As noted in  the introduction, a few close friends have suggested i record some of my poetry on this site. Here one is. If you like it, let me know, and i will record some more.

Thanks.

i put a bunch photos here to celebrate our anniversary Monday. But i had already posted about our anniversary, so i began deleting the photos this morning to write on a different subject.

Then i stopped.

After all, she is magic. Unconditional love. That’s Maureen. It’s payback with me. We are different in many ways, but as i told my brother and sister, the two of us are so locked in we give each other crap for our differences and then we laugh together. Yep. Magic.

So here’s what i didn’t delete:

Magic.

As you might have noticed, i have not been in a particularly good mood today. Without taking any pot shots at anyone else, i was grumbling as i moved about the house this morning and early afternoon.

Of course, i took on a task to worsen my mood. i don’t know if you might have tried this, but if not, avoid at all costs re-gripping a putter with a wood shaft with a leather grip that has been in place for oh, about thirty years. About that long ago, Maureen and i went to a golf store to buy her father a left-handed wood mallet putter with the Saint Andrews logos. In the course of the purchase, Maureen picked up a wood shafted putter and walked over to the indoor putting green and sunk about thirty putts or so with no misses. Done. We walked away with two hundred smackers worth of putters. Ray loved his and Maureen’s putting has become legendary, so it was worth it, but i was gulping at the time.

Needless to say, today it didn’t feel like the two hours plus i spent on a task it takes me about ten minutes with newer metal and graphite shafts. i will find out if it was worth it when we play on Tuesday. i’m betting if she misses some putts it will be my fault for putting on the new grip.

So i come into the house for more chores.

And then, came peace and calm.

As i do all too rarely, i pulled out a two record LP, which was Maureen’s before we got married. i now claim it. i had never heard of Keith Jarrett, much less had a clue Kõln was a city in Germany. That’s where Jarrett sat down at a grand piano before about a gazillion Germans in 1975. The Americanization of Kõln is Cologne and the performance was in the Kõln Opera House, and the gazillion was really about 1400  people jammed into the venue late, late at night.

There are a huge number of piano players in  this world. Good ones. i think favorites are a personal choice. My favorites do not keep me from listening and enjoying other pianists (there is a great joke about this only eclipsed by the story of Maureen trying to tell the joke, which i undoubtedly will post here later). Bill Evans immediately comes to my mind. Then there is Ray Bryant, still the one i could listen to all the time. George Winston’s new age stuff is relaxing, and Granny Prichard and Aunt Gussie (she and her children preferred her to be called Barbara) who could play…what should i call it? honky tonk gospel piano, which i loved.

But Jarrett and the Kõln concert is something else. i put it on and i am entranced. Chores, television watching, book and blog writing, reading stop. Stop. i listen. i am calm. i am at peace. i am entranced.

i am not providing a link here. You can find it easy enough and there is a free copy to listen to on youtube. That is for you to decide.

But it the midst of all that is going on in this world, i find Keith Jarrett and the Kõln concert something to take me away with artistry.

And make me smile in peace.

Now i am no longer in a position to address this as a general topic since i don’t go to church unless i’m back home in Lebanon, but i suspect what is going on down the hill and back up from our house at Corpus Christi Catholic Church will be pretty much true at most churches regardless of denomination.

Passing the church on Saturday afternoons and Sundays from about dawn until mid-afternoon, either on a walk/run or in my car, i am convinced there is an adjunct to church going. i think it’s vehicleligion (my word). From the way the attendees fight for parking spaces on the public roads closest to the church and even illegally put their vehicles in danger at all of the corners where they extend into the turn lanes, they must believe their vehicles get religion by osmosis and being closer to the sanctuary makes them better vehicleligionists (my word, again). i’ve seen them fight for parking spaces right in front of the church on Corral Canyon Road when there are numerous parking spaces in the church parking lot but would require them walking…oh about thirty more feet to the cathedral.

i’m guessing some come way early to get the prime spots and park in a way to keep anyone from parking close to their vehicle, thereby eliminating numerous spaces on the road from the excess space they take up. These folks, i’m guessing again, probably are the ones who emote grandly in the singing of hymns, who sit in the first couple of rows and nod their heads wisely, and put on this act of being pious. After all, their cars need religion too on Sundays.

But you know, people need religion. It might keep ’em straight, and i am glad they are going in droves to hear about Jesus. In many ways, i envy them their faith. Jesus was a good man with the right idea.

i’m just not sure all of the teachings  coming out of the sermon and the sacraments apply to cars, SUV’s, and trucks.

Apparently, i once again have missed something.