lung

Hospital and rehab ever since

It’s really not that fun

The plan: 4th week November

At last, it’s coming soon

There will be much Thanksgiving

When they finally share a room

And then with Christmas looming large

We'll  be forging a new norm

Will it be the storm before the calm

0r the calm before the storm?

Laura Purdie Salas is hosting the roundup this week join her by clicking here.