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Celebrating Doc

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Doc Watson died in 2012 just one month after I saw him at the 25th anniversary of MerleFest, the music festival named in memory of his son Merle. Everybody’s guitar hero, Doc would have turned 100 on March 3rd of this year. To celebrate the enduring and wide-ranging legacy of this American treasure, I Am a Pilgrim: Doc Watson at 100 is being released on April 28th. You can preorder the album today.

Photo of Doc Watson: Jim Gavenus

In the pre-releases posted to YouTube, Rosanne Cash and John Leventhal play a simple version of the title track, with a tasty guitar break by Leventhal in between verses.

Dolly Parton reimagined Last Thing on My Mind, a Watson concert staple written by folksinger Tom Paxton in the 1960s. While Parton has recorded the song on several occasions, most notably with Porter Wagoner, she sticks most closely to Doc’s version on this new album. Parton and Watson performed the song together at MerleFest 2001.

“Doc Watson is everyone’s hero and a great guitar player,” Parton said in a statement. “Some say he is the absolute best, and I was honored to get to work with him a few times in my career.”

Here’s the full track list:

1. “Shady Grove” – Jerry Douglas
2. “The Last Thing On My Mind” – Dolly Parton
3. “Am I Born to Die” – Nora Brown
4. “Alberta” – Jeff Parker & Matthew Stevens
5. “Make Me a Pallet” – Steve Earle
6. “I Am a Pilgrim” – Rosanne Cash
7. “Florida Blues” – Jack Lawrence
8. “How Long Blues” – Corey Harris
9. “Will the Circle Be Unbroken” – Ariesen
10. “Handsome Molly” – Valerie June & Bill Frisell
11. “Doc’s Guitar” – Yasmin Williams
12. “Little Sadie” – Chris Eldridge
13. “Reuben’s Train” – Lionel Loueke
14. “The Lost Soul” – Marc Ribot
15. “Your Lone Journey” – Bill Frisell

There are many top-notch musicians involved in this project, but I’m especially looking forward to hearing the young Washington-area guitarist Yasmin Williams play her version of that finger-busting classic Doc’s Guitar. Here’s the blind guitarist playing the 1960s original version.

A number of other musicians have been performing concerts and posting special videos in honor of Doc’s 100th.

Fiddler Mark O’Connor released a video of The Last Thing on My Mind, featuring O’Connor, Doc and Merle Watson, and T. Michael Coleman on bass and harmony vocals from the 1980s. Merle has a wonderful finger-picked guitar break, and O’Connor adds some sweet fiddle in another break and in backing up the vocals.

The Fretboard Journal also got into the act, posting the Billy Stings version of Doc’s classic Tennessee Stud with the following note:

Back in 2017, Billy Strings came by the Fretboard Journal to perform a pair of classic Doc Watson songs. Strings’ take on “Tennessee Stud” has since become the most-watched video we’ve produced with 3.5 million views.

It’s staggering to think of how many people first heard this tune when Doc played it on Will the Circle Be Unbroken…and now how many young people have found it through Billy and this YouTube video. If you somehow missed it, give it a listen.

The Fretboard Journal also added this gem to the mix:

Doc didn’t write “Sittin’ on Top of the World” but he definitely raised its profile when it appeared on his self-titled debut album in 1964. This old Mississippi Sheiks song has since been covered by everyone: Cream, Jack White, and this all-star group of performers at our first-ever Fretboard Summit in 2015. Trust me when I say this is the only time you’ll ever hear Bryan Sutton, Courtney Hartman, Matt Munisteri, Joe Henry, Bill Frisell, Scott Nygaard, and Blake Mills jamming together. Thanks, Doc. 

Of course, Doc is well known for his long association with Gallagher Guitars, and I’ve written about Gallagher here on More to Come. I own a G-50 — serial number 954 with a Sitka spruce top and mahogany back and sides — that I bought from J.W. Gallagher on November 21, 1977. G-50 #954 cost me $540!  The hard-shell case was another $100.  Throw in the tax and I took home this beauty for $676.30.  Today’s retail for a G-50: $4,100.

The company has changed ownership, but the new owner — David Mathis — uses all the original forms, many of them built by J.W., and he’s dedicated to keeping the brand alive and well. Here’s a video tribute concert by J.P. Cormier that includes a short history of the Gallagher’s by David Mathis.

I’ll close out this remembrance with a live version from 1979 of Doc’s most famous work, the fiddle tune Black Mountain Rag, played here by Doc along with flatpickers Norman Blake and Dan Crary and fiddler Sam Bush.

Doc, your friends and fans still love you and miss you. Rest in peace.

More to come…

DJB

A questioning faith

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Is it okay to question God? The Israelites, wandering through the desert, questioned, “Is the Lord among us or not?” Hundreds of years later the Psalmist recorded that the Lord’s anger remained: “For forty years I loathed that generation.”

Yet Jesus asked essentially the same question from the cross. In one instance, there is a testing, a demand that God respond on our human timeline. In the other, the thirst is much deeper than mere water. Questions out of fear cloud our judgment. Yet we can ask in a spirit that frees us to see more clearly.

AMEN? Questions for a God I Hope Exists (2022) by Julia Rocchi is full of wisdom, vulnerability, and questions asked in an open and seeking spirit. Julia’s is a questioning faith where she invites the reader to join in her journey. Essays, quotations, poems, and prayers probe the mysteries that make up life. One reviewer sees in this honest and hopeful exploration, “a psalter for the post-modern, exhausted age.” Julia writes of a God who is imminently approachable and ready to answer our deepest questions.

I was delighted when Julia, a long-time friend, enthusiastically agreed to answer my questions about her new book.

DJB: Julia, would you tell us why community is important in your spiritual journey?

JR: Though I had a manuscript for AMEN? in place before COVID-19 struck, its reshaping all happened during pandemic, a long period where I was isolated at home with my husband and two small children, unable to participate in the activities that gave our lives texture and meaning, such as time with dear friends or regular church attendance. (I’m a practicing Roman Catholic.) As I constantly reread work I’d written in the “before times” when I never had to question the availability of tangible love, support, and connection, I realized just how deeply I missed, craved, and needed community.

Experiencing such bone-deep disconnection and loss ultimately gave me a greater affinity with my hoped-for audience — people who want to journey with others to encounter God but are struggling to find those fellow souls in an American society that is steadily moving away from traditional religious affiliation. And I found myself asking: If we can’t gather physically right now, how can I extend a spiritual invitation to an ongoing conversation where questions are not only welcome but encouraged?

Doubt and mystery play an important role in your search for meaning, beginning with the book’s title. How important is it to recognize and support questions and doubt in our spiritual quests?

From early on in my writing process, I developed a deep attachment to the question mark in my book’s title. For me, this simple punctuation captured the essence of what I was trying to communicate — that when we ask questions of God, the Universe, whatever it is that we believe to be bigger than ourselves, we do so not to arrive at answers, but to inspire still more questions. As a goal-oriented completist, I used to shiver at this approach, but as I grow more comfortable with mystery, I’ve come to see questions and doubts as cairns on a winding, unmappable journey — little signposts asked and shared by others so we can grapple with unknowing, together.

AMEN? contains essays, reflections, quotations, prayers, and poems written during various periods of your life. What did you discover as you shaped them into a book?

Often during the course of writing and editing this book, I cursed Past Julia — the younger, childless, swinging single Julia — for not using all her beautiful, unbound time to write AMEN? sooner! But the truth is, Past Julia — several different versions of her, in fact — did create this manuscript over the course of months, years, and moments. It was wild to run into my old selves on the page and align them with who I am and what I believe today. And what a tremendous opportunity it was for contemplation and grace, to give my life thus far a narrative arc and to bear witness to my own faith journey.

Another thing that struck me in my writing/editing process was how universal my feelings were across different ages and stages of life. As I reconnected with my old selves, so much of their lived experience still resonated, and they gave me insight into things I’m living today. It powerfully demonstrated how life may twist and turn, dip and rise, but our very cores — our souls, our Imago Dei, the way we are made in God’s image — are constant, protected, and sacred. 

What is prayer to you?

I have an entire chapter of AMEN? devoted to prayer, and that’s because I haven’t fully answered your question for myself yet! I will say that my concept of prayer has expanded over time; it’s no longer simply “words I recite as I squirm on a kneeler,” but rather a never-ending dialogue with Mystery itself. This expansive view opens up many more opportunities for divine communion, be it through meditation or movement, nature or art, grief or laughter.

If that sounds too diffuse for you, consider author Anne Lamott’s more concrete definition captured in her book title, Help, Thanks, Wow: The Three Essential Prayers. Her distillation in this slim but potent book reveals how, whether you believe in God or not, cultivating vulnerability, gratitude, and awe in your life will enrich the precious time you spend earthside.

What books do you like to read?

Despite AMEN? being nonfiction, I am first a writer of fiction, and I most willingly disappear into well-crafted novels and short stories, preferably ones with strong voices and unique points of view. In the past few years I’ve made a conscious effort to vary my literary diet, fiction and non, with works by more diverse authors outside the traditional canon. In short, any story that reveals a different facet of the world and illuminates a new corner of the human experience for me wins the day.

Bonus points if it also makes me laugh, because lord above, I don’t think we laugh enough these days.

Many thanks, Julia!

I’m honored that you invited me, David. Keep asking questions!

More to come…

DJB

The Weekly Reader links to written works I’ve enjoyed.

Turning gratitude into thankfulness

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A thoughtful online post entitled Always Read the Acknowledgements Page by Grace Bialecki recently caught my eye. Bialecki, like me, is a fan of the acknowledgements authors often include in their works. I read them to understand the writer’s “artistic family tree.” She reads them for that reason and to gain information about networks and contacts. But Bialecki also suggests that we can learn language that gifted writers use to thank others, to the benefit of our own gratitude practice.

Acknowledgements are one form of saying thanks, yet not every author includes them. A spirit of thankfulness is recognition that no one creates or acts in a void. It also contributes to our personal well-being. Yet many have dropped the simple practice of saying thanks. Some may have trouble finding the right words. For others, it simply never rises to a level of importance in their busy lives.

Max De Pree — the long-time CEO of the design pacesetter Herman Miller — wrote that, “The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you. In between, the leader is a servant.”

Let’s set aside reality and servanthood for the moment and focus on saying thanks.

The kindnesses that often accompany expressions of thankfulness have deepened my appreciation for the power of this simple gesture. And their potency took on even greater significance for many of us during the isolation of the pandemic.

If you feel the need to hone your skills at saying thank you, here are four tips I’ve used to build my own radically grateful practice of thankfulness.

First, be intentional.

Richard Rohr suggests an attitude of gratitude is necessary to be thankful in difficult times, a deliberate choice of love over fear, a desire to be positive instead of negative. If we are not “radically grateful” every day, resentment can take over. Fighting the power to see the worst in the world takes constant effort.

Gratitude comes when we are fully aware, writes David Steindl-Rast. We see something that connects us to things beyond ourselves and to a sense of belonging. That, in turns, leads us to think in terms of giver, gift, and receiver.

Gratefulness turns into thankfulness … Gratefulness is full awareness; thankfulness is thoughtfulness.

Second, study the language of great writers.

As Bialecki writes, “The language authors use to thank their friends and family is inspiration for both thank-you cards and daily life.” Consider, for example, Major Jackson’s poetry collection Hoops:

Jackson’s acknowledgment comes just after the table of contents. This is a sign that his appreciation is front and center, even before he writes, “A traditional bow is owed to many friends and colleagues without whose penetrating comments, critical conversations, and lasting encouragement I would have remained enthusiastically in awe yet speechless. They include…”

“Jackson’s poetic version of an Oscar speech,” she adds, “is a wonderful example of how words can express thanks.”

Third, learn from mentors.

It wasn’t until I was in my forties and worked directly with Richard Moe, the President of the National Trust, that I came to focus on both the language and deep impact of saying thanks.

Dick writes with a sincerity and depth that conveys appreciation for the work of others. As I began drafting reports for our office, I studied his thank you notes — and Dick wrote a lot of thank you notes — to pick up the rhythm of the sentences, favorite words, and the values that served as a foundation for his work. At various points along the way I adapted pieces of his voice for my own.

Finally, just do it.

My grandmother believed in saying “please” and “thank you.” She taught my father to write thank you notes and he followed her advice until he died at age 90. My parents taught their children the same lessons. I’ve always written thank you notes and believe anyone can take up the practice.

No matter where you are in life, you can start your personal “radically grateful” practice today. Write someone a thank you note.

You’ll both feel better for it.

More to come…

DJB

Image by Marcel Elia from Pixabay

Carrying Irish history with them

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In anticipation of the upcoming St. Patrick’s Day weekend, we’ll highlight the music of one of Ireland’s best-known folk groups, Dervish. The band came together in 1989 when four of the founding members met while playing informal sessions in the pubs of Sligo: Shane Mitchell (accordion), Liam Kelly (flute/whistle), Brian McDonagh (mandola/mandolin) and Michael Holmes (bouzouki). They were soon joined by Roscommon-born singer and bodhran (drum) player Cathy Jordan, and later by all Ireland Fiddle Champion Tom Morrow in 1998.

Through the years the band has played around the world, “carrying Irish history with them,” as one reviewer wrote.

At the end of 2019 Dervish received a prestigious lifetime achievement award from the BBC, a fitting tribute to the band after over 30 years of recording and performing all over the world. Described by the BBC as “an icon of Irish music”, the band have played at festivals from Rio de janeiro to Glastonbury. They accompanied the Irish President on state visits to Latvia and Lithuania and Prime Minister of Ireland on a trade mission to China as Cultural Ambassadors taking time out to play an impromptu session on the Great Wall of China. Dervish have a line-up which includes some of Ireland’s finest traditional musicians, fronted by one of the country’s best-known singers, Cathy Jordan.

I Courted a Wee Girl features the original Dervish lineup and comes from the 1996 album The End of the Day. The band noted that this was …

The first song we heard from the singing of the late Mrs. Sarah Makem from Keady, County Armagh. We incorporated a piece of music into the song called ‘Josefin’s Waltz’ which we got from the Swedish group Väsen. The idea of blending the two together came about in a dressing room in Stockholm! The story of the man being rejected by the woman in favour of a richer husband is very similar to another song – “The Lambs on the Green Hills'” in Colm O’ Lochlainn’s book Irish Street Ballads.

It remains a fan favorite and may bring tears to your eyes.

The raucous Jim Coleman’s Set comes from the band’s earlier days, and it was included on the 2001 retrospective album Decade. Here is the tune as performed on the Live in Palma album from 1997.

Fair Haired Boy, written by songwriter Brendan Graham, is from A Healing Heart, the much quieter 2005 album “released in response to a demand for the more plaintive and relaxed Dervish tracks.”

The Swallow’s Tail, shown here with the band in performance live from Dublin in 2010, displays the group’s amazing musicianship.

Dónal Óg is surely one of the most moving Irish love songs. A song of betrayal, obsession and grief – a young girl’s cry of desolation left pregnant and abandoned by her lover Dónal. There are many versions of this song written originally in Gaelic but this one was translated by Frank O’Connor.

Just before the pandemic hit in 2020, Dervish was joined for the Celtic Connections concert in Glasgow by guests including Abigail Washburn, Bela Fleck, Heidi Talbot and Brian Kennedy. The group played The Galway Shawl, which requires audience participation in the chorus … and those in attendance played their role with gusto!

I’ll end this celebration of Dervish and St. Patrick’s Day with two tunes featuring the band and another of my favorite roots musicians, singer Kate Rusby. The first is from the 2010 Celtic Connections concert and is titled As I Roved Out, while the second, Down by the Salley Garden, probably dating from roughly the same period, is from The Late, Late Show. Both are beautiful, with the Salley Garden ending spinning off into a wonderful minute-long bit to get the feet tapping.

Give a listen, perhaps over a pint of the black stuff, and enjoy!

More to come…

DJB

Photo of Dervish by Collin+Gillen+1 credit Dervish.ie

A lie never lives to be old

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Deep down we know that yes, everybody lies. Few of us do it with the frequency and democracy-crushing impact of the admitted liars of Fox News. But we all tell lies.

There are many different types of lies, of course. Friedrich Nietzsche once suggested, “The most common lie is that which one lies to himself; lying to others is relatively an exception.” Lies undermine confidence, trust, and relationships. Lies, as everyone knows, are the bread-and-butter of murder mysteries.

All of which brings me to this month’s selection in my quest to read twelve crime novels this year.

Eight Perfect Murders (2020) by Peter Swanson is full of lies. The trick is figuring out who is lying, and to whom they are lying. Swanson’s book is so full of plot twists that it isn’t an easy task. Almost impossible, one might say.

Early in the book we find out that bookseller and mystery aficionado Malcolm Kershaw once wrote a blog post for his store’s website that listed the genre’s most unsolvable murders, those that are almost impossible to crack. He titled it Eight Perfect Murders and his selections included Agatha Christie’s A. B. C. Murders, Patricia Highsmith’s Strangers on a Train, Ira Levin’s Death Trap, A. A. Milne’s Red House Mystery, Anthony Berkeley Cox’s Malice Aforethought, James M. Cain’s Double Indemnity, John D. Macdonald’s The Drowner, and Donna Tartt’s A Secret History. He is surprised when an FBI agent shows up in his Boston store to ask questions about the list. She has studied a number of unsolved crimes and has a hunch that someone is working their way through the list and leaving dead bodies in their wake.

It turns out that someone else is interested in the list and in Malcom. A killer is around, and he or she seems to know much more about the bookseller’s life than he’s ever told anyone, including his recently deceased wife. In his investigation into who is committing these murders, Malcolm — to his horror — finds death in places where he didn’t expect it. The plot keeps twisting, and the reader is brought along to see if the killer can literally get away with murder.

It was the Greek tragedian Sophocles who said, “A lie never lives to be old.” And true to form, the lies told in the commission of the eight murders are eventually uncovered. Swanson, who appears to write a new murder mystery every year, is adept at the form, using many of the tools of the trade in this work including the unreliable narrator.

Recommended by a friend who knew of my quest, Eight Perfect Murders is a page-turning thriller where I often gasped out loud at the introduction of some new nugget of information. Swanson has written a real puzzler that satisfies.

More to come…

DJB

To see reviews of the other books in my year of reading mystery novels, click here for January and February.

The Weekly Reader links to written works I’ve enjoyed. I hope you find something that makes you laugh, think, or cry. 

Image by Amy from Pixabay

Wood that rejoices in transmitting music

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Stringed instruments have an often unique and mysterious personality — a soul, if you will — that some find difficult to understand. How that personality is acquired is a complex story. Musical traditions and the work of composers and musicians who contribute to that tradition most certainly play a role. Sometimes part of the instrument’s personality flows from that of the musician. Violinist and conductor Pinchas Zuckerman can point to his famous Guarnerius violin and announce that “this is a complete extension of my being.”

And yet the soul of these instruments comes from more than just the musicians who play them so skillfully. Luthiers work a lifetime striving to perfect an instrument’s voice. Foresters select and cut the music trees.

Most important of all are the rare and vanishing forests that produce old trees and the wood that rejoices in transmitting music.

The words of a poet driven by wonder and curiosity.

Masters of Tonewood: The Hidden Art of Fine Stringed-Instrument Making (2022) by poet and author Jeffrey Greene is dedicated to exploring how those mysterious personalities we admire when a fine stringed instrument is skillfully played are acquired. It is a pleasing and illuminating deep dive into a fascinating world, skillfully written with the clarity of a poet and the love of an artist.

Most non-musicians have heard of stringed instruments made by Stradivari and the other celebrated luthiers such as Amati and Guarneri from the Golden-Age of Cremonese instrument builders.  What Greene does in Masters of Tonewood is take the reader beyond the single instrument and the famous names to help us understand the key resonance wood used in Europe for stringed instruments such as violins, violas, cellos, contrabass, piano, classical guitar, and harp.

The wood for the tops of many of these instruments comes from a very common tree, the Norway spruce. Yet the pieces chosen in crafting a great instrument only come from very old spruce trees that have grown in rare mountain forests at approximately 4,000 feet, “with unique soil composition, disposition to the sun, and prevailing weather patterns.” Wanting to see the birthplace of these magnificent instruments firsthand, Greene takes us on a delightful tour of the seven key European “musical forests” located in Italy, France, Switzerland, Austria, Romania, Poland, and the Czech Republic. Along the way he visits with the musicians who create musical art on these instruments; luthiers who take carefully selected pieces of wood and craft them into prized pieces of art in their own right; tonewood millers who carefully cut and prepare the logs for sale around the world; and the foresters who tend to these “renewable gardens” that are under attack by multiple forces in the modern world.

In an interview for France Today, Greene helps us understand the key role of the tonewood.

You might wonder how a small instrument like a violin can rivet a whole concert hall with so much sound, even “grab an audience by the throat” with the range of its emotive voice. Of course, the virtuoso musician gives the soaring expression to great compositions. But anyone who lives with creaky wood floors, like the ones in my Paris apartment, or listens to a woodpecker, knows that wood fibre possesses the remarkable property of conducting and projecting sound.

The musical forests of Europe, like similar stands of trees around the world, are stressed today by climate change, extraordinary storms that can destroy centuries of growth in a single event, and illegal logging, among other threats. Greene helps the reader understand what the countries of Europe are doing to maintain this universal treasure.

Near book’s end, the author looks at the extraordinary story of the guitar with detours to France, Spain, the Mississippi Delta, and beyond. He recognizes the role that the United States has played in popularizing the instrument.

And Greene also takes a delightful look at luthiers using alternative sources of wood, such as floorboards, backyard trees, and lumber that has been submerged in water for decades. He finds George Youngblood in Guilford, Connecticut, building a guitar using Sitka spruce, a popular tonewood in the U.S.

This particular material, however, was Native American-cut and recovered from old fish traps in the Pacific Northwest. Alaskan fish traps used to be made with weighted spruce logs. Without oxygen, the wood doesn’t rot and the minerals from the bottom of rivers and lakes replaces the sap, making it stiffer and a prized tonewood. And yet, sinker wood divers can disrupt decades-old and delicate ecological systems that support rich wildlife and plant communities. Luthiers such as Youngblood have to continually hunt for appropriate — and legally obtained — materials. Greene quotes the builder as reporting on “carcasses in the basement. There’s a whole pile of broken guitars I call ‘organ donors.'”

Running Dog Guitar Ought-3
My Running Dog Guitar Ought-3 (photo credit: Running Dog Guitars)

Masters of Tonewood connected many threads in my life. Several times while reading Greene’s love letter, I stopped to admire the beautiful Bearclaw Sitka spruce soundboard and Camatillo rosewood body of my Running Dog Ought-3 guitar, built by luthier Rick Davis, as well as the curly koa back and sides of my Running Dog parlor guitar.

Koa back of my Running Dog parlor guitar

Greene’s book is also one of a growing number of books on the interconnectedness of nature that I’ve absorbed over recent years, including Peter Wohllenben’s The Hidden Life of Trees, Merlin Sheldrake’s Entangled Life, and David George Haskell’s The Forest Unseen. Much like these authors, Jeffrey Greene has injected a sense of wonder — and more importantly, a wonder-filled joy — into this vibrant and lovely work.

More to come…

DJB

Image by Samuel from Pixabay

From certainty to mystery

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Today marks the beginning of my annual trip around the sun. In thinking about what could possibly lie ahead, I looked for inspiration to Things Other People Accomplished When They Were Your Age.

Sixty-eight, it turns out, is a pretty sparse year for accomplishments.

At age 68, the English experimentalist William Crookes began investigating radioactivity and invented a device for detecting alpha particles. And at the same age, French President Charles de Gaulle, who resigned 12 years earlier out of impatience with party politics, made a political comeback.

I am neither a scientist nor a politician, so I don’t feel any great pressure to add my name to this list with some never-before-seen discovery or outstanding accomplishment.

Everyone is different. Our desires, energy, ambitions, setbacks, opportunities, values, and perspectives shift, grow, or diminish in different ways through the years. What we sought in our 20s usually differs markedly from the dreams of our 60s. As folksinger Carrie Newcomer wisely writes,

I’ve traveled through my history.
From certainty to mystery.
God speaks in rhyme in paradox.
This I know is true…

From certainty to mystery is a perfect description for my history. It is surprising just how much I’ve forgotten since I was sixteen and knew everything.

Now that I’m sixty-eight I worry much less about career and workplace accomplishments, focusing instead on living more fully in the wonder of this remarkable life. I try and take on the advice Mary Oliver has given to writers: Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.

Birthdays are an especially good time to stop and pay attention. There are important lessons that are slowly revealed as one gets older; lessons I’ve either just discovered or have resurfaced in recent years. For instance:

  • Most of the time everything you need you already have. The rest of the time it doesn’t matter.
  • Don’t be afraid to ask for help.
  • Keep good company. Drop the complainers and drainers from your life. Draw energy and inspiration from the visionaries and creators.
  • Choose sympathy over outrage.
  • Life is too short to not enjoy the things you love. 
  • Be humble.
  • Gratitude goes a long, long way. 
  • The ordinary is nothing but extraordinary.

Like everyone else on this planet, I don’t know how much longer this life will last. If I’m like my mother, I have less than 52 weeks. If I am so fortunate as to live into my nineties like my father, I have about 1,000 weeks left.

‘Cause leaves don’t drop they just let go
And make a space for seeds to grow
And every season brings a change
A tree is what a seed contains
To die then live is life’s refrain

Whatever is left of the journey, I want to give up trying to control my life. In its place I want to embrace life’s paradox and liminality.*

And, yes, there are a few things I want to accomplish in whatever time is left. I want to enjoy more drinks and meals with friends. To be more generous with my time and talents. To work where I’m effective to support democracy, equality, and justice. To read more books. To smile more often. To continue to travel as long as I’m physically able. To walk more, and to walk more in nature. To listen more. To talk less. To make sure that the people I love and care about know that without question. To be gratefully aware, not just every day but every hour in a way that leads to true thankfulness.

To try to be nice, but always to be kind.

I can’t wait to see what’s ahead!

More to come…

DJB

*Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes said, “There is nothing like paradox to take the scum off your mind.” I agree. And yes, liminal is my new favorite word (and I’m not alone). I first heard it used by Krista Tippett.

Image of street sign in Dundee by DJB

From the bookshelf: February 2023

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Each month my goal is to read five books on a variety of topics and from different genres. Here are the books I read in February 2023. If you click on the title, you’ll go to the longer post on More to Come. Enjoy.

The Half Known Life: In Search of Paradise (2023) by Pico Iyer is both an external odyssey and an internal journey to paradise. In a series of memorable essays, Iyer takes the reader from “the wrathful Old Testament landscape of Broome, Australia,” and the mosques and gardens of Iran to the lakes of Kashmir and the Hindu holy city of Varanasi. In each he leads the reader with skillful and expressive descriptions of the physical places. But he also calls upon a rich array of literature to flesh out the meaning of these shrines while examining the conflicts — open and hidden — often found there. Paradise on earth is a paradox. Often located in unimaginably beautiful landscapes or containing great holy shrines, these cities and sites have also seen incalculable suffering. Perhaps that’s because we are looking in the wrong places, Iyer reminds us. In the words of Franciscan priest Richard Rohr: “Our goal in life is not to become more spiritual, but to become human.”

Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals (2021) by Oliver Burkeman begins with the simple fact that we won’t live forever; 4,000 weeks, in fact, if we make it to 80. We all know this intellectually, but we buy into productivity gurus who push us to make almost infinitely ambitious plans. We are frenetically doing tasks instead of experiencing the wonder of life that is all around us. Burkeman, the self-described “recovering productivity geek”, reminds us of the truth behind the paradox of limitations: the more one confronts the facts of our limits — and works with them, rather than against them — the more productive, meaningful, and joyful life becomes. Things just take the time they take. The sooner we accept that fact and admit that the level of control demanded by the efficiency experts will never be attained, the sooner we can live the only life we have more fully.

A Long Way from Iowa: From the Heartland to the Heart of France (2023) by Janet Hulstrand is a delightful memoir where the author takes us from her grandmother’s hometown in Iowa to her current home in the French countryside. Janet is a long-time friend whose adventures include working as Caroline Kennedy’s editorial assistant and living in a gypsy caravan outside Paris. We learn much about Janet’s journey, including the complicated relationship with the two women who fueled her love for learning, exploration, and writing. In my blog post, I interview Janet about this testament to family and the writing life.  A Long Way from Iowa will interest those who seek to understand the people and places that shape the path they choose.

Somebody Loves You, Mr. Hatch (1991) by Eileen Spinelli is — to put it simply — the best Valentine’s Day book ever. Mr. Hatch is the loneliest man in town. He would leave his brick house at 6:30 sharp every morning to walk to the shoelace factory, where he worked. At lunchtime he would sit alone in the corner, eating his cheese and mustard sandwich and drinking a cup of coffee. Sometimes he brought a prune for dessert. But one Valentine’s Day Mr. Hatch discovers that he has a secret admirer. By book’s end, Mr. Hatch learns who loves him. And it is more wonderful than he ever imagined.

Dead Man’s Folly (1956) by Agatha Christie is a mystery where no one is quite what they seem. The owners of an estate in Devon are hosting a charity fete for the local village. They decide to stage a mock murder for their guests and ask the famous crime writer, Ariadne Oliver, to organize the hunt. After developing the plot and clues, Mrs. Oliver calls her old friend, the world-renowned, mustachioed Belgian private detective Hercule Poirot, and asks him to join her for the party. Without a full understanding of the request, the self-proclaimed “greatest detective in the world” nonetheless accepts her invitation and arrives by train, where he learns that his friend feels something sinister is afoot. Her suspicions are confirmed on the day of the party when they find the young village woman who had been tapped as the victim in the drama actually murdered and lying in the boathouse — just as Mrs. Oliver’s plot had outlined. And that’s only the beginning of the puzzle!

More to come…

DJB

NOTE: Click on the month to see the books I read in January. Also check out my Ten tips for reading five books a month.

This Weekly Reader features links to recent articles, blog posts, or books that grabbed my interest or tickled my fancy. I hope you find something that makes you laugh, think, or cry. 

Photo by Pavan Trikutam on Unsplash

Observations from … February 2023

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A summary of what was included on More to Come in the month of February. If you receive my monthly email update, you can skip this post.

Yes! We made it through February, which I’ve frequently called the longest month of the year. It turns out there’s some truth in that jest. According to the Farmer’s Almanac, January and February were the last two months to be added to the Roman calendar (c. 713 BC); originally, winter was considered a month-less period. So we can all be thankful that February is only 28 days…as opposed to almost 60!

We’ve covered a lot of ground in these four weeks, with the big milestone being the 1500th posting since More to Come was created in 2008. 1500 and counting gave me the opportunity to highlight the piece with the most views over that time as well as a favorite essay from each of the 15 years. With a word total over that time that tops 1.1 million, that’s a lot of words! If it’s any consolation, I don’t know anyone who reads them all. Not even Candice. She does, however, hear my opinions live and often provides real-time feedback. As a result, the worst ones never make it to you, dear readers.

Besides the milestone post, let’s take a look at what else caught my attention in February.

FIRST-EVER AUTHOR INTERVIEW TOPS MONTHLY MOST-VIEWED LIST

With the increased number of book reviews on More to Come (MTC), it was only a matter of time until I tried my hand at interviewing one of the authors of the 60+ books I now read each year. The first one, where I interviewed author (and friend) Janet Hulstrand about her new memoir A Long Way from Iowa, was a big hit with readers. Check out The best journeys are the long ones to learn about the complicated relationship Janet had with the two women who fueled her love for learning, writing, and exploration; understand how she handled challenging parts of her own story in crafting her memoir; and get a whiff of her adventures, from serving as Caroline Kennedy’s editorial assistant to living in a gypsy caravan outside Paris.

THINGS THAT TICKLED MY FANCY

Over the course of February I also wrote three posts to keep abreast of what’s happening in today’s world and in my life.

First, the funeral of a treasured family friend led me to consider some of the control issues I’ve had throughout my life. I wrote in Letting go that this was the funeral we should all aspire to, as it included a sublime cello solo, more laughter than tears, reflections that one wished went on longer, and bourbon at the reception. While my friend and her family suggested that she had control issues, I think that the outpouring of love that came forth at the funeral was the result of Jo giving up control to serve others.

I’ll see you at the ground-breaking was a summation of thoughts (mine and some opinion writers) about the success of President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address in capturing his vision that “grows the economy from the bottom up and the middle out, not the top down.” Don’t believe everything you think is an essay on the need to think slow, in order to recognize harmful myths and help build constructive stories that support all Americans.

CELEBRATING MUSICIANS OF COLOR DURING BLACK HISTORY MONTH

In honor of Black History Month, I have been exploring the work of musicians of color who are reclaiming their musical heritage while taking us forward musically and socially. This year’s series featured terrific young artists, some of which were new to me. Take some time to visit:

  • The hero of my own story with the singer, songwriter, poet, and activist Allison Russell was technically posted in January…but it really did kick off this series.
  • The authenticity of Kaia Kater looks at the work of this talented young musician who brings influences and history from Canada, Grenada, and Appalachia into her music.
  • A new kind of American troubadour featuring Nigerian-American singer-songwriter Joy Oladokun. Her music was a revelation, and I had a couple tell me later that they couldn’t get enough of her music.

In addition, just a reminder that during the MLK weekend, I also featured the work of Ruthie Foster, which should be included in this overall celebration. One regular reader said he was so taken with her music that he went through and listened to them twice. Check out all these amazing musicians!

AND JUST THE TYPICAL ECLECTIC GROUP OF BOOKS

Yes, the books I read in February covered a number of my personal interests, and I hope you’ll find one (or more) that piques yours.

  • In search of paradise by Pico Iyer is both an external odyssey and an internal journeyas he explores a number of our holiest, yet very troubled, sites of paradise all around the globe. A fascinating and mind-expanding voyage.
  • Happy Valentine’s Day includes my all-time-favorite Valentine’s story. When Mr. Hatch learns the identity of his secret admirer, it is more wonderful than he could have imagined.
  • For those who just can’t keep up with everything on the to-do list, check out Things just take the time they take. Oliver Burkeman, a self-described “recovering productivity geek”,has written a thoughtful and provocative book that encourages us to embrace the paradox of limitations, stop frenetically doing tasks, and begin to really experience the wonder of the life that is all around us.
  • For my monthly murder mystery book, I read Agatha Christie’s Dead Man’s Folly. One fun fact you’ll discover in Piecing together the puzzle: the estate in the story is based on Christie’s own holiday house, which is now owned by the British National Trust!
  • Also, as a bonus look ahead, I ask readers to picture a Jewish academician, an Anglican historian, and a Catholic seeker walking into a bar. No, this is not the start of a bad joke. Those are the authors ― highlighted in an Ash Wednesday post ― that I’ll be reading this year as part of A Lenten reading practice.

CONCLUSION

Thanks, as always, for reading. As you travel life’s highways, do your best to treat others with kindness, undertake some mindful walking every day, recognize the incredible privilege that most of us have, and think about how to put that privilege to use for good. Women, people of color, LGBTQ individuals, immigrants, and others can feel especially vulnerable…because they are. Finally, work hard for justice and democracy because the fight never ends.

More to come…

DJB

You can follow More to Come by going to the small “Follow” box that is on the right-hand column of the site (on the desktop version) or at the bottom right on your mobile device. It is great to hear from readers, and if you like them feel free to share these posts on your own social media platforms. 

For the January 2023 summary, click here.

Image by StockSnap from Pixabay

Letting go

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A multitude of stories, experiences, and perspectives mix together in the rich stew we call life. We can revel in that stew, feasting on the wonder of it all. But paradoxically, in order to really live we have to let go of trying to control all that goes into the soup pot.

Yes, control issues have been on my mind in recent weeks.

When a colleague once told me that she was not engaging others on a particular project, the reason given was “I don’t trust them to do the job to the standard I want.” On one level her reasoning made sense to me. For years I battled the personal urge to be overprotective of everything from my work product to my schedule to my friendships. I still find myself slipping all too easily into old habits.

But thoughts on how much we actually control surfaced recently at the funeral for a treasured friend. Despite the fact that Jo wrote her own obituary (control issues, noted her family), the hundreds who gathered to celebrate her life most frequently shared stories of how she let go of the impulse to control when it mattered most in order to serve others and to simply enjoy life. She did it to the end, showing us not only how to live but how to die. Jo was fond of quoting poet Mary Oliver’s I Worried with its clear-eyed resolution:

Finally, I saw that worrying had come to nothing.
And gave it up. And took my old body
and went out into the morning,
and sang.

Letting go of control is hard. Really hard. With all the anxiety and pressure in today’s world, the tendency is to gather all we think we must do and hold on tight. But the fact is that we don’t have that much control. We may act as if we do, but our time will not stretch on indefinitely even though we work, plan, and live as if that’s the case. It is the desire to control, to try and ensure that our efforts will always be successful, that actually restricts us. When we open our eyes to how life really works — when we pay attention, in other words — we come to at least see, if not fully accept, the paradox of limitations. Only when we let go of the need to control do our lives become more productive, meaningful, and joyful. When we let go of the need to control, we can more easily accept — and even rejoice in — the life we are given. We open ourselves to seeing that our days are exceptional even when they are ordinary.

Jo built bridges between people. To do that, you have to give up some measure of control. When you put your trust in others and work at reconciliation and collaboration, you don’t get to make all the decisions. You lose the illusion of control. The chance exists that something won’t happen in the hoped for manner.

Yet there is a transformation that comes from letting go. Too many funerals are all about heavenly transactions, as if we think we’re still in control. Jo’s spoke, instead, to transformation. Hers, ours, and the worlds.

And what a funeral it was! We should all aspire to have such a wonderful sendoff. One where hundreds of family members, friends, and colleagues from most of the decades of your life make the effort to gather and celebrate your time in this world. Where there is a sublime cello solo to calm the spirit. Where there are plenty of tears, yes, but there is so much more laughter. Where a daughter gives a remembrance and everyone is sad that it couldn’t be longer. Where those speaking quote Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Mary Oliver, Steven Charleston, Cornell West, the Buddha, and Loudon Wainwright III because those were the voices you listened to in life. Where your favorite brand of bourbon — good bourbon — is served at the reception.

In trying to hang on to control, we too often forget about what really matters. In life, the journey is much more important than the destination. Control is about power and certainty. Control is about trying to shape the destination you think you want.

Seeking, on the other hand, is a journey not of certainty but of mystery. Seeking brings transformation, as we come to live the only life we have more fully.

The job of cook — the one who puts all of life’s pieces together with a recipe often incomprehensible to us — is already taken. Seeking accepts this fact. Instead of attempting to control something outside our power, seeking permits us to revel in and savor the flood of zesty, bold, sturdy, and unpredictable flavors that feed our souls in life’s abundant and wondrous stew.

Here’s to you, Jo. Thanks for touching so many with your love during a life well lived. May you rest in peace.

More to come…

DJB

Image from Pixabay