Nobody knows you......

A few weeks ago, I posted on Facebook:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owOGDEJr3ts (Eric Clapton's Signe, the first song on the 1992 Unplugged CD) and posted with it "a hard song to learn....but I'll get it figured out:"
Varda Epstein ask "You know how to play guitar and I didn't know".  My answer to her was it didn't come up much and that "I've been playing guitar on and off since I was 11 years old"...more off than on over the years.

Playing Guitar is like riding a bike...you never truly forget but you do lose the sharpness you once played with.  There was one song on Eric Clapton's Unplugged CD that I always liked. "Nobody knows you when your down and out" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5aDykZEATzk  I have always liked music that speaks about the human condition and that song speaks volumes about the human condition.  I've always wanted to learn that song but in the 21 years since that CD came out, I've just never taken the time to do it.  I used to play guitar by ear.  I played pretty much anything I wanted without looking at music.  I remember sitting in my room at age 15 in the dark, playing something from John Denver and not missing a note...those days are long gone.  I've watched Eric's unplugged DVD and he played with such ease and he never misses note.  I envy his talent.  I'll never play that good ever again but now that the callouses are back on my left finger tips, I play a little every day just to keep my fingers in good shape. It was very painful to play enough to get callouses again. I don't think I want to lose those.

I learned to play guitar in the summer of 1974, using a black Les Paul copy without the aid of an amplifier. My hair was a great deal longer than it is now and my parent's didn't have central air conditioning at the time. I played a good bit until I got married in 1982. At that point all my money went to my new family.  I purchased a great many guitars over the years. a 12 string guitar for a great price because the neck was warped. I also purchased another Gibson Les Paul copy from J.C. Penny's. I lived in Fairbanks/North Pole AK at the time. While speaking with the J.C. Penny's catalog customer service person, I told the woman my name was Johnny Massengill and I lived in North Pole AK, Zip Code 99702. She said "Come on [so and so] stop joking with me"....and I had to break it to her that YES, I was Johnny Massengill, Airman First Class in the U.S.A.F. and that I really did live in North Pole AK and I did want the Sunburst orange Les Paul copy that was in the Christmas Catalog....she was a bit "gobsmacked" on the other end of the phone. I've never hear ANYONE apologize so much as that poor woman from J.C. Penny's did.  The guitar was beautiful but beauty doesn't make a guitar sound good.  It would seem that my Sunburst orange Les Paul copy wasn't made to exacting standards and the neck was out of tune with itself because the frets were not spaced as they should have been.  I could never get it in tune.  In 1987, when I moved to SC, I purchased an Aria Acoustic Guitar from Shaw Gate Pawn shop, right outside the front gate of Shaw AFB. It is still there and I got to be pretty good friends with the owners in the years that I lived in Sumter, SC. Someplace along the line I got a Fender Squire electric guitar. It is Fender's cheaper copy of their own Stratocaster, Much like the Epiphone Les Paul is a cheaper copy of Gibson's own Les Paul.  Gibson owns Epiphone so they get to make the cheaper versions of the Les Paul.

I do believe the Fender Squire and the Sunburst orange Les Paul copy both got taken to the pawn shop when money got tight. The Aria almost met the same fate but I got talked out of giving that guitar up.  It was hard to see them go out of my hand to the pawn shop but I needed the money SO badly at the time.

The Aria Acoustic Guitar is still with me. It looks like its been hit on the back of the neck with a hammer and it isn't pretty but it is one of the best playing Guitars I've ever played.  I let my Dad have it for a few months and he gave it back to me and it will stay with me until I'm in the ground. I also have a very nice copy of a round back Ovation (look up the guitar Melissa Etheridge plays.) and it plays very well and is a very comfortable guitar to hold and play.  I also have a Johnson Acoustic Guitar that I keep in the car for those days when I just need to get away from real life for a few seconds

I can think of only one guitar that I lack. A real Gibson Les Paul. I'm not sure why an old guy like me needs 4 guitars but I made myself a promise when I went in the Air Force that one day I would have a Gibson Les Paul. It hasn't happened yet but I'll get there.....

I first played a real Gibson Les Paul at Lynn's Guitars on Broadway in Knoxville in the mid 70's. It was a 1952 model Les Paul and it had had a hard life. It had nicks out of the paint and it didn't look good at all, but it PLAYED like a dream.  I've never played another guitar that fit my hands quite so good or maybe my old mind remembers it better than it really was.....  Today, in good condition that 1952 Gold Top Les Paul would pull down between $18,000 - $20,000

No more copies for me.  If I shell out the cash for another Les Paul it will be a true Gibson...

One day before they put me in the ground....one day.

J.

How time changes things

Depending on where you are at on the timeline of life might determine how you react to things that happen around you.

 

In my late teens, I was short with most anyone and like any teen, I thought I knew it all.... I sometimes think that is a right of passage we all go through.  

Take Randi, for instance.  I've know her since I was in my late 30's and I remember the first time I ask her to close a room door in my house. She closed it but didn't push it all the way latched.  Because of the influence of the U.S. Air Force in my life, it was either totally open or totally closed and I ask her to close it "all the way" and she did.  I'll never forget that moment.  As we have grown together, things have changed a bit.  One day at work, we somehow started discussing what would make us miss our husband or wife if they passed away suddenly.   For me, it was easy. Randi had some of her clothes in the hall closet of our old house. I could always tell when she had been in that closet, she would close the door but she wouldn't shut it "all the way".  I KNEW that 98% of the time that I put my hand on that closet door, it would shut "all the way" with a small push. 

When we moved to our new house in 2010, I told her "I wonder which closet you won't close all the way in the new house".  I could think of a few closets that might be in the running. The linen closet down the hall, any of the bedroom closets OR the Master bedroom closet.... Well, the Master Bedroom closet won out. 

I could have let her habit get under my skin but now it reminds me of the funny, silly Nurse, I married.   It is a a unique Randiism that reminds me of her and makes me smile

I was once so uptight that I thought about unimportant things way too much and didn't give enough thought about the important stuff.  I was missing the good stuff in life by being tripped up by the little background noises of life.  

Knowing what you can and can't change in life is very important and I know I'll never get Randi to close the Master Bedroom closet "all the way" but....its okay, I wouldn't want to change a thing......

J. 

Ich bin ein Juden

Ich bin ein Juden.  

To borrow from John F. Kennedy's famous speech to West Berlin on June 26, 1963. I must say "I am a Jew".  I don't have Jewish blood lines and I didn't convert to the Jewish faith, but , from a standpoint of support and beliefs about the Jewish Homeland and the right of the Jewish people to live in the small bit of land called Israel, I stand shoulder to shoulder with my Jewish brothers and sisters.  They have a historic right to the land and that history is twisted at every turn to try and wrestle away that historic right.

I believe that the Jews are God's chosen people as is related in Deuteronomy 7:6 "For thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God: the Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth." and is also spoken of in Genesis 12:2-3 "2 And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:3 And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed."

The recent talks between Israel and The Palestinian Authority being overseen by U.S. Secretary of State, John F. Kerry includes all the items such talks have included before. A release of prisoners, a retraction to the borders of 1967. If any State outside of the U.S. suggested to us to release all manor of murders and terrorist back into society, we would tell them that there is no way in hell that such a release would be allowed to happen, yet Israel is always ask to release prisoners and/or land as a way to seek peace.  The 104 people who are being released from Israeli custody have taken countless lives, some of them American Citizens and the people of Israel are outraged by this being approved by Israeli Prime Minister, Binyamin Netanyahu.  I can understand their frustration with the leader of their country selling out for the purpose of "peace". I am also outraged the USA has a hand in asking for release of people who killed Americans. This should not happen, EVER. 

The PLO charter STILL speaks of the elimination of the Jewish State and has not been changed. Article 15 of the PLO charter states "The liberation of Palestine, from an Arab viewpoint, is a national (qawmi) duty and it attempts to repel the Zionist and imperialist aggression against the Arab homeland, and aims at the elimination of Zionism in Palestine. Absolute responsibility for this falls upon the Arab nation - peoples and governments - with the Arab people of Palestine in the vanguard. Accordingly, the Arab nation must mobilize all its military, human, moral, and spiritual capabilities to participate actively with the Palestinian people in the liberation of Palestine. It must, particularly in the phase of the armed Palestinian revolution, offer and furnish the Palestinian people with all possible help, and material and human support, and make available to them the means and opportunities that will enable them to continue to carry out their leading role in the armed revolution, until they liberate their homeland."  Another note on that webpage states "however, that the PLO's translation sometimes deviates from the original Arabic so as to be more palatable to Western readers. For example, in Article 15, the Arabic is translated as "the elimination of Zionism," whereas the correct translation is "the liquidation of the Zionist presence." "The Zionist presence" is a common Arabic euphemism for the State of Israel, so this clause in fact calls for the destruction of Israel, not just the end of Zionism."  

How in the world can you have a two state solution for peace when the other side is calling for your "liquidation" or "elimination"????? You can't. Its as simple as that.  

On The Patriot's Corner blog  there are a collection of verses "♦ From the Qur’an:
Qur'an (16:106) - Establishes that there are circumstances that can "compel" a Muslim to tell a lie.
Qur'an (3:28) - This verse tells Muslims not to take those outside the faith as friends, unless it is to "guard themselves." 
Qur'an (9:3) - "...Allah and His Messenger are free from liability to the idolaters..." The dissolution of oaths with the pagans who remained at Mecca following its capture. They did nothing wrong, but were evicted anyway.
Qur'an (40:28) - A man is introduced as a believer, but one who must "hide his faith" among those who are not believers.
Qur'an (2:225) - "Allah will not call you to account for thoughtlessness in your oaths, but for the intention in your hearts"
Qur'an (66:2) - "Allah has already ordained for you, (O men), the dissolution of your oaths"
Qur'an (3:54) - "And they (the disbelievers) schemed, and Allah schemed (against them): and Allah is the best of schemers." The Arabic word used here for scheme (or plot) is makara, which literally means deceit. If Allah is deceitful toward unbelievers, then there is little basis for denying that Muslims are allowed to do the same. (See also 8:30 and 10:21)
Taken collectively these verses are interpreted to mean that there are circumstances when a Muslim may be "compelled" to deceive others for a greater purpose."

Hmmmm its pretty hard to have a peace settlement with a group that can deceive you and dissolve oaths according to the words of their holy book???

All of that is pretty heavy stuff and I'm ashamed that my elected government has and has had a hand in pushing the people of Israel toward a peace table to deal with a group that wants them wiped off the face of the earth.....*head spinning around in confusion and shock*

I have seen ""can't we all just coexist"  bumper stickers but it is darned hard to "coexist" with a group that chants "Death to Israel, Death to America" someplace in the Middle East on a daily basis.  This isn't just about Israel but it is also about the good old USA too and very few Americans seem to realize this fact.

I'm not usually prone to political rants BUT, I believe our great country, The USA, is going down the drain and our treatment of Israel is one of the biggest reason for this.

Regardless of  what I think, God knows more about the outcome of all of this than I can even begin to form in my mind, but where it relates to the Jewish people and the Jewish homeland and the right of the Jewish people to occupy that homeland, I can say proudly, "I am a Jew"

J.