Heritage and History are Working It Out

     Sometimes deadlines can help. Well September’s Blog is here.  I didn’t even have a sermon planned, though one started last Monday.  I went to a Rally for Missing Persons outside the Courthouse, organized by 3 women who have toured the Country in vigil to a woman who disappeared in Whatcom County, WA in March of 2000, Leah Roberts.  Her journey across America, and up I-5 ended near Bellingham.  Her car was found in Glacier, off of the Mt. Baker Hwy.  Her sister formed an organization 9 years ago, which has widened its focus toward Missing Persons, this years attention is towards the West Coast, and over 60 people currently missing.  I was in not the best mood when left the Rally. 

     Seems to me that some changes are in order, though the how, is trickier than the why.  We are vulnerable.  We live in a busy world, full of get a way cars, and weapons, loads of bad karma.  We are so busy, and yet isolated in ways that are difficult to recognize.  Working with Music, I am frequently in Bars, though I rarely drink when I am doing Sound.  You know the joke about Laws and Sausage, I sometimes add Music (and wonder about Love), You don’t want to know how they are made!   Alcohol is much more fun internally than externally, in fact it stings, stinks, and is still listed Medically as a General Anesthetic.   I find it Ironic.  Alcohol is a sacred matter, and even the LORD is known to have indulged. 

      I have been concerned about Drug Abuse for many years, and have lost friends, in many ways am effected by this issue. I write about it, though it is Not a Crusade.  I do think Islam has ideas of merit within its Culture (All Cultures have perspective with merit) which bear on Alcohol, and dare  I say, Men and Women. I mention this Religion, as it is at least talking about Gender, and Alcohol, few Faiths focus on this.  The only warning about alcohol we are likely to encounter, is from Bartenders, Law enforcement, or in the written WARNING Label Required by Law on the Bottle of one’s Spirit of Choice.   I worry about the Drinking, I see folks making tough choices, and yet we, as one of the women from the Rally, On the Road to Remember, said to me, “We don’t want to be told what to do”. 

     I have been thinking about the Warning of Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing.  Perhaps the parts about Wolves, as they hunt in packs.  So I am thinking that the Lone Wolf idea, is over used.  Wolves are social creatures, as are humans, though we deny it to our peril.  The term Culture gets bandied about, and yet if the term fits.  Our culture is vulnerable, our immune system is compromised, which leading philosophers, were quick to link with terrorism.  I have also speculated regarding allergic reactions, or how the immune system turns on itself.  Often the Over Reaction is Fatal, as bee stings, or getting kissed with peanut butter.  In the bars I see, that few practice the Buddy System.  And it is seen as natural to meet people at bars, and this has been so for millenia.   And yet I want to see us, talking greater interest in each other.  I think we need to, not only for our own defense, for our health.  

     While Scientists, Clergy and Musicians know that we are social beings, and politicians depend on Social Networks for their very paychecks, few can risk unity!  Bi-partisan has become a rare word, let alone experience, while Bi-Polar is going places!  At the risk of messing with the Bees, I think Men and Women, need to work closer.  Now I need to acknowledge that Men are doing the majority of violence.  Men need to work together, far more.  And yet, surprise, surprise, we’d like some help.  Maybe we even have a hard time asking for it.  I do ask, and read directions, btw, and as much as I want to be normal, feel I have failed in this effort.  It has been interesting though.  I talk with people.  I read, ponder and do research.  I even do science experiments from time to time, I can pretend I want to educate the kids.  Yet like the Song, “I Want to Know!” 

   So what is Sacred to me, besides Life and Music?  I went to Scotland in 92, spent sometime wandering around.  I went to the Clava Cairns, which are older than the Pyramids.  I camped there, and later took Kathleen, I hope to bring my children there too.  Yet I won’t camp there again, and will ask them not too.  My friend Jak Random passed on last month.  He taught me that Clava is where many of those killed at Culloden were buried.  This was in 1746, and the last Battle between Armies on the Island of Britain. That is not widely known, even in Britain and isn’t on any plaques, Musuems or books I have read.  And yet I know it in my Heart. It has the Ring of Truth to it.  This touches on a subject I has thought of bringing up, the importance of Oral History, this to allude in a way to the Title.  To me Heritage is more Her side of the Story, and History is more His.  My friend Mary Hobberman teaches at a Community College, she wisely added the subject of Oral Histroy, as to it being Written, as was taught in a Course on Archaeology I watched from Stanford I got at our Library, when Hannah was an infant. Another time long ago, she is in 8Th now. I find in Music, that the stories are have a life. I work with many interested in preserving the songs from generations previously, and although much effort is made at getting the history true, myths abound.  Several times at shows working Sound, an Artist will say that song was by So and So back in… and the next thing I know somebody hasmy Ear, well Actually that Song was first by … *So back to Clava.

     This was the first place in the world, where I experienced strong connections with my ancestors, yet also misgivings regarding balancing Archaeology and the Sacred.  I wrote in a previous Blog of how this latter lead to me meeting the Haida Man, George Bain at the Musuem of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia.  And yet what I remember most of my experiences there at the Clava Cairns, perhaps was a Vision.  I saw much time, and cold winters,.. lean hard times, and cold winds.  And somehow admists all the wars, struggle and wanderings, Grandmothers strength kept Us together, kept the children fed, held on with a strength greater than oak roots, surviving more than cold. They kept us on this planet, from going Extinct as a Species, and it needs to be remembered, more than any Date, War or Person.

     I read a People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn when I lived at the River Farm.  I think it took another decade, and 3 journeys to Britain and Ireland to have any criticism of Zinn, who is a Historian I respect, and he will be missed.  I have been remembering Zinn’s writing on conditions on Native American Reservations, especially after WWII.  There continue to be great needs on Reservations, and yet conditions have improved in recent Generations.  Zinn speculates that Women made the difference.  Men were having a difficult time finding employment, let alone meaningful work.  Alcoholism, domestic abuse and violence became common.  Many men who tried to stand for change were killed.  The Worker’s Rights Movement is indicative, and similar in that Women’s efforts have been greatly undervalued and recognized.  May this change.

   And yet I think Men have a part, perhaps beyond our current function as Jar Openers, Spider Transporters, and Sperm Donner’s (that last one I think has been eliminated already).  I’d like to think it is a Balance.  Yet I don’t want to say I am an expert at that.   I even wonder about people growing into part of Earth’s Immune System, rather than attacking our Host, learning to thrive.  Computers may help.  They are good at remembering.  And they can be very trustworthy. I have been speculating with Emery about How are we Going to Keep from getting Stuck inside Computers.  We haven’t figured it out, but I say if we can, we will try it (Humans).  I guess I am an expert on Houses.  I have been a carpenter over 25 years, I have worked on hundreds of houses.  I started Whole Approach in 1996, and continue to work on homes.  I have some other interests.  Of which I write, and yet I find People to be the trickiest.  Maybe I know some stuff, though I am not an expert on Men or Women, though I likely know more on the former, and less and less, about the later!  And yet I am trying to remember .

     Maybe deep in our Hearts, We the People, know it is coming to an end, this time, of unlimited possibilities.  We have some choices, though in my journey, I have found recognition, rather than choice, to be inseparable at the core.  We love because we recognize our connection, and our gap.  Agape, means without gap, that is what the Classical World called Love.  The word Love, being from old English LOOFAH, which I like to point out is remembered by the antonym, Aloof.  And that is what I am trying not to be.  And yet love is dangerous, it can pull!  And the shields are heavy.  There are side effects.  How did the pop song put it, “Love is like oxygen, it gets you high, not enough and you’re gonna die!”  That was Sweet, famous for Ballroom Blitz, and I also like their song, Sweet FA, which is a great British Slang phrase.

   And there is the rub.  The Hurt.  A wounded bear is dangerous, even more are hungry wolves.  So there is my Homily.

     I have been working with Music much.   I have for several weeks in a row, working with recordings from the Stringband Jamboree. I have been working with James Bauckmen and his assistant Ben, to synch Audio with the  Video they gathered at the Festival.  It was an amazing Experience, not all easy, but the best things aren’t always.   Artists make me try harder.  I want to improve, because I know I can, and Beauty deserves more.  I feel much of my job recording is to try to preserve something of the essence of Music, as with doing Sound, trying to get obstacles out-of-the-way.  This is a role of a General Contractor too.  I love digital audio, computers and this amazing tech.  Though science is helping, it also needs heart.  Some willingness to struggle, and some ability to compromise.

   Yah I said it.  There is much going on that we don’t know, other times, places, even dreams.  Now I know that computers exists even without humans, and countless Extraterrestrials, that we will never, well, likely won’t get acquainted with for a while.   Angels, Demons, and Dimensions,  Across the Verse!  I like to tell my children at Dinner, that Parents are struggling with their children throughout the Galaxies, trying to get them to eat vegetables, pick up their toys, and spend less time on the computer!  I hope I am a fun Dad at times, LORD knows I can be mean. I am trying, and I know I can’t do it alone, and yet I also have found that part of the work of being a person, is willingness to learn from others, and yet also to struggle to learn with oneself, it is a struggle.  And if your real, at times Not going along with how some wish.  And that is Holy, as is collaborating.  Thanks.

* I’d like to explore this idea further.  Being a Freelance Archivists, I find it fairly common to find erroneous information in Concert schedules and Public Events. It is not very hard to find contradictory information.  And as much as I have tried to untangle History, I have tangled somethings up too.  I have worked Sound in where sometimes other people are credited, sometimes not even there.  It is easy to get overlooked.  Yet I bring this up as How True is information, this is an old question, and yet the Digital Age is adding complexities.  The concept of Super Truth is seductive.  Yet as I have teased Journalists about the Objective Objective, IT can be somewhat elusive, sometimes perhaps, even evasive!  All the Best to you all!