The first camping trip for this year was a relaxing one. We had beautiful weather and all the natural landscape we remembered from the last trip was still in place. Saturday we set up camp. I finally got to put up the screen house that Sharon gave to me on my Birthday. It went up easy and was large enough to fit around the picnic table. It was a quiet day, we ate lunch and we walked around a bit. For dinner we BBQed chicken wings and had grilled vegetables. Then later we sat around the campfire and sang songs. We camped right next to the Delaware River this time and you could hear the waterfall at night. We both slept well. We woke around 6:30 and I put on a pot of coffee. We made bacon and eggs for breakfast and went on a bike ride. Then we packed up and drove through the winding mountain roads in Pennsylvania and ended up crossing back over the Jersey side in Frenchtown where we had lunch and headed home.
We we invited as guests this weekend to attend an incredible Folk Concert. Jayne was photographing Ribbon of Highway Endless Sky way at Monmouth University in the Pollak Theatre. The perform a tribute to the Spirit of Woody Guthrie. There were so many hair raising performances during this 2 hour concert that we both left the theatre totally energized.
About the Show
“This train don’t carry no gamblers, users, six time cheaters.”
Meaning the words of Woody Guthrie, from songs such as “Deportee,” “Hangknot,” “Way Over Yonder in the Minor Key,” “1913 Massacre,” and “Pastures of Plenty” to lengthy narrations about hoboing, unions, and political petitions, there will no artifice revealed here. Nothing for cheaters or portly “politishuns” as Guthrie might say. Only a sort of stream of consciousness version of Toqueville’s “Democracy in America” will be articulated, and it will be the audience’s decision what will be mentally accepted.
But the show appears to work on multiple levels, bringing the listener in first through beautifully performed music, only to give way to intellectual comprehension. All of the artists involved, Jimmy LaFave, Eliza Gilkyson, Slaid Cleaves, Ellis Paul, Joel Rafael, Sarah Lee Guthrie, Johnny Irion, Kevin Welch, and Michael Fracasso, have the emotional and intellectual ability to articulate Guthrie’s thoughts. They are endowed with enough temerity, the result of living enough to see the world through unclouded eyes, to make the listener feel the words at least through empathy.
Then slowly, somewhere around the song “Peace Call” near the end of the show, such empathy gives way to intellectual understanding. The relevance, which appeared only feasibly through the way the songs are sung, become clear through the actual words themselves; as the story moves from the trains through McCarthyism, war, and social injustice.
Sample Show Setlist(see http://woodyguthrie.org/Lyrics/Lyrics.htm for song lyrics):
Narration: Riding the Rails
This Train is Bound for Glory
Narration: Indian Free Lands
Down in the Oklahoma Hills
Narration: Okemah
Way Over Yonder in the Minor Key
Narration: Outlawing
Pretty Boy Floyd
Narration: Dust Bowl
Pastures of Plenty
Narration: California
Vigilante Man
Narration: Skid Row
I Ain’t Got No Home
Narration: Union Member
1913 Massacre
Narration: Time
Stepstone
Narration: Folk Process
Be No Church Tonight
Narration: Musical Metaphysics
Do Re Mi
Narration: Dylan
Lonesome Valley
Narration: My Voice
Deportee
Narration: In the Red
Ramblin’ Reckless Hobo
Narration: Painting
Hangknot
Narration: Religion
This Morning I Was Born Again
Narration: Kid’s First
Children’s Medley(a collection of Guthrie’s children songs)
Narration: Petitions
Peace Call
Narration: War
God’s Promise
Narration: Love
This Land is Your Land
Intro: Rock and Roll
Going Down the Road
Ramblin’ Round/Goodnight Irene
The Supremacy of Love
If I speak in the languages
of humans and angels but have no love, I have become a reverberating gong or a
clashing cymbal.
If I have the gift of prophecy and
can understand all secrets and every form of knowledge, and if I have absolute
faith so as to move mountains but have no love, I am nothing.
Even if I give away everything that I have and sacrifice myself, but have no love, I gain nothing.
Love is always patient;1 love is always kind; love is never envious or arrogant with pride. Nor is she conceited,
and she is never rude; she never thinks just of herself or ever get annoyed.
She never is resentful, is never glad with sin, but always glad to side with truth, whenever the truth should win.
She bears up under everything, believes the best in all, there is no limit to her hope, and she will never fall.
Love never fails. Now if there are prophecies, they will be done away with. If there are languages, they will cease. If there is knowledge, it will be done away with. For what we know is incomplete and what we prophesy is incomplete. But when what is complete comes, then what is incomplete will be done away with.
When I was a child, I spoke like a child, thought like a child, and reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up my childish ways. Now we see only an indistinct image in a mirror, but then we will be face to face. Now what I know is incomplete, but then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known.
Right now three things remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love.
Marriage Wisdom
A good marriage is created by forming a circle of love. In marriage, we give ourselves freely and generously into the hands of the one we love, and in doing so; we receive the love and trust of the other as a most precious gift. We must remember never to take these gifts for granted and to always treat them with the utmost respect.
Hand Blessing
Bride and Groom, please hold hands, palms up, so you may see the gift that they are to you.
Sharon, these are the hands, experienced, strong and vibrant with love, that are holding yours on your wedding day, as he promises to love you all the days of his life.
These are the hands that will passionately love you and cherish you through the years, for a lifetime of happiness. These are the hands that will countless times wipe the tears from your eyes: tears of sorrow and tears of joy. These are the hands that will comfort you in illness, and hold you when fear or grief racks your mind. These are the hands that will tenderly lift your chin and brush your cheek as they raise your face to look into his eyes: eyes that are filled completely with his love and desire for you.
Billy, these are the hands that are smooth, creative and powerful, that hold yours on your wedding day, as she pledges her love and commitment to you all the days of her life.
These are the hands that will hold you tight as you struggle through difficult times. They are the hands that will comfort you when you are sick or console you when you are grieving. These are the hands that will passionately love you and cherish you through the years, for a lifetime of happiness. These are the hands that will hold you in joy, excitement and hope. These are the hands that will give you support as she encourages you to chase down your dreams. Together, everything you wish for can be realized.
May they always be held by the other. Keep
them tender and gentle as they nurture each other in their love.
Vows
Billy, do you take Sharon, in the presence of these witnesses, to be your wife?
Billy: I do
Sharon, do you take Billy, in the presence of these witnesses, to be your husband?
Sharon: I do
Billy:
From this day forward, you will not walk alone
My heart will be your shelter
My arms will be your home
I promise to love and respect you,
To hold you in good times and in bad,
And to put you before all others.
I accept you for all that you are and all that you are not.
I promise to be a good and faithful husband
I promise to be your friend, your love and your partner for all the days of our lives.
Sharon:
From this day forward, you will not walk alone
My heart will be your shelter
My arms will be your home
I promise to love and respect you,
To hold you in good times and in bad,
And put you before all others.
I accept you for all that you are and all that you are not.
I promise to be a good and faithful wife
I promise to be your friend, your love and your partner for all the days of our lives.
Rings
For thousands of years couples have exchanged rings as a symbol of their vows. Your rings indicate that even in your uniqueness you have chosen to be bound together. Let these rings also be a sign that love has substance as well as soul, and that despite its occasional sorrows, love is a circle of happiness, wonder and delight.
Billy, as you place Sharon’s ring on her finger, repeat after me:
Just as this circle is without end,
My love for you is eternal.
Sharon, as you place Billy’s ring on his finger, repeat after me:
Just as this circle is without end,
My love for you is eternal.
Billy and Sharon, as you have sealed your vows by the gift of these rings, and in the presence of these loved ones and it gives me great pleasure to pronounce that you are husband and wife. Please share your first kiss.
Our ceremony has ended,
but the journey has just begun. In
closing, remember to look at each other often, as though it were the first and
last time. May the love you share give
you strength and the life you share bring you joy. May all that is good, beautiful, and true
abide with you both now and forever.
Congratulations.
The Philadelphia Flower Show is annual delight. Just before spring flower and garden enthusiast flock to see what all of the local venders and artists have created and placed on display. I took lots of pictures despite the challenge of getting around so many people. It was so crowded that it was almost an unpleasant experience, however the displays were beautiful. Sharon, Liz and I made our way through all of the displays and Sharon brought home 25 beautiful white roses.
It was a cold winter's day and the snow had fallen the night before. Sharon and I both had off that day and we decided that between work, home and the cold weather we had been spending way too much time indoors. Our original intention was to simply take a ride to Turkey Swamp Park to take pictures of the snow as is stuck to the tree's. The sun was shining, the skies were blue. We ended up at Turkey Swamp Park, then Manasquan Reservoir then off to a new location... Walnford Farm Village at Crosswicks Creek Greenway in Upper Freehold.
Happy 20th Birthday Amanda
We headed to Philadelphia with Amanda and Phil to meet Liz and Mark to go to the University of Penn's Archaeological Museum. We picked up sandwiches at WaWa along the way for lunch. As you can see there was a lot to look at as we all visited the cultures of many civilizations of past. We stopped of at a local restaurant for dinner. It had a big screen TV and the Philadelphia Eagles were playing the Minnesota Vikings. Phi was very pleased being an Eagles fan.
Happy Birthday Elizabeth!!!!!!!!
Everyone stopped by for Christmas at the house. Plenty of food, plenty of spirits and lots of love.
Liz and Mark stopped by with their new puppy Tug. He is an adorable little guy who loves to play, play, play.
there's hardly any pics of our family. read more
on 03-28-09 Our Wedding