VBS

Old Pine Street Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia
Remember summertime, Vacation Bible School? Kool - Aid, cookies, arts & crafts . . . or crabs, as six - year - old Ben referred to them that one summer when we sent him to the urban Presbyterian VBS, led by collegiate interns from Ohio who had come to the "mission field" of West Philadelphia to "minister" to our privileged children.

Crabs? We thought perhaps the summer curriculum included a unit on beach life, maybe some hermit crabs in a sand tank. But no, it was just dear little Ben's mispronunciation / misunderstanding of good ol' crafts, everybody's favorite! Macaroni necklaces, tissue paper butterflies, log cabins made out of Popsicle sticks, plaster hand prints.

When my sons got a bit older, they were the ministers, helping the tots with crabs, passing out tee-shirts, making huge batches of Rice Krispy Treats to distribute to the Bible School kids at Old Pine Presbyterian. Funny, we weren't Presbyterians, but somehow our Vacation Bible School experiences always seemed to be.

VBS -- mostly harmless. This cool song & video by Ben Folds is a kind of grown - up version. I like to play it in my car, driving past all those "parking lots, cracked and growing grass." Once it gets in my head, I can hum it for days without stopping, practically all summer long . . .

Jesusland

Music video by Ben Folds performing Jesusland.
(C) 2005 SONY BMG MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT

Take a walk
out the gate you go and never stop
past all the stores and wig shops
quarter in a cup for every block
and watch the buildings grow
smaller as you go

Down the tracks
beautiful McMansions on a hill
that overlook a highway
with riverboat casinos and you still
have yet to see a soul

Jesusland
Jesusland

Town to town
broadcast to each house, they drop your name
but no one knows your face
Billboards quoting things you'd never say
you hang your head and pray

for Jesusland
Jesusland

Miles and miles
and the sun goin' down
Pulses glow
from their homes
You're not alone
Lights come on
as you lay your weary head on their lawn

Parking lots
cracked and growing grass you see it all
from offices to farms
crosses flying high above the malls
A longer walk

through Jesusland
Jesusland

on the CD, Songs for Silverman
by Ben Folds (b 1966)
American singer, song-writer, pianist

"Billboards quoting things you'd never say . . ."

Grown Up

That was then [1975]: Cyndee, Kitti, Cheryl, Etta
This is now [2010]: Etta, Kitti Cheryl, Cyndee

Everybody knows
It hurts to grow up
And everybody does
It's so weird to be back here
Let me tell you what
The years go on and
We're still fighting it, we're still fighting it . . .

It was pain
Sunny days and rain
I knew you'd feel the same things . . .

Everybody knows
It hurts to grow up . . .

lyrics from "Still Fighting It"
by Ben Folds (b. 1966), American singer - songwriter

Friends Forever: Etta, Joni, Cheryl, Kitti, Cyndee,

As we go on, we remember
All the times we had together
And as our lives change
Come whatever,
We will still be friends forever . . .

lyrics from "Graduation (Friends Forever)"
by Vitamin C (Colleen Ann Fitzpatrick)

Memorial Table at the
Francis Howell High School Reunion

There are places I'll remember
all my life, though some have changed.
Some forever, not for better;
some have gone and some remain.
All these places had their moments
with lovers and friends I still can recall.
Some are dead and some are living,
In my life I've loved them all . . .

I know I'll never lose affection
for people and things that went before
I know I'll often stop and think about them . . .

lyrics from "In My Life"
by John Lennon & Paul McCartney

Fair

Last week, for the full moon, I posted "Summons," a poem that has been with me for over three decades: " . . . tell me clouds / Are doing something to the moon / They never did before." Just a few weeks ago, my friend Burnetta, a very literary botanist, introduced me to this poetical conundrum by the same author:

FAIR AND UNFAIR
The beautiful is fair. The just is fair.
Yet one is commonplace and one is rare,
One everywhere, one scarcely anywhere.

So fair unfair a world. Had we the wit
To use the surplus for the deficit,
We'd make a fairer fairer world of it.

Robert Francis, 1901 - 1987
American Poet from Pennsylvania & Massachusetts

. . . which in turn reminded me of these short poems by artistic guru and King of StoryPeople Brian Andreas:

MORE FAIR
They left me
with your shadow,
saying things like
Life is not fair

& I believed them
for a long time.

But today,
I remembered
the way you laughed
& the heat
of your hand
in mine

& I knew that
life is more fair
than we can
ever imagine
if we are there to live it

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It also seems to work with the word lucky, as in "life is more lucky than we can ever imagine if we are there to live it."

As Ben Folds sings, "I am the luckiest."

And of course, Jason Mraz:
"Lucky to have been where I have been . . .
Lucky to have stayed where we have stayed . . . "

*************************
Not to mention Love & Justice

*************************
Now, back to StoryPeople:

DESTINY?
There's only your time & then there's not-your-time, he said.
All the rest is made up to keep you busy.

PERFECT ENDING
I'm not sure how it's going to turn out,
except I'll die in the end, she said.
So, really, what could go wrong?