I woke up this morning to my Apple News feed and saw a refreshing article from the Atlantic Magazine, WHAT MONASTIC MYSTICS GOT RIGHT ABOUT LIFE. What appealed to me most about this article were two parts that expressed my feelings on this Memorial Day weekend. The first paragraph repeats a quote attributed to Mark Twain, “An old saying commonly attributed to Mark Twain runs, ‘It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.’” The article goes on to describe how, “Misinformation—or what some call “fake news”—is clearly a huge problem in our society, leading to a great deal of conflict.”
A few paragraphs down, the author, Arthus C. Brooks, changes the view to that of 13th-century Dominican mystic Meister Eckhart. “He taught that we should ‘live without a why’ (sunder warumbe in Middle High German). By this, he did not at all mean that we should be directionless or that life is meaningless. On the contrary, no one was more steadfast than Eckhart in teaching what the ultimate objective of life should be: to act in a spirit of pure love before all else, and not to let worldly aims of money, power, and prestige distract us from this objective.”
As I reflect on the purpose of this day, I am reminded of all those people I have come across personally in my life who have disappeared from my circle of friends and musical compatriots, which includes people from other countries, as well. Some have moved away, while others have already made it to hallowed ground, like so many military members who have given their lives to defend our country and democracy around the world. On this day I am remembering my friends from past to present, living and dead!
I am also reminded about one friend in particular, a Greek vocalist who ironically was born on the same day and year as my wife. He has sung one of my most beautifully written songs in both lyrics and music. The song is called Backwards Dog by my group Kongress and I am linking my best version now on Instagram with lyrics www.instagram.com/... recorded last year in Bristol, VA.
Backwards Dog
Somewhere in the universe, circulating time
Lives a King of everything, a most amazing mind
Knowing everything there is to know beneath the skies
The proof of His existence lies before your buried eyes
You should see Him laughing
He smiles at your ways
Although you’re just passing
He will watch you all your days
Younger than the newborn child, older than all time
He’s a King of everything, a most amazing mind
Living in a cemetery, dying in your heart
Creating and destroying like a Funeral of Art
Pictures that have faded
Will Renaissance with time
His sunlight’s always shaded
Or else we might be blind
Listen to the bells He’s ringing, beckoning the crowds
Still they wait for signs and linger always with their doubts
Thinking that there isn’t any King and no design
Only hearing bells that ring when it’s somebody’s time
He’s one to admire
His throne’s just a chair
He lives in the fire,
In water, earth and air
words & music © Otto von Ruggins, Master of the Unheard Øf
Our guitar playing son Philip, who has been nominated for four Grammies in the last three years (though he hasn’t won yet) took me into a studio there last August. The vocalist on this song is an 18 year-old from Tennessee, Ashton Davison, whom my son invited, along with his Electric Cello collaborator and Pianist, Dave Eggar, who arranged tracks and played on this very special version. The Engineer wound up playing drums for the second half of the song, though I’m not sold on the current mix. I would love to hear this Greek vocalist try to sing to this version, but unfortunately, my personal feelings of our relationship are preventing him from having the opportunity to do so.
The quote by Mark Twain is the exact reason I have a problem dealing with this vocalist. He is who Twain was referring to, with the line, “It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.” He believes the Earth is flat, no one has ever been into outer space (“it’s not possible to go or reach there,” he claims), no plane ever flew into the Pentagon and, of course, vaccines have killed more people than Covid! Just yesterday, he claimed he had an above average IQ, so with mine being 144 (without telling him), I asked what his was — he declared it was ‘145’! He’s not stupid, but just wrong about so many things!
I’m still teaching in high school these days and when I ask the students in a History class, “What’s more important in your Life — History or The Future?” The overwhelming majority answer, “The Future!” When someone states, “History”, I explain to them, they’re an ‘outlier’— that their opinion is outside of what most people respond. I even tell them, “It’s not that History isn’t important, but that in the next 10 to 15 years, the World will change more than at any other time in the History of Mankind. If you don’t know what’s coming, you will be left behind.” My next question is, “If The Future is more important, why isn’t it taught in school?”
They struggle to answer, stating that it’s a good question, or missing the point by claiming, “Because it hasn’t happened yet.” I then indicate to them, “That’s not true! While we’re here in this classroom, it’s happening all around the World, in Laboratories and Corporations.” I love these moments when I get kids to do some critical thinking. When I add that there will not be enough jobs in the Future and then re-ask any of the outliers their opinion after my added facts, they change their tune and agree with me — it’s The Future that is most important in their Life!
Unfortunately, the vocalist is practically wrong about everything, without any evidence to prove his beliefs. Yes, he’s a MAGA hard head, who didn’t even know Giuliani’s radio show had been cancelled by WABC Radio. I stated that the reason given by CNN was because he continued talking about the stolen election in 2020, after having been warned, so they cancelled his show — he claimed that wasn’t the reason, but of course he had no facts to present to explain why he was fired (he didn’t even know the show was cancelled)! Instead, he shifts the conversation to how much he hates the newest Supreme Justice, Ketanji Brown Jackson, because she couldn’t or wouldn’t answer the question, “Can you define the word ‘woman’?”
Just recently, the field goal kicker of the NFL Super Bowl Champion Kansas City Chiefs stirred up a hornet’s nest when he tried to define the ‘role’ of a ‘woman’ as ‘being a homemaker and having children’. That didn’t go over well, but her explanation about not being able to answer that question about defining the word ‘Woman’ was it lacked a ‘legal’ context, avoiding the trap that Senator Marsha Blackburn set for her. Yet, Blackburn went on to claim, “I think it tells our girls that their voices don’t matter,” Blackburn responded. “I think it tells them that they’re second-class citizens.” I think that was what the Chiefs field goal kicker, Harrison Butker, was telling women — their role in life is to be a homemaker and have children. In other words, their voices and choices don’t matter!
Meanwhile, there are two Supreme Court Justices who have shown they believe that not only are they beyond reigning in for their impartial behavior, but they can even accept gifts from people with cases before the Supreme Court (Justice Thomas) and display their support for the insurrectionists that attempted to overtone the 2020 Presidential Election (Justice Alito). All Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson did was refuse to define the word ‘woman’, but that’s a bridge too far for my Greek friend! To quote the ‘60s FolkRock band The Vejtables, “I Still Love You Even Though I Know I Shouldn’t!”