i love r&b, soul, disco, and some classic rock.
one of my favorire songs is by al green, "let's stay together"......what do you like??
?
Dear Fellow Musicians,
Chamber music, in particular, piano quintets: those of Brahms, Franck, et al...absolutely ethereal..................... Many great examples several years ago at the Van Cliburn Piano Competition, in Fort Worth, Texas. It was quite revealing to see young pianists give bravura performances solo yet have difficulty getting the hang of ensemble interaction.
CoCo
dear friends,.
this has been a distressing 48 hours.
i cannot sleep because i do not have freeness of speech.
Dear TheKings and Apostate Kate,
So very, very good to hear from you both! With gratitude and utmost humility, I thank you for responding. Went to college in the 60's and was not too far from Haight-Ashbury. Be sure and wear some flowers in your hair! Love Tofu but don't get it nearly often enough. Consider me reminded. Wish ewe could see our wee lambs in the spring. As an artist, forever needing inspiration and a new vision, my current occupation as a BCP (bovine care provider) has me ensconced in the most incredibly gorgeous verdure imaginable. And the strident call of the seabirds chills, yes thrills, this ever-thirsting and happy "husband" of the meadow. I must needs away. Please savor the opening words of Shelley's "To a Skylark":
Hail to thee, blithe spirit!
Bird thou never wert,
That from heaven, or near it,
Pourest thy full heart
In profuse strains of unpremeditated art...
Till another time, dear kindred spirits!
CoCo
1) cologne, aerosol spray, solvent base products.
i am hypersensitive to solvents.
solvents used in aerosol sprays, cologne, perfumes affect my health.
Postscript: re the "seven roommates" --- it sounded as if I got rid of that many but not true. When I arrived we were put eight to a room (a very large room). Eventually it was the usual arrangement, i.e., two guys to a room. CoCo
has anyone ever successfully opened someone else's eyes?
.
.
Dear Friends,
I personally don't feel I can take any credit for "opening" another's eyes. Yet, as Lady Lee humbly admitted, she has planted seeds. So have I. I mentioned elsewhere that the first person to take me out in service forty years ago began (a year ago) sending me "seeds" of information, mostly from Randy and related stories about Terry, Tom, Nils and Sherry. That and the wealth of information afforded here on JWD, I pass on in bits and pieces to all I can. When ones close to me listen attentively and then say, 'I've never thought about it that way before', I feel that the benefits from this board, Freeminds, Ray Franz and more, are worth a million. And God keeps making it grow.
Yours truly,
CoCo
1) cologne, aerosol spray, solvent base products.
i am hypersensitive to solvents.
solvents used in aerosol sprays, cologne, perfumes affect my health.
Dear Friends,
Brother Knorr informed us that our own roommate could be bad association. He made it very clear that we should request a change of roommate (forget name of dept. run by G. Couch [Bethel Home? Homeland Security?]). I had seven roommates. Though marginally related, he also stated that wearing flared pants (by brothers) would be allowed only in one's own room or the adjoining hallway. One of my boldly-defiant roomies swaggered all the way to the factory---117 Adams St.---in sailor's bellbottoms. He was way before his time. I didn't request a new roommate.
Yours truly,
CoCo
thought id inject a bit of light hearted humor , any stories of elders who were unorthodox in a witness way , .
there was one elder in the hall i used to attend called ronnie [edit] , who i still like and admire as a person to this day , he was always very outspoken when he didnt agree with the society on there policy and doctrines and was pra, ctically opposed to bethel service , i remember him giving a talk on applying for bethel service in the km many years ago , and at the end of the talk he said joking with a wry smile , i dont know why any of the brothers would want to do that , sounds like slave labour to me, also whe he was conducting the revelation book study , when it talked about the seven plagues of god being fulfilled in a wt convention in ohio in 1919 , he turned round and said , i dont know where the society get all this from , ... .
he also had a very distinctive voice spoken thru pursed lips in a rasp like voice saying thats just stupid , whenever he didnt agree with the society and other elders , a great man in spite of his beliefs , he was one of the elders on my jc who srongly opposed my disfellowshipping , but he was overuled- .
Dear Friends,
An example of such an elder is referred to in IN SEARCH OF CHRISTIAN FREEDOM, by Ray Franz. It is especially meaningful to me as I knew Robert Lang at Bethel and of the situation regarding dangerous stairways, such as where I attended in Manhattan. There was controversy whether a df'd woman could be helped getting the baby carriage (baby on board) up the long and steep stairway. Some elders said NO because, as a df'd person, she should be considered as not even there. Br. Lang said, "I don't know what the rule is on this, I only know one thing: If I'm around when she starts pulling that carriage up the stairs, I'm going to help her! When I think of what could happen if she were to stumble and lose control of the carriage...."
"The most frightening thing about this is that adult men did not feel they could be guided by their own hearts and minds in a circumstance so obviously calling for human kindness. The pressing concern for them was---not the danger to the infant's life---but what the organization policy allowed in such cases. They gave evidence of having become emasculated in matters of ethics, of right and wrong." Franz states in a related footnote that Lang was the kind of person he was, "not because of the organization, but in spite of the organization."
After a df'd friend saved my life, any vacillating notions of "theocratic" procedure I still held to were gone for good.
Yours truly,
CoCo
dear friends,.
this has been a distressing 48 hours.
i cannot sleep because i do not have freeness of speech.
Dear and kind THEKINGS,
Your mention of a little whimsy never hurting anyone was spot on! Arthur's comment was a funny breath of fresh air that helped to lighten my momentarily burdened heart ( I don't imbibe [much], Arthur! ). I was thinking of Percy Bysshe Shelley's "To a Skylark" but waxed eloquent with my own little ditty about the winged creatures that I truly do listen for daily as I work in my meadow caring for real, flesh and blood beasties. It is incongruous, I suppose, for a Mediterranean to aspire to the heights of English poetry. Also, the loving and warmly-reassuring words of Fullofdoubtnow, Mouthy, Jgnat and others, provided the solace I needed. Surely, too, your kind words are comforting me.
As to your comment on understanding how I feel: to watch our loved-ones, whether related by flesh and blood or simply by the spirit, engage in a mis-directed, supposedly God-ordained noble deed, is excruciatingly difficult to bear. Comments as diverse as those from AuldSoul, Skally, and yes, Arthur, have become part of my spiritual arsenal, used to reason with those dear ones whose souls have become bound up with my own. I am getting through, but it's on the basis of universal and timeless principles of spirituality and unfettered love, that transcend the pettiness and cruelty of that religious system we have fled. Your reply, TheKings, has cheered me. Peace and love to you,
Yours truly,
CoCo
dear john: .
i want a man who knows what love is all about.
you are generous, kind, thoughtful.
Dear Clam,
I recall these little gems from RIPLEY'S BELIEVE IT OR NOT years ago:
Pardon, impossible to be sent to Siberia.
Pardon impossible, to be sent to Siberia.
And with your indulgence, some French homonyms:
Massacrez tous [kill everyone].
Ma sacre' toux [my d_ _n cough].
As the tale was told regarding the same-sounding words, a general was cursing his persistent cough, and an underling mistook those words as an order to shoot everyone. Believe it or not!
Yours truly,
CoCo
so, 75% of the world's population is religious, believes in a higher power.
how can they all be wrong?
in the early 1600s, a great deal of controversy surrounded one particular astronomer.
Dear Daystar,
This is a topic near and dear to my heart. I am currently engaged in reading Dava Sobel's GALILEO'S DAUGHTER and rereading her expert treatise on 'a lone genius who solved the greatest scientific problem of his time' : LONGITUDE. That lone genius was John Harrison. Both he and Galileo studied the realities of the universe, made remarkable discoveries, and suffered for the mere proclamation and attempted implementation of said discoveries. Whether it was the Church, the Admiralty, or the Astronomer Royal, these two men fought against bias, Church "truths" and corruptible, or at least misled, men with agendas.
I have to include a passage from LONGITUDE which bears directly on one's knowing the truth of a matter yet putting oneself at great risk for acting in accord with facts: "Only two men washed ashore alive. One was Sir Clowdisley himself, who may have watched the fifty-seven years of his life flash before his eyes as the waves carried him home. Certainly he had time to reflect on the events of the previous twenty-four hours, when he made what must have been the worst mistake in judgment of his naval career. He had been approached by a sailor, a member of the ASSOCIATION's crew, who claimed to have kept his own reckoning of the fleet's location during the whole cloudy passage. Such subversive navigation by an inferior was forbidden in the Royal Navy, as the unnamed seaman well knew. However, the danger appeared so enormous, by his calculations, that he risked his neck to make his concerns known to the officers. Admiral Shovell had him hanged on the spot." Moving ahead of the ORGANIZATION?
Well, Daystar, I am going to spend some time considering your questions, vis-a-vis the old standard "But 50-million [ fill in the blank ] can't be wrong." I hope the above information has piqued your curiosity regarding other sources available on your subject. Perhaps, though, you are already familar with Ms. Sobel's eminent work.Till later,
Yours truly,
CoCo
dear friends,.
my favorite poem is not in vain by emily dickinson:.
if i can stop one heart from breaking,.
Dear fellow poet, SF:
I cannot believe that your response led me to Mary Howitt's "The Spider and the Fly" and Clement Moore's "The Night Before Christmas". I have the leather-clad book of poems from which your mother read to you! It is entitled ONE HUNDRED AND ONE FAMOUS POEMS, published by The Cable Company, 301 So. Wabash Ave., Chicago, Illinois, 1926.
PREFACE: A SPIRIT of daring out of all proportion to any hope of gain must at times possess a publisher. You doubtless have heard the story of the "One Hundred and One Best Songs"; how its publishers printed several hundred thousand books in order that they might be sold at a price so low as to enable every child to have one. That, likewise, is the aim of this collection."
The immortal words of Shelley, Emerson, Longfellow, Poe and Sandburg. How much greater an impact these sublime thoughts than those of JFR's CHILDREN! I hope somehow to share more of this precious jewel with you in future. Peace and love.
Yours truly,
CoCo
