So here's a totally random question...

Ok, so here's a totally random question: for our Thanksgiving Eve show I like to throw in a few tunes that are just flat out FUN.  Precious little social significance and no theological depth - just flat out fun. - and abandon. For example, when we take up the collection for the emergency fuel assistance fund we're going to do Berry Gordy's "Money" - with a nod to the Flying Lizards - and our little guys will be playing "Twist and Shout" because... who can resist little guitar dudes making it happen, right?

In past year's we've added Chuck Berry's "Around and Around" or even Bobby Dylan's "Leopardskin Pillbox Hat." Well, this year I've got 8 other guitar dudes - and one guitar dudess - plus some KILLER singers coming so I've been wondering if we should add one of the following:

+ When guitar players get together, there HAS to be a blues jam, yes?  It can be mildly entertaining for the crowd but it is always deeply satisfying for the musicians.  This year I can't tell whether it should be Slim Harpo's "Baby Scratch My Back" or ZZ Top's "Jesus Just Left Chicago?"  Both are hot stuff... Here is a version of "Scratch My Back" that just keeps on smokin!

But then I can't get enough of the wild men from Texas either... and I have to make a choice between these or else this show will go on til midnight.  What do you think?

And then there is the feminist consideration - a unique problem in the realm of rock and roll, yes? - and important on a number of fronts - not the least because we have so many rockin' women playing with us this year. So I'm wondering what you think of adding "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" - especially this latter day version.  Cyndi Lauper just did a Rolling Stone interview about women being overlooked and damn... I KNOW girls just to have fun, too.

So is there any inspired wisdom out there?  Let me know... the show is Wednesday! On another front, I couldn't resist sharing Fr. Richard Rohr's Christ the King posting from earlier today.  It is right on the money...

Give  me your failure, God says, and I will make life out of it. Give me your broken,  disfigured, rejected, betrayed lives, like the body you see hanging on the  cross, and I will make life out of it. This is the divine pattern of promise  and transformation which gives such hope to history. It is probably the central  Gospel message.

We  are all still handicapped and terribly aware of our wounds, but as St.  Augustine (354-430)  says in his Confessions, "In my  deepest wound I saw Your glory and it dazzled me.” He seems to be saying that  against all expectations our very failures can be our way through to God and to  ourselves. That utterly levels the playing field. Even Julian of Norwich  (1342-1416) says,

God sees our wounds, and sees them  not as scars but as honors. . . . For God holds sin as a sorrow and pain to us.  He does not blame us for them.
~ Revelations of Divine Love, Chapter 39, Showing 13

If  the Gospel is true, we might eventually thank God for our very weaknesses and  failures.

Rock and roll and Christ the King - pretty random for some - but the heart of my world..

NOTE:  after practice we decided to bag ALL the fun options and go with beauty - with the exception of "Money."  Now that Charlie has joined the mix it will get even BETTER!