2catsdriving

May 27, 2017

RIP Gregg Allman

“Will the Circle be Unbroken”

Performed by Gregg Allman

There have been many verses written for the Gospel hymn “Will the Circle be Unbroken.” The original was written in 1907 by Ada R. Habershon, with music by Charles H. Gabriel, but the song has been reworked and rewritten many times, most notably by The Carter Family. Among the probably hundreds of recordings of the song is this one, featuring Gregg Allman – founder of The Allman Brothers – from his first solo album, “Laid Back.”

Gregg Allman passed out of this life on Saturday, May 27, 2017.

May 22, 2017May 22, 2017

James Mercer Langston Hughes – (Feb 1, 1902 – May 22, 1967)

I, too, sing America.

I am the darker brother.

They send me to eat in the kitchen

When company comes,

But I laugh,

And eat well,

And grow strong.

Tomorrow,

I’ll be at the table

When company comes.

Nobody’ll dare

Say to me,

“Eat in the kitchen,”

Then.

Besides,

They’ll see how beautiful I am

And be ashamed—

I, too, am America.

April 30, 2017August 23, 2019

Stop for Flashing Lights

When I tell people I want to live in a school bus after I retire, reactions run the gamut. But it’s OK. I’ve already driven a bus – the bus I was riding home from school one Spring day in 1972, in 9th Grade. I wasn’t supervised at all, but only watched by the laughing and licensed bus driver who gave me her seat so that I could drive my own bus down my own street. Continue reading “Stop for Flashing Lights”

February 22, 2017May 22, 2017

Aunt Marcia – Family Vol. 4

My heart is breaking, but it’s not just for me. It is breaking for my mother’s brother Ken Viard, for Ken’s children Melissa and Carl (with whom, at some relatively minor physical distance, I grew up), for Melissa’s husband Jeff and Carl’s wife Agnes, and for all those who love Marcia Leete Worthen Viard, who, on Feb 22, 2017, passed into what awaits us all. Continue reading “Aunt Marcia – Family Vol. 4”

January 25, 2017August 23, 2019

A Woman & the Vegetable – Family Vol. 2

melon

Read up a bit on Ralph Waldo Emerson, an American essayist of the 19^th century, and you may run across this: “The greatest delight the fields and woods minister is the suggestion of an occult relation between man and the vegetable. I am not alone and unacknowledged. They nod to me and I to them.” Continue reading “A Woman & the Vegetable – Family Vol. 2”

January 17, 2017August 23, 2019

Regina quondam, regina futura – Family Vol. 3

beach-shells-edit “The best thing for being sad,” replied Merlyn, beginning to puff and blow, “is to learn something. That’s the only thing that never fails.”

Thus wrote Terence Hanbury White in The Once and Future King, first published in its entirety in 1958 – the year I turned 2. It will be just as true at the end of 2017, when I turn 61. Continue reading “Regina quondam, regina futura – Family Vol. 3”

December 25, 2016December 1, 2018

Spinning Our Plates

david-burlet-plate-spinning-act-plate-spinner-juggling-comedy-juggler-platos-chinos-malabares-giocoliere-piatti-cinesi-chinesische-platte-jongleur-zirkuskunstler-115 — David Burlet in his plate-spinning act. Plate spinners were among my favorite act on the old Ed Sullivan show. They defy the laws of nature, much as people do who battle mental illness.

Some people have such difficulty expressing their periodic chasms of vengeful depression, they take to the Internet looking for narratives they might adopt for their own. Now and then, reading through these portrayals of sub-flat-line despair, they shout, “That’s fantastic!”

This does not suggest any enthusiasm – not even for recovery. Part of depression is being willing to take on anything – even the misery of others – in an effort to fill the void with something other than deep, dull pain. Continue reading “Spinning Our Plates”

December 24, 2016December 1, 2018

Perhaps even more than this, Kelly was also known for rewriting Christmas carols. Continue reading ““Deck us all with Boston Charlie””

Author: 2catsdriving