Sunday, April 26, 2015

I Don't Know Shit, Part Ten Thousand.

Last night was so amazing. I'm still thinking about it. I wish with all of my heart that I could have been able to record all of Lon and Lis's set. They played with their friend Jason Thomas and come to think of it, I've known Jason for a least a dozen years. He's an incredible fiddler and mandolin player. It was just such a beautiful night. Jason led everyone in singing "Happy Birthday" to Lis and then snuck in a few bars of the song again during a fiddle break.
It was just...perfect.
If I could give all of you a gift, it would be to see these sweet and incredibly talented people sing for an hour or so.

And then the band that came on after them, Wild Ponies, just tore my head up. I don't even know what I was expecting but I sure wasn't expecting what I saw. I posted a video of them last night singing a song about the grandmother of one of them. Iris. The couple in the band are an actual couple. Doug and Telisha Williams. Their percussionist is a a woman named, I think, Megan Jane. Holy shit! That woman! All of them. The song Iris first knocked the heart from my chest and then they did a song called Love Is Not A Sin and I'm getting chills thinking about it.
"When two lovers find each other I'd say it's sanctioned from above. It doesn't matter who you love."
Telisha dances with her upright bass, gracefully. Her hands look like birds finding roost on the strings, flying here and there. She sways and swings her hair and her husband plays rootsie and strong on his guitar and Megan Jane with her Little Orphan Annie hair and her steady beat behind them just knocked me out. Flat out.

Here. A video of Love Is Not A Sin.



During the break after the set, I went downstairs to the lobby and bought an album of theirs. Yes. An album. I could have bought a CD but I wanted the vinyl. Telisha was there and I may have offered to have babies for everyone in the band. She said that since she wasn't planning on having any, that was fine with her.
Oh golly. I just about would, too. I haven't even cracked the seal on the album yet. I feel like I'm waiting for the right moment. I want to listen with all my ears and heart.

So I've been thinking about those folks all day as I've piddled and puttered around here. Everyone's posting about the unbelievable horrors in Nepal but I can't take it in. I can't. I can't even bring myself to look at the pictures. Am I craven? Yes. So I've thought about cilantro sproutlings and wondered where in hell I've put my cow pea seeds and gone to check on the chicks and thawed out some shrimp and I guess that what I'm doing is just living my life and being grateful beyond the moon that it IS this life. Simple and easy and full and I am aware that anyone's life can be literally pulled out from beneath them at any moment and what can we do but live these lives we have? I'm not going to Nepal to offer aid. I know that.

Well, Lon and Lis will be here soon and Mr. Moon too. I better get some supper started. I need a shower too as I am not the sweetest smelling thing on the planet. Plus...dirt.

And I've got all these thoughts and feelings in me. Sorrow and horror and at the same time, contentment and peace. Hope and fear, joy and the tiny fret of whether the bread will rise in time.
And so much more.
We're human beings. This is how we are. We can hold so many different things in our hearts and in our heads at the same time, conflicting and not.
I don't know much but I know that's true.
And I know that love is not a sin and some people were put here on earth to make music and I'm glad as hell about that and I don't pray but I wish peace and safety and light and love for everyone even though I know that will never happen.

But we can wish. We can make our dancing into prayers. That's what I think.
And I think I'll light a candle.

Love...Ms. Moon

13 comments:

  1. Light a candle, and send Nepal five dollars, maybe?

    Music and the great outdoors, hard to deny it's church.

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  2. Jo- Yep. When I figure out where to send the money. I am so lucky. I attend my church daily and no one yells at me about my sins or tells me I need salvation. It IS my salvation.

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  3. Beautiful -- all of that and more. You.

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  4. I LOVE the music you shared. You described it perfectly. Just beautiful! I'm sure, just judging by that little snippet, your night was magical.

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  5. Nepal. It makes my stomach hurt and my eyebrows draw together. I feel so...helpless. My whole life has been centered around helping and I can't do a damn thing. Sending money but how much of it will be clawed into the hands of CEO's?

    Fuck, I am in a bad mood today!

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  6. I know what you mean. It's not that I don't care about all the bad stuff on the planet, but it's as if I made an executive decision sometime after I had children to not get depressed for everyone I don't know as well. It sounds heartless, but I wouldn't get through life without it.

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  7. I feel better hearing that beautiful song. Sometimes live music can be the holiest experience there is.

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  8. You're real. I felt that immediately when I saw your name over at Lo's blog so I thought I'd pay you a visit. I like your vid. The group has a strong beat with a base and drums.
    Have a wickedly wonderful week. (Today is W Day from the A-Z challenge)

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  9. I love the title of this post!

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  10. I think that came out way more callous than I meant. And I'm constantly cut up by things happening in the world. I think it's more my attempt at self-protection. Which I shouldn't leave littering your blog. Sorry about that. I hope you understand what I mean.

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  11. Elizabeth- You.

    Joanne- It really was.

    Birdie- You are allowed to be in a bad mood. And you help the ones you can. The rest is for others to help. You are precious.

    Mwa- Of COURSE I understand what you mean and my god, if we couldn't somehow emotionally cut what we cannot help, we would simply die of emotional and spiritual exhaustion. Never apologize for anything you write here. Okay?

    Ms. Vesuvius- I believe that.

    Manzanita- Well, hello! And yes. I am real. I imagine the "x" day challenge is going to be difficult.

    jenny_o- It's a phrase I use a lot.



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  12. I would go to Nepal to help. My friend has been posting about his village and the people he knows. So many dead. Hard to take it all in and I am just wanting to not think about that amount of human suffering. Meanwhile, an earthquake of another kind is happening in Baltimore. WTF? I am going on the boat for peace.

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Tell me, sweeties. Tell me what you think.