This is Where I’ve Been

  Week Thirty-two: Once in a Lifetime And you may find yourself living in a shotgun shack And you may find yourself in another part of the world And you may find yourself behind the wheel of a large automobile And you may find yourself in a beautiful house, with a beautiful wife And you may ask yourself, “Well, how did I get here?” —Talking Heads, Once in a Lifetime, from the album Remain in Light Actually I don’t ask myself how I got here, but I do sometimes shake my head at how absolutely fortunate I have been in my first seventy years to be “here” or anywhere for that matter.  Not so long ago as I pulled into the driveway of the house we recently bought, Once in a Lifetime came on the radio, and although I do not sing well, that never stops me especially when I hear songs like this one. And on this day like every other day I immediately thought about how I might use this song to tell my story. I guess it was the irony of pulling into the driveway of our new “beautiful hous...

  Week Thirty-one: Secret O’ Life The secret of life is enjoying the passage of time any fool can do it There ain’t nothing to it … The secret of love is in opening up your heart It’s okay to feel afraid But don’t let that stand in your way ‘Cause anyone knows that love is the only road And since we’re only here for a while Might as well show some style … Now the thing about time is that time isn’t really real It’s just your point of view How does it feel for you? Einstein said he could never understand it all Planets spinning through space The smile upon your face Welcome to the human race … Try not to try too hard It’s just a lovely ride The secret of life is enjoying the passage of time —James Taylor, The Secret O’ Life, from the album JT I heard this song recently and was immediately reminded that as a very young teacher I often quoted the line “ the thing about time is that time isn’t really real .” I think I was trying to be philosophical with my ten-year old charges, but pr...

  Week Thirty: Imagine Imagine there’s no heaven It’s easy if you try No hell below us Above us, only sky —John Lennon, Imagine, from the album Imagine Bertrand Russell once said, “Atheism is what happens when you read the bible. Christianity is what happens when someone else reads it to you.” And Mark Twain said, “No amount of evidence will ever persuade an idiot.” Neil deGrasse Tyson asked: Does it mean, if you don’t understand something, and the community of physicists don't understand it, that means God did it?... If that‘s how you want to invoke your evidence for God, then God is an ever-receding pocket of scientific ignorance that’s getting smaller and smaller and smaller as time moves on. I think I was twenty, fifty years ago, when I realized the lies I had been told. To be fair, I don’t think the liars actually knew they were lying. With that said, perhaps by definition that wasn’t actually lying. I’ll give you an example: God is good .  I remember a Thanksgiving meal ...

  Week Twenty-nine: You are My Sunshine You are my sunshine, My only sunshine You make me happy when skies are gray You’ll never know, dear, how much I love you Please don’t take my sunshine away —Jimmie Davis, You are My Sunshine, from the album Still Bill As the weeks rolled by, and I published one after the next entry in what I call This is Where I’ve Been , I began to hear from our eldest granddaughter, Anna. She was asked if reading the entries made her cry. She told my wife, “I’ll cry when he uses our song.” Although it caught me off guard, with a little thought “our song” (and we have been through countless examples in her twenty-four years) could only be one song. First performed in the 1920’s You are My Sunshine has many verses, each describing romantic love, but for a grandfather (eighty years after this song was first sung) who only knows the lyrics to You’re a Grand Ole Flag, Happy Birthday, and most of the songs first sung by the Beatles, You are My Sunshine is the p...