Jesus My Friend

One of the Gospels has Jesus talking with his Apostles and he call them friends, saying they are no longer servants but elevated to "friends". He did command them, never giving up his Godly right, "To love one another!". He also said that they were friends because he held nothing back from them, no secrets between friends. And he passes this on to all who want to be his friend as long as they "love", no room for hate.

One of the reasons I really like Jesus, as well as respect and love him, is he really was and I suspect is still an old softy. He never was afraid to castigate those in authority for compelling those under them to do things they never did, for living high off the hog while many were living in absolute poverty.

I maintain he might have been the world's first feminist. He lived in a time when a woman was nothing, she was less than property. A woman caught in adultery was to be stoned while her John walked away scot free. A prostitute was to be scorned while being used by the male population who frequented her services.
We all know the story of the woman brought before him to be stoned that wasn't even disrespected by Jesus, after the accusers all left because of what Jesus wrote in the sand he just said, if I might paraphrase, "No one is left to accuse you? Well neither do I. Just make sure you are careful because they are out to get you, so stay away from that sin, if you can.". In Samaria , he stopped by Jacob's well to ask a Samarian woman for a drink of water and had a real conversation with her. Upon the return of his disciples they were in a confused state probably thinking Jesus shouldn't be talking to "HER", she's a Samarian, not a holy person and worst of all she is a "WOMAN". His love for woman's right to be treated fairly was paid back when except for John, one of his male "friends" the only one not to have fled the scene, was surrounded  by the only other friends of his to stand at his cross which were women led by his mother.

We can't separate Jesus' humanity from his divinity, they are one just as the Triune Deity is one, so while The Father, The Son, The Spirit are separate yet one. Which means they are are our creator, they are our friend, all bound together in the command to "Love One Another, As I have loved you". No hate, no condemnation, no revenge or retribution just "LOVE". What a great friendship to have.

Grahame Greene's Book/E.C. Redding's Song

So I walked a little too fast, and I drive a little too fast
And I'm reckless it's true, but what else can you do
At the end of a love affair?

So I talk a little too much, and I laugh a little too much
And my voice is too loud when I'm out in a crowd
So that people are apt to stare

Do they know, do they care
That it's only that I'm lonely, and low as can be
And the smile on my face isn't really a smile at all

So I smoke a little too much, and I drink a little too much
And the tunes I request are not always the best
But the ones where the trumpets blare
So I go at a maddening pace
And I pretend that it's taking her place
But what else can you do at the end of a love affair?

So I smoke a little too much, and I drink a little too much
And the tunes I request are not always the best
But the ones where the trumpets blare
So I go at a maddening pace
And I pretend that it's taking her place
But what else can you do at the end of a love affair?

Question - Lyrics - Moody Blues

* Some 40 odd years ago Justin Haywood  penned this song and the Moody Blues have recorded it and performed it ever since. I was at Westbury, Long Island New York this Friday last and in front of a packed house they rocked the place they were as good as ever and the song spoke to us in truth never losing it's truth about war and love. Take a moment to read the lyrics then go to uTube and play it. Dream of love lost, and how we humans keep asking the same questions and making the same mistakes over and over again.

When it is over try and ask new questions about war, competition, life and perhaps your latest love.

  

Why do we never get an answer

When we're knocking at the door
With a thousand million questions
About hate and death and war?
'Cause when we stop and look around us
There is nothing that we need
In a world of persecution that is burning in its greed

Why do we never get an answer
When we're knocking at the door
Because the truth is hard to swallow
That's what the war of love is for

It's not the way that you say it
When you do those things to me
It's more the way that you mean it
When you tell me what will be
And when you stop and think about it
You won't believe it's true
That all the love you've been giving
Has all been meant for you

I'm looking for someone to change my life
I'm looking for a miracle in my life
And if you could see what it's done to me
To lose the love I knew
Could safely lead me through

Between the silence of the mountains
And the crashing of the sea
There lies a land I once lived in
And she's waiting there for me
But in the Grey of the morning
My mind becomes confused
Between the dead and the sleeping
And the road that I must choose

I'm looking for someone to change my life
I'm looking for a miracle in my life
And if you could see what it's done to me
To lose the love I knew
Could safely lead me to
The land that I once knew
To learn as we grow old
The secrets of our soul
It's not the way that you say it when you do those things to me
It's more the way you really mean it when you tell me what will be

Why do we never get an answer
When we're knocking at the door
With a thousand million questions
About hate and death and war
'Cause when we stop and look around us
There is nothing that we need
In a world of persecution that is burning in its greed

Why do we never get an answer
When we're knocking at the door

Play Song On Your Computer

Songwriters: Hayward, Justin

Question lyrics © EMI Music Publishing, Universal Music Publishing Group, T.R.O. INC.


Lyrics term of use

Golf Losing Popularity In The USA

Back in 2008 The New York Times published an article by Paul Vitello entitled "More Americans Are Giving Up Golf". More recently news has been published that Golf in the USA is continuing to drop in popularity and in the next ten years will drop by the tens of millions.

There have been a bunch of ideas as to why there is a loss in popularity by Americans in the game of Golf with much of the people guessing it takes too much time to play in this current hectic life in America. Which is true in many respects but I think the experts are missing the mark because it isn't only one or two things but many reasons why popularity is dropping.

The popularity of Golf in the USA was never really very popular by those who weren't of the upper economic class, Country Club living wasn't available to a depressed country. After WW II a very popular President who was a wartime hero by the name of Dwight D. Eisenhower loved the game and played it almost every day. His love of the game was carried by most newspapers of the time. Along came a successful golfer named Arnold Palmer, who came from common stock. Palmer's father was a Country Club Professional Golfer, but at that time they weren't looked on as peers of the members of the country club, rather looked upon as indentured servants. So this enormously talented, Golfer, Arnold Palmer was an ex Coast Guardsman coming from common stock like most Americans. Then along came Television which was able to televise the Golf scene, this electric personality, Palmer and a very popular President called affectionately, "Ike", which confluence of these people and events thrust Golf before the American public. Additionally Golf had great characters like Chi Chi Rodriguez, who was a poor Puerto Rican with a great sense of humor and showmanship as well as other characters which were emerging from the common people, Lee Trevino, a Mexican golf hustler with a great personality kept everyone glued to the sets and wanting to get out an play, after all if Chi Chi and Lee could do it why can't I?  Add to that the great rivalry
between Palmer the commoner and Jack Nicholas who came from the country club setting and the popularity soared.

All sort of Sport Stores sprung up among them "Herman's" which sold golf equipment from very cheap to very expensive. Herman's went out of business some time ago. Public Golf courses took all day, from the wait before dawn to the five and a half our rounds but the cost was very inexpensive. Sales of complete sets of clubs, bags, carts, clothes fit almost every pocketbook because the costs went from cheap to expensive and you purchased what you could afford. But soon the stores became fewer, the prices became very expensive,and the cost to play even on a public course became very expensive. Here in NYC a round of golf can cost from forty upwards a far cry from twenty bucks only fifteen years ago. Some drivers and special clubs cost hundreds of dollars for one club alone. A full set of clubs costs anywhere from five hundred to fifteen hundred. And it still takes about five and a half hours to play a round. Hell one might have to work those hours just to afford playing. Get my drift?

On top of everything else Golf has lost it's Palmer's, Rodriquez et al. Every week we have vanilla out on the course. The only real exciting character was Tiger Woods and his body is falling apart from his extremely torque filled swing and whatever else he did with his body during off hours.  There was never a lot of players of color but there were a few now there is Tiger. There is no Chi Chi reveling in his climb from a barefoot boy from Puerto Rico rising to the top of his trade or Lee Trevino, a Mexican-American, hustler having the last laugh there is only Vanilla from Country Clubs, extremely expensive colleges, and an old Arnie Palmer and Jack Nicholas both part of the establishment sort of removed from the everyman Golfer.

Golf will continue to lose popularity unless the people involved make it affordable, and fun to watch. Golf will slip into it's past and always have the rich but if it is to be a sport of kings it will have to figure out how to keep us peons interested.