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March 7, 2005
So it’s come down to this… I’m
supposed to be working in my taxes but have run out of excuses so I fired up the
laptop to post a few lines...
I’m just back from LA and was lucky enough to actually get a relatively rare
peek at something southern Californians say they hardly ever see these days –
the sun! I got to put in a six miles run on Thousand Oaks Boulevard in Agoura
Hills Saturday morning and then visit a beautiful Franciscan Abbey in the Santa
Monica Mountains overlooking Malibu and the Pacific Ocean that afternoon. The
Abbey is a retreat house and sits astride a cliff where beautiful statuary and
meditation gardens are nestled into the hillside. The sense of peace is palpable
and the stunning natural beauty is truly breathtaking. (I’m told that actor Mel
Gibson was so taken with the place that he became a neighbor and visits each day
to say his morning prayers.)
My new pal, Renee Bodie who runs the house concert where I performed
Saturday night, picked me up at the airport on Friday at about 7PM. From LAX we
went to a club called Kulak’s Woodshed where Jackson Browne’s brother Severin
and his friend Eric Hansen (who was to play the Bodie House with me) were
performing. Severin and Eric were great and invited me to do a few songs as a
way of promoting my gig. Everybody was exceedingly generous .
Saturday night’s show was a lot of fun. I must admit I was a little burned
(figuratively and literally) from the day and the jet lag; at one point the
lyrics to Not with my Jesus just completely vanished from my head. I’ve learned
not too fight these moments so I played a new song “Sermon to the Birds” that I
had written from the text of a homily that Saint Francis had, according to
legend, preached to a flock of birds in a field near Assisi. I had been
thinking a lot about Francis that day and it only seemed right to do his song.
Anyway it was a genuinely warm and appreciative crowd and I felt like a made a
lot of new friends.
After the show I said some hasty goodbyes and made for the airport. My son
Cole’s confirmation was to take place the next afternoon and I was catching the
1AM connecting light to Houston. At Bush International Airport (which has its
own kind of less inspiring statuary…) I got a really bad vanilla milkshake for
$5.98 (I was really hungry the candy store was the only thing open!) and
stretched out on the floor at 6AM for a quick nap. A short while later we were
bouncing through the sky in a 737, crammed into the smallest seats human beings
can physically occupy, and I got to the church in Wilmington just in time to
doze off during Bishop Salterelli’s sermon. It didn’t matter. I was so proud to
see my kid stand up there. He was actually wearing my suit and looked every inch
a young man when he told the bishop the new name he had chosen for his
confirmation; Blaise, after the patron saint of throats. All I know is I had a
lump in mine.
It’s good to be home. Now back to doing the taxes. Hmmm, nope, that’ll have to
wait. It’s time to cook dinner.
Peace,
John
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