The Merry Monk

I’m writing a book. I’ll be back when it’s done.

…there are two ways through life–the way of nature and the way of grace. You have to choose which one you’ll follow.

Grace doesn’t try to please itself. Accepts being slighted, forgotten, disliked. Accepts insults and injuries.

Nature only wants to please itself. Get others to please it too. Likes to lord it over them. To have its own way. It finds reasons to be unhappy when all the world is shining around it, when love is smiling through all things…

…no one who loves the way of grace ever comes to a bad end. – Mrs. O’Brien in The Tree of Life

Thanks, Beau.

We’re all born to broken people on their most honest day of living
and since that first breath… We’ll need grace that we’ve never given
I’ve been haunted by standard red devils and white ghosts
and it’s not only when these eyes are closed
these lies are ropes that I tie down in my stomach,
but they hold this ship together tossed like leaves in this weather
and my dreams are sails that I point towards my true north,
stretched thin over my rib bones, and pray that it gets better
but it won’t, at least I don’t believe it will…
so I’ve built a wooden heart inside this iron ship,
to sail these blood red seas and find your coasts.
don’t let these waves wash away your hopes
this war-ship is sinking, and I still believe in anchors
pulling fist fulls of rotten wood from my heart, I still believe in saviors
but I know that we are all made out of shipwrecks, every single board
washed and bound like crooked teeth on these rocky shores
so come on and let’s wash each other with tears of joy and tears of grief
and fold our lives like crashing waves and run up on this beach
come on and sew us together, tattered rags stained forever
we only have what we remember

I am the barely living son of a woman and man who barely made it
but we’re making it taped together on borrowed crutches and new starts
we all have the same holes in our hearts…
everything falls apart at the exact same time
that it all comes together perfectly for the next step
but my fear is this prison… that I keep locked below the main deck
I keep a key under my pillow, it’s quiet and it’s hidden
and my hopes are weapons that I’m still learning how to use right
but they’re heavy and I’m awkward…always running out of fight
so I’ve carved a wooden heart, put it in this sinking ship
hoping it would help me float for just a few more weeks
because I am made out of shipwrecks, every twisted beam
lost and found like you and me scattered out on the sea
so come on let’s wash each other with tears of joy and tears of grief
and fold our lives like crashing waves and run up on this beach
come on and sew us together, just some tattered rags stained forever
we only have what we remember

My throat it still tastes like house fire and salt water
I wear this tide like loose skin, rock me to sea
if we hold on tight we’ll hold each other together
and not just be some fools rushing to die in our sleep
all these machines will rust I promise, but we’ll still be electric
shocking each other back to life
Your hand in mine, my fingers in your veins connected
our bones grown together inside
our hands entwined, your fingers in my veins braided
our spines grown stronger in time
because are church is made out of shipwrecks
from every hull these rocks have claimed
but we pick ourselves up, and try and grow better through the change
so come on yall and let’s wash each other with tears of joy and tears of grief
and fold our lives like crashing waves and run up on this beach
come on and sew us together, were just tattered rags stained forever
we only have what we remember

I present this video with special thanks to Terry Gross and Tom Waits.

I’ve been infected by the new Tom Waits album… and scratching the itch it gives me feels so good.

Here’s the new video just released for “Satisfied” and another cut from Bad As Me.

Purchase Bad As Me here and get the latest at TomWaits.com.

This blog is starving while I’m in the belly of the whale. Please forgive me, I know not what I do.

The Merry Monk of Funk introduced me to another great band. I thought I’d share. Ladies and gentlemen, The Mercury Program.

Visit MercuryProgram.com to get their latest album, tour dates and more.

“The greatest part of mankind are fools … and friendship, you know, is seldom made but amongst equals.”

- Desiderius Erasmus

“I doubt if a single individual could be found from the whole of mankind free from some form of insanity. The only difference is one of degree.”

- Desiderius Erasmus

It is said that Rabbi Simcha Bunim, one of the early Hasidic masters, used to carry two notes with him on which he would meditate. The rabbi’s teachings were never written down, but oral tradition says he taught the following:

Everyone must have two pockets, with a note in each pocket, so that he or she can reach into the one or the other, depending on the need. When feeling lowly and depressed, discouraged or disconsolate, one should reach into the right pocket, and, there, find the words: “For my sake was the world created.”

But when feeling high and mighty one should reach into the left pocket, and find the words: “I am but dust and ashes.”

To be created in the image of God gives man regal dignity. To be made out of common dirt and destined for death is humiliating. Walking with our Creator in these twin realities is the walk of faith.

Along these lines, Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik wirtes:

In God, man finds both affirmation of himself as a great being, and a ruthless, inconsiderate negation of himself as nothing. This is the main, the dominant theme of Judaism. … Finding God is, on the one hand, the greatest victory which man may obtain and, on the other hand, the most humiliating, tormenting defeat which the human being experiences. … In a word, the dialectical movement of surging forward and falling back is the way of life ordained by God.

Now that’s some heavy shit.

So, like Rabbi Simcha Bunim recommended, I’m going to carry two notes, “I am but dust and ashes” and “For my sake was the world created.” I’m aware that walking the divine tightrope between those two thoughts requires a tension at heights that are often disorienting. Even so, I know from past experience that if I carry only one of those notes I’ll either fall into despair or delusions of grandeur.

Thanks to the Merry Monk of Funk for tipping me off to this band. HOLY FUNK!