ODDS & ENDS VI: Songs, Dasia Taylor, Daily Control, Nicknames [SA, 9-4-21]

CHRIST IN WINTER: Reflections on Faith & Life for the Years of Winter

ODDS & ENDS VI: Songs, Dasia Taylor, Daily Control, Nicknames  [SA, 9-4-21]

 

When Dasia Taylor was still in high school—West High School, in Iowa City, Iowa—she invented color-changing sutures. Now she is a freshman at the U of IA, studying political science. She says, “I’m not really a science person.” Right, she just invents stuff that generations of scientists have never thought of, as a sideline to her social justice advocacy. Even in the most anti-science of states, there are people doing good science work. And people who care about social justice.

A study showed that people generally judge that they have about 80% control of their day. It’s actually 3 to 7 %. I doubt that old people get up to the 80%, but I think it’s a lot more than 7%. Maybe 50%. That’s one of the perks of being old. Your days are freer from the schedules others put into them. Unless you do stupid stuff with that 50% you control, then maybe it’s not a good perk to have so much control.

When our daughter, Katie, ran track and cross-country in high school, on the boys’ team, there was a boy whose last name was Piercy. His friends called him Pierce. There was another boy whose last name was Pierce. His friends called him Piercy. You can’t really have a team unless you have nicknames.

“I’d like to know if God gives us points for showing up or just marks us present.” Ann Lamott

Once at the Second Sunday Folk dance at Fortune Lake in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, when we lived in Iron Mountain, one of that month’s guest singers noted, as a song intro, that he had a sister named Sue who lived in Sioux City. He went on, of course, to sing “Sioux City Sue.” I always liked that song—nice melody, and an especially poignant lyric: “Your hair is red, your eyes are blue, I’d swap my hoss and dog for you.” I mean, hearing that as a ten-year-old wannabe cowboy, I figured that was real love! Except Sue did not remain the lovely creature that the singing cowboy first met. Homer and Jethro refrained on that, “Your hair is green, your teeth are black, I want my hoss and doggie back!”

Reminds me of when folk music was first starting a come-back when I was in college. We thought it was so clever to sing, “Black, black, black is the color of my love’s true hair.”

When our grandson was around first grade, maybe kindergarten, his favorite song was “Red River Valley.” He and I were much into playing pirates in those days, and we sang a version of the song as Red River Pirates: “From this pirate ship they say you are leaving, do not hasten to bid me ahoy…” One day we were on our pirate ship [the sofa in their living room] when I brandished my sword and announced that I was the captain of the ship. “Are you the first mate?” I asked. “Well, I don’t see anybody else here,” he observed, quite dryly. He is definitely his sarcastic mother’s son.

When sports people want to explain why a player is getting better, they say “the game is slowing down for him.” I must be getting really good!

Is it well with your soul? Attitude follows action. “When peace like a river attendeth my way, when sorrows like sea billows roll, whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say, it is well, it is well with my soul…” [1]

John Robert McFarland

[1] Horatio Spafford and Philip Paul Bliss