THE GOD WHO LOVES YOU

My fellow Tramp Glenn at Crookedshore sent me this poem. It sort of sent me off on some lateral thinking about faith, providence & pre-destination (yes that!).

Have a read and feel free to share your perspective. Oh! Do visit the gang at crookedshore, well worth a visit.

http://crookedshore.typepad.com/crookedshore/

The God Who Loves You

It must be troubling for the god who loves you

To ponder how much happier you'd be today

Had you been able to glimpse your many futures.

It must be painful for him to watch you on Friday evenings

Driving home from the office, content with your week—

Three fine houses sold to deserving families—

Knowing as he does exactly what would have happened

Had you gone to your second choice for college,

Knowing the roommate you'd have been allotted

Whose ardent opinions on painting and music

Would have kindled in you a lifelong passion.

A life thirty points above the life you're living

On any scale of satisfaction.

And every point A thorn in the side of the god who loves you.

You don't want that, a large-souled man like you

Who tries to withhold from your wife the day's disappointments

So she can save her empathy for the children.

And would you want this god to compare your wife

With the woman you were destined to meet on the other campus?

It hurts you to think of him ranking the conversation

You'd have enjoyed over there higher in insight

Than the conversation you're used to.

And think how this loving god would feelKnowing that the man next in line for your wife

Would have pleased her more than you ever will

Even on your best days, when you really try.

Can you sleep at night believing a god like that

Is pacing his cloudy bedroom, harassed by alternatives

You're spared by ignorance? The difference between what is

And what could have been will remain alive for him

Even after you cease existing, after you catch a chill

Running out in the snow for the morning paper,

Losing eleven years that the god who loves you

Will feel compelled to imagine scene by scene

Unless you come to the rescue by imagining him

No wiser than you are, no god at all, only a friend

No closer than the actual friend you made at college,

The one you haven't written in months.

Sit down tonight And write him about the life you can talk about

With a claim to authority, the life you've witnessed,

Which for all you know is the life you've chosen.

Tribute to Woody Guthrie

Woody Guthrie Tribute

I had the privilege of attending a Tribute to Woody Guthrie Fundraising Event at Belfast’s Empire on Sunday night past. Fine local musicians including Juliet Turner, Bap Kennedy, The Delaware’s performed their creative adaptations of some of Woody Guthrie’s classics.

Despite his debilitating disease, Guthrie penned many prophetic and often scathing musical commentary’s on the American life, economy, justice system and political landscape.

My personal favourite? "This land is your land" which was written as a sort of antidote to Irving Berlin’s God Bless America.

AMAZING GRACE

HOW SWEET THE SOUND

I'm always playing catch up when it comes to movie releases so for those who've long ago seen this film, forgive me.

In the age of endless political spin, parliamentary bickering and "will he, won't he" election watching, this movie reminds us of what can be achieved when men and women choose to give their lives for what they believe in.

A fine cast, beautiful cinematography and inspiring script render this a must watch film.

Would to God that we have someone in Politics today with the same convictions to stand up for right instead of holding up a finger to see which way the votes are blowing!

Rebecca Rothbaum, writing in O MAGAZINE said, "An important story... sumptuously shot, and masterfully acted!"