I've been writing more lately and blogging less. I'm off to the Harold Washington library to further research Jesus Inc. and the social angle of commercial transactions. Writing is hard work! Its discipline to force my mind to think narrow when so many things are interesting. Patience.

on play

Well I finally actually bought an album on ITunes and it was relatively
painless. I took far too much time to do it. I'm so double-minded and
there's far too much good music for me to decide on so I just bit the
bullet and got Iris Dement's "Lifeline" album. I love her voice. Its so
salty and just on the edge of dissonance. I'm thinkin' back to when I
ran Southern Gospel music on KTCN in Eureka Springs Arkansas. I'd do all
I could not to hear the music I was playing. It just made my skin crawl.
Now here I am actually purchasing something that most people would say
is no different. If you've ever heard Dement's album "The Way I Should"
you might be a little amazed that she did a whole straight gospel album.
Especially with songs like "Wasteland of the Free" and "Letter to Mom"
or even "Quality Time". Find those lyrics online and you'll know what
I'm talking about. Mmm---salty!

"First Do No Harm"

Let's talk about reality. In California Anestheosiologists refused to take part in Michael Morales' execution. We need more medical professionals with conscience. Is execution by the State because it disuades future crime and murder and demonstrates the State's power to govern ever warranted? Doctors are refusing participation on ethical grounds that it forces them to reneg on their oath. Why is it only the medical profession that refuses to do harm? Why not civil servants? Does execution really have to be somebody's job?

June and Johnny

On play: "Darling Companion" June Carter and Johnny Cash, At San Quentin
(The Complete Recording)
Johnny and June are too Country for America. That's one of my only
objections to Joaquine Pheonix and Reese Witherspoon as Johnny and June
in the movie "Walk the Line." Johnny and June both looked more like used
up hillbillies in the photos of the Folsom Prison concerts. Even if
Reese has been cast southern before, she can't help but typify the kind
of twenty-first century beauty that appeals to this generation. Simple,
sweet, but Hollywood.

i love birthdays

i love birthdays! They tend to go against every fiber of my being. All
the attention is focused on me and that bothers me. Why? Because I
accept curses easier than praises. Really I'm a very self absorbed
person. Its all about me 24/7 and part of my ego trip is the thought
that really nobody thinks about me. Go figure that one out. So when its
my Birthday I get all this love and attention from my family such as: My
older daughter giving me five Valentines since Sunday! The first word on
my younger daughter's lips this morning being "daddy" even before she's
really awake. My son rising at 6:30am to make me the most wonderful
birthday sign out of paper towels and masking tape. My wife planting a
wonderful warm wet kiss on me just as I'm praying that the Lord show me
love. (I learned later she'd just taken a sip of tea.)
So in spite of my selfish resistance my birthday reminds me that I'm
noticed and that being here is more important than me. That my person is
shared by all those around me. When I am loved on my birthday I'm
humbled. Suddenly I've got some explaining to do for the selfish
aggrandizement I do year round.

thanks. . .

Thanks for the last few comments guys. I'm glad you found your way here to my blog somehow. Tell me more about yourselves and such. No I'm not "the" Chris Rice who wrote "Deep Enough to Dream." Doing Google searches will reveal a number of more well-known Chris Rices. (Not that I'm bitter or anything.) Maybe I should feel guilty that I got to this web domain before they did. I better not bad mouth them or anything---wouldn't want them suing google over it like Jews for Jesus did. (I like Jews for Jesus.)

This morning I'm trying to pick up where I left off writing my memoir. Its rough going as I'm dealing with my relationship with my dad at a time in our lives when we were both trying to find our way. He was learning to father a son and I was learning, well, how to face life! We've come a long way since then but I hate focusing on this period. Dad had a big anger/rage issue that continued on into my adulthood. Years later everything has changed---he's now a very good friend.

Anyway, I wrote a few songs about it years back and I came over fully expecting to rerecord them from memory. I started out by listening to what I recorded a couple weeks ago. Those cuts were so bad I don't feel like recording anything now! I'm trying to encourage myself that it is hard work and that self-recording is never perfectly done especially by erstwhile dilettante musicians who rarely record and are very unsure of themselves.

But I trudge along. . . .

This morning I heard on the radio that every fifteen seconds a child dies from water born disease. So as part of our morning reading prayer time before school I very gingerly broke the news to my kids about it. I didn't give them that statistic right out (they're 3, 6, and 9 nears old) but we prayed in general for kids who get sick and even die from not having good water. Then I read from Isaiah 58:6-7 and educated them on the terms "injustice" and "oppression."
If there's anything I'm proud of its that I knew about poverty, oppression and injustice since I can remember! Thanks dad.

I'm reading Fear and Trembling right now. Anybody out there been impacted by this book? If so give me your thoughts

Finished Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison by Michael Streissguth on Saturday. It really put me there and created the whole setting in space and time. It gives a brief history of the prison itself and then introduces a black inmate who attended the concerts, gives his slice of life at the time and then revisits him in the present. I thought the best thing about the book was the details on Glen Shirley, author of "Greystone Chapel." Shirley got out of prison, married a woman with two sons and began touring with Cash. He was the poster boy of prisoner reformation. Marshall Grant shared a story about Glen threatening to kill him. So Cash took him off the tour. Glen couldn't make it on the outside and spiraled out of control, leaving his family and living homeless. He finally came home and shot himself. Streissguth surmises that after the 1970s and Glen Shirley's suicide Johnny Cash gave up hope for the possibilities of prison reform. To balance things out Cash began funding police family programs.

The US Capitol police have this to say to Cindy Sheehan:
Gee. . . .we're sorry. Yeah, we made a big mistake. We forgot that when President Bush gives his State of the Union address its really OK for you to wear a dissenting T-shirt.

And I say if you believe that one you'll believe President Bush has had a Damascus Road experience and is going to become an advocate for a new American infrastructure that's not based on Petroleum.

As Rush Limbaugh used to say under Bill Clinton, "The White House is under seige!"
But hey, Cheer up! Only two more years of fascism to go!
That is. . . assuming someone better is waiting to take over.

Let's remember that CPT are part of the 268 foreigners kidnapped since May 2003.
The Brookings Institute is keeping a tally. In an article titled "What's driving the kidnappings in Iraq?" two authors offer the big picture of what's happening in Iraq. Pray for the release of these captives, but pray for the end of the Iraqi Occupation. Pray for an end to the madness overall. Remember that these Peacemakers knew the odds going in and chose their work carefully.

The CPT hostages kidnapped in Iraq 67 days ago are still alive! The BBC posted video footage
of them on Saturday. Let's all keep praying! Would to God we could see them safely returned to their families! Rose Marie Berger wrote an update yesterday.

1/31/06
"America is addicted to oil, which is often imported from unstable parts of the world. The best way to break this addiction is through technology. . . . By applying the talent and technology of America, this country can dramatically improve our environment, move beyond a petroleum-based economy and make our dependence on Middle Eastern oil a thing of the past."
--George W. Bush, State of the Union Address

I seem to remember the Bible saying:

"He who sends a message by the hand of a fool cuts off the feet [of satisfactory delivery] and drinks the damage. Like the legs of a lame man which hang loose, so is a parable in the mouth of a fool. Like he who binds a stone in a sling, so is he who gives honor to a [self-confident] fool. Like a thorn that goes [without being felt] into the hand of a drunken man, so is a proverb in the mouth of a [self-confident] fool."
Proverbs 26:6-9 (Amplified Bible)