25 to Life

 

Been a while since I've talked about a song on this blog, so I thought I'd share this one...

If you have Apple Music, you can hear it here - 25 to Life

If you don't have it, you can also hear it here - YouTube

So - on to the lyrics... The hook absolutely caught me!

Momma wouldn't let me be a cowboy Couldn't pass in medicine and such

So here I am counting barrels Good ol' West Texas sludge

Okay - my first thought was he wanted to be a cowboy but, as we know, "Mamas don't let your babies grow up to be cowboys..." So he's working an oil field, right?

(side note - that link is to Ed Bruce, the original writer, along with his wife. As a songwriter myself, I like to hear the original intent... Remind me to share Poncho and Lefty with you sometime...)

But I'd rather be an outlaw Riding like Bonnie and Clyde

Instead I'm in this here high rise Doing 25 to life

Wait - he's in an office!?!?

This room is feeling like a cage Counting the numbers of my long and lonesome days

I punch out in fits of rage I gotta get out of this place

Yep - sounds like he's trapped for sure!

I could be out on the prairie Under the stars at night

Sitting with a guitar round a campfire Singing devil wears a suit and tie

My first thought is something like Roy Rogers sitting around a campfire. I've been known to play my guitar around a fire, too, back in the days when we used to go camping with friends. I'm a little old and broken for it now, but I very much enjoyed tent camping! Now we have a fire pit we can sit at out in the back yard, and I always have a guitar with me...

But I'd rather be an outlaw Riding like Bonnie and Clyde

Instead I'm in this here high rise Doing 25 to life

I pull this mask up on my face I'm back in my happy place

Riding again with the old gang Stealing hearts and taking names

Chorus again then a note about being an outlaw. Does he truly want to be a Bonnie & Clyde bank robber? I think it's more about the feeling of being free. Riding again with the old gang could just be old friends remembered in a more carefree time. The mask might not be an outlaw mask, but the 'face' he wore so long ago. Stealing hearts instead of money, taking names instead of jewelry. So many ways to 'read' that!

Then he changes the Chorus/Refrain...

But I'd rather be an outlaw Darlin', oh you'd be my side

We'd ride off into the sunset Doing 25 to life

You could be my Bonnie I would be your Clyde

We would not worry for money Into the sunset we'd ride

Doing 25 to life

It's clear he has a love interest, or at least the memory of one. Either way he's longing to just get out and away. Man! It's deep! The feeling of being trapped in an office building is very, very real.

Any interest in hearing the stories of some songs I've written? Comment and let me know...

Soul Oxygen

 

"I can’t expect any other person to be my soul oxygen..."

That's how the online devotional I read this morning starts. Interesting, but where is this person going?

The link to the full thing is below - take a look! It's from Lysa TerKeurst. I've not read any of her books, but Vanessa has, and thinks HIGHLY of her and her writing. I've heard heard on a podcast as well and ALWAYS enjoy it!

But this one's not for me, right? I am not 'dependent' on others for my 'soul oxygen,' right?

Well...

I want to pull this out...

"I don’t like to ache. In any way. One of my aches is from my deep Italian fondness for anything pasta. I mean for real, I love pasta, but it does not love me back. So, I have to make the choice not to risk the temporary pleasure of my taste buds for what will surely be hours of rebellion in my stomach. My flesh begs me to believe that short-term happiness is worth the long-term misery.

But I’ve discovered something about defeating the flesh. If I fill my stomach with healthy foods before being tempted with the pasta, I can say no. It’s so much easier to turn away a dish of pasta if you’re completely full already. But if you are desperately hungry, a dish of just about anything is hard to turn away. Our souls and our stomachs are alike in this way."

Okay - wow - yes, Lysa T., that's for me. No, not the food reference, LOL, but the fact that if I don't guard my heart and make sure it's filled with HIS love and guidance that I will tend to go off on my own, and we all know what happens when man is left to his own devices... See Adam, Cain, Lot, et al.

She also says, "When we have Christ, we are full — fully loved and accepted and empowered to say no.   This is true on the days we feel it and still true when we don’t feel Jesus’ love at all." Wow - what a reminder... It's like the preacher said during one of his latest 12 minute talks (LOL - inside joke there), the WORD is true when we feel it, and it's true when we don't feel it (okay, I'm paraphrasing). The fact that Jesus loves us is true at all times, and it's a belief and a knowledge, and NOT dependent on emotion or 'how we feel' that day.

So are you full? Or are you stuffing your soul trying to GET satisfied?

Toward the end, she writes...

"There is power in really knowing this. This isn’t dependent on what you’ve accomplished. Or on another person loving you or accepting you. Nor is it because you always feel full.

You are full, because Christ brought the fullness to you."

There it is! That's the crux of it! Just like Salvation itself, Christ brought it to us - it's a gift from Him - we just have to accept it. Easy? Not necessarily. The flesh is constantly at war with the spirit, but it doesn't change the simple truth!

God Bless YOU, gentle reader...

Full text here

Gencon 2021

Well, as I type this, Gencon 2021 is currently underway. I miss it. No ifs ands or buts about it, I miss it. Covid has done a number on things like this, so it wouldn't be the same experience even if it was where I could go this year. I hope my friends that do attend get to have a good time.

Meanwhile, I have a friend coming in from out of town this weekend as he's passing through from one job site to another and we are getting together to play some games! Just a quiet little thing, but I'll try to share some pics... He's a big x-wing fan and even provided me with my movement templates, focus tokens, etc. to use! Sadly, I've not TOUCHED my x-wing stuff other than to move the bags from the old white truck when I sold it to the Ford.

I plan to take Gaslands as well, so hopefully we'll get a chance to play that too... Randy has been a long time off and on player in my PBEM games, and we actually met in person in Indy a few years ago. He was working in Louisville, I think it was, and made the drive to Indy to meet me and Biff from Shuttle Tyderium podcast and some other local guys (all friendly, all accepting, and all fun to be around!) to play X-Wing at a local store. I remember it was raining as I drove from Kyle's house out to the game store.

Anyway, same guy - he's going out of his way to stop in Dyersburg so we can get together. Looking forward to it!!!

EDIT: Okay, no pics, but we had a blast! Played EPIC (huge ships)...

Social Media Fasting

I get several emails a day. Okay, that's a lie - I get DOZENS a day, sometimes hundreds. It very easy to let things slip through. There's one particular one I get that sometimes I skim just because it doesn't grab me. Well, this morning, this one grabbed me!!!

Turn Off the Tech

by Rebekah Lyons, from A Surrendered Yes

Also - you can find it at my favorite store here - A Surrendered Yes

I'm not sure if I'm allowed to copy/paste it all here, so I'll link to it... Read it all here

I'm gonna tell you now, this is a GREAT message! It sounds weird to be sharing this on a blog that I will instantly link to from Facebook and Twitter, but the truth is I don't 'hang out' on Facebook like I used to. I don't sign in to Four Square (I think that's what it was called) any more - I don't sign in on Facebook either, unless it's a movie or concert or something that I specifically WANT to share.

Now if you do this, or 'live on Facebook,' I'm not judging. To some people, that may be the only life they have, which makes it even MORE important to me that when I share something it's something worth sharing. I think this is one of those things. :-)

What's even more astounding is that I received a promotional email about this very same book and immediately went to Libby to see if it was available via the app from the library. Alas, it was not to be, but that's okay. And the fact that I read this devotion passage today BEFORE I knew it was from this book... Well... You might believe in coincidence. I don't. LOL

God Bless You and Keep You, Gentle Reader

The Avengers and The Bible

I just read a VERY interesting devotion in a book by Ed Strauss called The Super Heroes Devotional. 

It's about the Avengers - the movie version - and how Avenging is not something WE are to do, as avenging is something that is more akin to REVENGE than DEFENDING.

Strauss goes on to say that just because we are to 'turn the other cheek' and not seek personal retribution, it does not mean that evil gets to run rampant. There are laws and police officers and judges that are supposed to help maintain order by bringing social punishment to those that break the law. This is not something I had actually put thought to, but it's true!

What about personal protection? In this day and age of 'guns are bad' it can be socially UN-acceptable to take responsibility for your personal or family's protection, but I maintain that this is NOT avenging in the sense of revenge, but is protecting from evil by stopping a threat.

A fellow church member said very tongue in cheek to me, "the Bible says to carry a gun!" When asked to elaborate he quoted this from Luke 22, verse 36 - "he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one." Yes, he meant that particular quote as tongue in cheek, but at the same time as Strauss points out, we are defenders as described in Psalm 82:3 NIV - "Defend the weak and the fatherless; uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed."

So in addition to being defenders of the faith, I believe we are correct in being prepared to defend the weak. Who is the weak? Anyone that faces a deadly threat! If they were stronger than the threat, it would not be a grave or deadly threat.

Old stuff...

Talk about ramblings! 

I found an old draft of a post here where I had made mention of things I wanted to 'talk about...' In no certain order...

We had gone North to see Kyle and family. I found some bronze age issues I was looking for. I don't know now what they were, but that's exciting finding stuff "in the wild." Here lately with other hobbies and especially house repairs that need to be made, I've not 'enjoyed' my comics like I used to. The Doomsday Clock 12 issue was a GREAT read, as well as Heroes in Crisis, but a lot of the other stuff just didn't stick with me... I even subbed to DC Ultimate for a few months to catch up on Flash and Green Lantern. I hate to say it, but it just didn't hold me...

The notes also mentioned watching Vanessa fly her drone in Kentucky. That must have been at Owensboro. It is REALLY a very pretty place! When we went to Kyle's over the summer we stopped there on the trip back and got a hotel room overlooking the water. We had supper from the in house restaurant (chicken fingers/strips) and ate on the patio. VERY very nice. Thanks, babe, for a wonderful time!

Looks like I mentioned the THIRD season of The Flash television show. LOL - I think they just finished season SEVEN, so yeah, that's some old notes... I noted that the first episode was called Flashpoint and the second was called Paradox. I thought it was cool how they got the name of the animated show in there. :-) If you haven't seen said show, check it out!

I had watched Steampunk'd on Netflix as well. Though I'm not one for 'reality' shows, I really enjoyed this! I had planned to do some Steampunk stuff for cosplay, but never got around to it. Last year for Halloween, though, I did make a Golden Age Flash (Jay Garrick, from the comics) outfit to wear to school. :-) Had planned to wear it to Superman Days, but it was delayed for Covid and the weekend they were having it didn't work out for us.

Looks like the game Unspeakable Words came in around these notes as well. It was a kickstarter that I did in hopes of having it for playing at Thanksgiving. Well, it was delayed a LOT, but I finally got it, and I don't think we've played a full game of it yet. :-(

But Saturday night is game night at Tammy's house, so maybe I can remember to take it and we can give it a try then!

Ramblings...

 Well, the church has a new web page, thanks to Vanessa doing the lions share of the work so I could jump in and tweak some stuff. :-)  

https://www.beechgrovebruceville.org

Though the site doesn't have a 'grand opening' yet, it is live, so check it out! The preacher has a blog called More Than Just Sunday and that reminded me that I haven't blogged in AGES, so thought I'd get back into the habit. :-)

We just had a long weekend at Kyle's and got to spend time with him, Devin and Emmett, who is now FOUR YEARS OLD - can you believe it? <sigh>

I've been playing guitar and Vanessa is playing bass at church. A few weeks ago we had Homecoming and the two of us, plus Marty, Hope, Mitzi and Dena did the 'sunday school hour' as one long music service. Was lots of fun and we were honored to be used of God for such a purpose! Looking forward to getting back to a regular rehearsal schedule and learn some new songs...

Speaking of which, heard one that REALLY really touched me on the trip up to Kyle's. Will have to learn it and share it...

Have a great Wednesday! Go to church somewhere tonight!