Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Who do you love...

I LOVE George Throgood's version of the old Bo Didley classic: Who Do You Love? I LOVE bar bands - I LOVE down and dirty rock and roll - and I LOVE the spirituality of Johnny Cash!

And the reason I am blasting this all too obvious news to you is because today - once again - I was given another opportunity to laugh at myself. I was walking into the store to pick up my wife when a young white man, really beaten up with a blistering black eye, waved at me and said, "Hey man... how are you?" He was a tough little dude so I noted that I was "cool" when he said, "Wait, man... do you know that you look like that movie star.. what's his name?" Now, that opened a HOST of possibilities: some say EC...

Others have suggested Tim Curry, but my main main said, "Oh wait, man, I know: Dennis Leary." Now I LOVE the work of Dennis Leary on "Rescue Me" - it is the most insightful show about men that I know - but really! So I smiled at the two middle aged women watching this show, gave my brother a "power to the people" raised fist and walked into the store to pick up my wife.

Like many things these days, this just made me laugh. I WISH I was as hot as Dennis Leary. I am amazed that someone mistook me for him. And I recall Johnny Cash saying one time that he was glad that he had found his true self - clean and sober and totally in love with June - but still, sometimes he missed the buzz of the drugs! In other words, he was humbled by the totality of his humanity: the light and the darkness, the sadness and the celebrations, the good days and those that are full of shit that are all wrapped up together.

So, as I get ready to celebrate my 57th birthday, I am with brother Cash: life is too damn funny to take myself too seriously - you can laugh or you can cry - and I choose to laugh. And then strap on my electric guitar from time to time and play a round of "Who Do You Love?" Or "Not Fade Away" or even "Mona." Life is good and I am grateful for the gift of laughter and rock and roll, the love my dear wife shares with me, the blessings of my children, the grace of God and the chance to serve an all too human congregation.

2 comments:

don-E Merson said...

I still vote for EC lookalike but DC is the most profound warrior on TV now far and away. Did you catch the episode last night? Very powerful. My favorite line="Either that or we all are just a bunch of big pussies." They got the make you laugh when you are holding back tears thing down.

RJ said...

Yeah.. it is the BEST thing around and I saw it last night. Tore me up when he was burning himself... "yeah, you bleed just to know you're alive!" Freakin' brilliant.

lent four: god so loved the kosmos...

Text: John 3: 14-21: And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes i...