I love country music. I haven't always loved it; the twang used to bother me. Now I love it. If you have to be barreling down the LA freeway at breakneck speeds, sharing the road with two or three million other drivers, well, there's something comforting about having Martina McBride belting out "Ride" from the radio. Or Chely Wright singing "Shut Up and Drive". Or Blake Shelton mourning the loss of the woman he thought would never leave him as he goes "flyin' down the highway" looking for her.
Country songs tell stories about a different way of life - porch swings, pick up trucks, country roads. Broken hearts aren't unique to country people but nobody sings about them like country singers do. It's a far cry from life here in a big city. Oddly, although there are 52 radio stations in LA, there is only ONE country music station.* It went off the air for a while, "when the station's parent company decided that country was not the most lucrative format for ethnically mixed Los Angeles (this, despite that Los Angeles is reported to be one of the top markets for country music CDs and concerts)".
I, for one, am glad for a little bit of country in the city. May KKGO live long and prosper.
I stand corrected: KFROG is also present here in SoCal - and fortunately the two stations have commercials at different times!
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Monday, January 12, 2009
Give us THIS day...
As a teacher and a parent one of the things I've learned over time is the importance of teaching children how to solve problems. Instead of jumping in and giving them a solution or telling them what to do, it is far better to help them analyze the steps to solving it themselves. It starts when they are little and cleaning their room seems overwhelming to them. Helping them see that picking up the dirty laundry, then the books, then the toys, then making the bed are all manageable tasks in themselves. That impossible load of projects in high school or that research paper in college submits to the same process with the addition of budgeting time for each task and sticking to it.
Lately there have been a few problems that have cropped up in my own life that at first glance threaten to overwhelm me. I could see the "desired outcome" in each case but fell sadly short when looking at my own ability to achieve it. In some of the situations there really isn't anything I can DO to solve the problem but even praying for a solution seemed to require more faith than I possess. It occurred to me this morning that I need to back up and do the same thing I've preached to the kids for so long - one step at a time.
I don't have the wisdom to deal with some of the problems of life or the things my kids struggle with. I wish I could be the mom who always has the right answer or the woman who knows exactly how to deal with the renter who is out of work and can't pay the rent. But I can pray for the words to encourage today. I can pray for the wisdom to deal with that next phone call or that next situation. It occurred to me as I was mulling this over that that is exactly what Jesus taught us when He taught us to pray: "Give us this day our daily bread." He didn't say to pray for the ability to provide for our needs for the rest of our lives - He wants us to live in daily dependence on the Father's provision. He also said "Don't worry about tomorrow because tomorrow will have it's own share of problems." As we live this moment in faith and dependence on Him, He will tunnel the way through the problem. He doesn't even need me to figure out where that tunnel is leading!
My faith may not be big enough to move a mountain, but it is big enough to pray for that next spade-full of dirt.
Lately there have been a few problems that have cropped up in my own life that at first glance threaten to overwhelm me. I could see the "desired outcome" in each case but fell sadly short when looking at my own ability to achieve it. In some of the situations there really isn't anything I can DO to solve the problem but even praying for a solution seemed to require more faith than I possess. It occurred to me this morning that I need to back up and do the same thing I've preached to the kids for so long - one step at a time.
I don't have the wisdom to deal with some of the problems of life or the things my kids struggle with. I wish I could be the mom who always has the right answer or the woman who knows exactly how to deal with the renter who is out of work and can't pay the rent. But I can pray for the words to encourage today. I can pray for the wisdom to deal with that next phone call or that next situation. It occurred to me as I was mulling this over that that is exactly what Jesus taught us when He taught us to pray: "Give us this day our daily bread." He didn't say to pray for the ability to provide for our needs for the rest of our lives - He wants us to live in daily dependence on the Father's provision. He also said "Don't worry about tomorrow because tomorrow will have it's own share of problems." As we live this moment in faith and dependence on Him, He will tunnel the way through the problem. He doesn't even need me to figure out where that tunnel is leading!
My faith may not be big enough to move a mountain, but it is big enough to pray for that next spade-full of dirt.
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Beauty or Blindness
It was a perfect spring day. The air was still and so soft it felt like a caress on my skin. The sky was blue, the sun shining and flowers blooming everywhere. Never mind that it was the day after Christmas and most of the country was locked in ice and snow. This is southern California and days like this are more the rule than the exception.
My Midwestern sensibilities, used to frigid temps at this time of year, are still not used to this glory and as Pete and I took our morning walk through the neighborhood I studied the faces of those we met to see if they, too, were glorying in the perfection of the morning. Everyone seemed preoccupied except for a single bike rider who pedaled along the street with a smile on her face. Perhaps it was due to some other cause - I don't know. I like to think she was enjoying the perfect morning, too.
A question that has been rattling around in my brain lately has to do with how we experience beauty. Is it possible to be surrounded by beauty and not even notice it? Shortly after this I received an email, one of those internet stories that goes around. I'm never sure if they are true or not and since this particular one was quite amazing, I checked it out on Snopes.com. Not only is it true, but I discovered that it didn't even tell half the story!
The story takes place in Washington, DC during the morning rush hour at one of the Metro stops. In an attempt to answer the question "What do people do when they encounter beauty in unexpected places?", the Washington Post had staged an experiment. They recruited Joshua Bell to get off the Metro train, position himself in the station and play his violin. They tried to figure out ahead of time what might happen and their predictions included trying to manage the crowds that they thought might congregate. So here's what happens: one of the greatest violinists in the world plays three of the most complex pieces of music ever composed on a $3.5 million Stradivarius, filling the Metro station with music for nearly an hour. Of the hundreds of people who passed during that time one man stopped to listen, one person recognized Joshua Bell and stopped and three different children tried to stop to listen but were hurried along by their parents. One person, stopped by a reporter and questioned later, could not even remember that someone had been playing the violin in the station.
The article that was written describing the experiment is archived at the Washington Post website. The title of the article is "Pearls Before Breakfast" and I highly recommend reading the entire article as the author won a Pulitzer Prize for the work. The interesting part is the evalution of the experiment - what does this really tell us? That we are oblivious of beauty? That the context of the beauty matters? Does it really tell us anything? Very thought-provoking writing.
Last night Pete, Becca and I went to Corona, CA, for a George Winston concert. The minute he touched the keyboard I was blown away by the beauty and complexity of his music. We've listened to his CDs for years but somehow hearing it "in person" is a different experience. Although the pleasure of the music is an experience, perhaps the greatest thing I carried away from the evening is a sense of awe at the things the human brain can do. I cannot imagine the neural connections that have to take place simultaneously for someone to produce that kind of music. Song after song on piano, guitar and even harmonica - all without a score, flowing out of his memory, controlling his muscles to produce that incredible music. I fall down in awe before a God that can create a talent like that. In all honesty, the ordinary things we do each day are no less wonder-full. Sometimes exposure to the greater wonder helps us extrapolate backwards to see the wonder of the lesser also.
Anne, lying in the sunshine on our balcony, just said, "Man, it is just perfect out here!" Time to grab my book and bask in the beauty. The economy may be crumbling and times are uncertain but there are still riches all around us. I give thanks to the Giver.
My Midwestern sensibilities, used to frigid temps at this time of year, are still not used to this glory and as Pete and I took our morning walk through the neighborhood I studied the faces of those we met to see if they, too, were glorying in the perfection of the morning. Everyone seemed preoccupied except for a single bike rider who pedaled along the street with a smile on her face. Perhaps it was due to some other cause - I don't know. I like to think she was enjoying the perfect morning, too.
A question that has been rattling around in my brain lately has to do with how we experience beauty. Is it possible to be surrounded by beauty and not even notice it? Shortly after this I received an email, one of those internet stories that goes around. I'm never sure if they are true or not and since this particular one was quite amazing, I checked it out on Snopes.com. Not only is it true, but I discovered that it didn't even tell half the story!
The story takes place in Washington, DC during the morning rush hour at one of the Metro stops. In an attempt to answer the question "What do people do when they encounter beauty in unexpected places?", the Washington Post had staged an experiment. They recruited Joshua Bell to get off the Metro train, position himself in the station and play his violin. They tried to figure out ahead of time what might happen and their predictions included trying to manage the crowds that they thought might congregate. So here's what happens: one of the greatest violinists in the world plays three of the most complex pieces of music ever composed on a $3.5 million Stradivarius, filling the Metro station with music for nearly an hour. Of the hundreds of people who passed during that time one man stopped to listen, one person recognized Joshua Bell and stopped and three different children tried to stop to listen but were hurried along by their parents. One person, stopped by a reporter and questioned later, could not even remember that someone had been playing the violin in the station.
The article that was written describing the experiment is archived at the Washington Post website. The title of the article is "Pearls Before Breakfast" and I highly recommend reading the entire article as the author won a Pulitzer Prize for the work. The interesting part is the evalution of the experiment - what does this really tell us? That we are oblivious of beauty? That the context of the beauty matters? Does it really tell us anything? Very thought-provoking writing.
Last night Pete, Becca and I went to Corona, CA, for a George Winston concert. The minute he touched the keyboard I was blown away by the beauty and complexity of his music. We've listened to his CDs for years but somehow hearing it "in person" is a different experience. Although the pleasure of the music is an experience, perhaps the greatest thing I carried away from the evening is a sense of awe at the things the human brain can do. I cannot imagine the neural connections that have to take place simultaneously for someone to produce that kind of music. Song after song on piano, guitar and even harmonica - all without a score, flowing out of his memory, controlling his muscles to produce that incredible music. I fall down in awe before a God that can create a talent like that. In all honesty, the ordinary things we do each day are no less wonder-full. Sometimes exposure to the greater wonder helps us extrapolate backwards to see the wonder of the lesser also.
Anne, lying in the sunshine on our balcony, just said, "Man, it is just perfect out here!" Time to grab my book and bask in the beauty. The economy may be crumbling and times are uncertain but there are still riches all around us. I give thanks to the Giver.
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