tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-56884650520779062792024-03-21T00:40:13.106-07:00Being notmemichelehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11992559677020494307noreply@blogger.comBlogger15125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5688465052077906279.post-47422297232646171272015-12-25T03:21:00.001-08:002015-12-25T03:21:04.639-08:00Merry CHRISTmas<div style="text-align: center;">
This Savior in a manger changes <b>everything</b></div>
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that's why we sing!</div>
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Merry CHRISTmas, Everyone ~ <b>thanks</b> for being here!</div>
michelehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11992559677020494307noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5688465052077906279.post-44259245967650598322014-03-13T02:31:00.000-07:002014-03-13T02:41:48.973-07:00キミのために: Tohoku 3.11.2011 Three Years On<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>Above:</i> the yellow section is Tohoku</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><b>So, here we are, 3 years later.</b></span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">It really did change me. And as i go, i’ve come to discover that it seems to have changed maybe a lot of people, not all of them Japanese and many not necessarily directly affected by the 9.0 earthquake and ensuing tsunami and nuclear plant tragedies that unravelled on March 11, 2011 in Tohoku.</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">This post would have published sooner and more anniversary-appropriately, but Japan being ahead in time from where i reside here in the U.S. saw 3/11 in Japan ahead of us by nearly a day and i had an intrinsic need to watch as much coverage of the anniversary events airing in Japan as i had access to that day. On March 11 in my Pacific Standard Time zone, i worked a full day "closing", then discovered once i got home that internet service wasn't cooperating on any device i attempted to crank this out on (it was windy here last night...?). And still, earlier tonight, programming about Tohoku continued to air. So, i trust you understand.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Just two weeks ago now while working at my not-so “day job”, someone particularly special happened in to my store. i was working register, so was the one to greet customers and take their orders. We get quite a few Asian customers at my store, but it isn’t always evident to me just who are Japanese ...until i get their name for their order, so her name tipped me off.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Dork that i am, i am admittedly happy on the occasion that i meet or encounter my fellow Japanese, be they issei, nisei or sansei. In my heart, because of our shared cultural heritage, i have an affinity for them (or you, if you qualify) -and, evidently, my (Japanese) soul sees my fellow Japanese as my extended family. Some take more kindly to this than others.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">99% of the time, those who respond to this quality in me most positively are women. And my very best experiences in this vein have always been with Japanese females in or from Japan who, for God-knows what reason, usually immediately respond to me as one of their own -however <i>not</i> Japanese i may look on the outside. One of these days i should look into why this has been my experience -because i’m curious like that.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">It’s felt a little to me like two puppies meeting and becoming instantaneous friends, having met Yuri. The things we’ve come to learn that she and i have in common are downright ...eerie. The Japanese might call it “sadame” (fate). To me, God did it.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Yuri, i came to learn, is a student majoring in psychology at a local university. To say that it’s highly unusual for someone from Japan to major in psychology - particularly of the western variety - would be a (gross) understatement. The field and practice of psychology in Japan has been and remains severely underdeveloped, to its peril. So in the two weeks since we met, i had to ask why. Why western psychology?</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">i was a journalism major, but if i were to go back or do it over, i think the me of today would major in psychology or sociology and minor in business. Or maybe vice-versa. </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">So, there’s that in common.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">As for her whys, </span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">a) an interest in human behavior -</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">which has been the single most interesting facet of the job i’m presently in (y'all are interesting creatures <i>...wink</i>) and likely plays a significant factor in why i’ve lasted there as long as i have.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">b) she has a brother ...as do i.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">c) ...3.11.2011 Tohoku.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Yuri was in Japan, albeit closer to Tokyo, at the time of the event -and though i have family and a few friends in Japan, and so have heard some of their accounts of the event, it’s interesting to me to get to hear <i>her</i> experience of it. No one that i personally know was in Tohoku that day, yet the accounts i’ve heard of the 9.0 magnitude earthquake in and of itself make it clear that that alone was terrifying. Which only points to how much worse it must have been to have experienced what went down at “ground zero” in Tohoku that day.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">We live in such a fast-paced world full of distractions that have, in my opinion, realized and exacerbated an epidemic of ADD/ADHD in developed nations. My observation of Japan from across the ocean in the context of 3.11.2011 has only made my love for my paternal homeland grow. Here, in the States, for our plethora of catastrophic events, it seems to me that we grow all-too apathetic all-too quickly. If we weren’t personally affected by an event, we seem to move on, and quickly -if we so much as notice at all. Our media coverage moves on just as quickly -which doesn’t help. i find it unnerving, in fact. In this rush-and-hurry world, ones personal tragedy gets reduced to a flash-in-the-pan at most, if it makes the radar at all. Unless, of course, it's <i>you</i> that it happened to.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">My family subscribes to <a href="http://www.tvjapan.net/" target="_blank">TVJapan</a>, an NHK channel available here in the States, which has and continues to air four programs each and every week about post-3.11.2011 Tohoku: Testimonies of the Great East Japan Earthquake (airs twice each week), Tohoku Travelogue and From Tohoku: Lectures for the Future. Though there are, of course, other television stations in Japan, NHK is a dominant force amongst them. Last year, NHK based one of its most popular dramas, <i>Yae’s Sakura</i>, on a historical heroine hailing from and set in Aizu in Tohoku. And every year since 2011, NHK has dedicated a segment of their biggest show of the year, NHK’s New Years Eve “kouhaku”, to spotlighting Tohoku in light of 3.11.2011. Simply stated, this blows my mind. </span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">This is TVJapan's regular weekly program grid - with programs about Tohoku circled in red</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">i expect that this, what little i manage to catch about Tohoku from this side of the Pacific ocean, is but a glimpse at their continued coverage and vigil of 3.11.2011, and that said, what a contrast.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Yuri’s reason for coming all the way to the United States in the pursuit of a degree in western psychology with regard to 3.11? </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">“They’re forgetting.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">She proceeded to relay to me that experiencing that tragic day jolted into the people of Japan a keen sense about what truly matters in life -family, mostly. But that sentiment seems to her to be dissipating as she sees people now diverting back to the ‘same ‘ol’ that was before the events of that tragic day.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Sound familiar?</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Yet, i can’t help but take note of the difference in attention span ...despite the degree of drinking and video gaming that goes on in Japan.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">i share my experience about Yuri here in this context because she is an example of others, like myself, who have been changed by the tragedies of 3.11.2011 to the point of taking (in her case, tremendous) action. </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">That said, <b>we have work to do.</b></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>Yes, </b></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px; text-decoration: underline;"><b><i>still</i></b></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>, 3 years on.</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">At present, there are still some 267,000 survivors residing in the temporary housing units erected for the surviving residents of Tohoku.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">This is where the concentrated effort of the proceeds of our 3.11 Heal Japan benefit EP is being directed.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">However, the 3.11 Heal Japan benefit effort is 3-fold:</span></span></div>
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<li style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><b>The Heal Japan benefit EP </b>is our digital download available on iTunes (<a href="https://itunes.apple.com/jp/artist/michele-shigoka/id606779969?ign-mpt=uo%3D4" target="_blank">Japan</a>/<a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/heal-japan-music-benefit-single/id606779728" target="_blank">US</a>) and amazon (<a href="http://www.amazon.co.jp/Heal-Japan-Benefit-Michele-Shigoka/dp/B00BMXH8UE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1394694442&sr=8-1&keywords=heal+japan+michele+shigoka" target="_blank">Japan</a>/<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Heal-Japan-Benefit-Michele-Shigoka/dp/B00BN02VVM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1394694504&sr=8-1&keywords=michele+shigoka+heal+japan" target="_blank">US</a>) worldwide. </span></span></li>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">For just </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px; white-space: nowrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">¥200 / </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">.99 per single track or </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large; line-height: 18px; white-space: nowrap;">¥600 / </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">$2.49 for the full 3-track EP, <b>you</b> can help fund the building of homes for those who lost theirs and are still residing in temporary housing in Tohoku. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">The Heal Japan benefit EP was a labor of love on my part funded and produced entirely out of pocket. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><b>100% of sales generated goes directly to Habitat for Humanity’s building of homes for 3.11 survivors in Tohoku.</b> </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">i don’t see a penny.</span></div>
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<li style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">spread the word!</span></b></span></li>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Share the links to </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">the iTunes or amazon Heal Japan benefit EP purchase pages</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">the <a href="http://311healjapan.com/" target="_blank">Official 3.11 Heal Japan Benefit site</a></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 22px;">「日本を愛す」MV</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">follow & interact with us on <a href="https://twitter.com/311healjapan" target="_blank">twitter</a> </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">“like” & interact with us on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/311HealJapanBenefit" target="_blank">Facebook</a></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0.0px;">follow our channel <a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/TikisTorchProduction?feature=watch" target="_blank">Tiki's Torch Productions on YouTube</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0.0px;">follow michele (notme) on <a href="http://www.pinterest.com/notmemichele/" target="_blank">Pinterest</a></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">and</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">on <a href="http://instagram.com/notmemusic" target="_blank">Instagram</a></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">i’ve worked in the non-profit sector in two previous jobs and one thing that always disturbed me about it is the divide, likely driven by competition. <i>So many non-profits!</i> Hard to know which, if any, to get behind. That being the case tho’, the case of aid to Tohoku included, my hope is that our various efforts to help be <i>effective</i>. And to that end, the selection process for the recipient of the proceeds of the Heal Japan benefit was a careful one.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Effectiveness, however, requires cohesion. There is collective strength in numbers and success doesn’t come from isolation. This is a team effort. ...or it should be. And maybe that explains the lack of progress concerning the reconstruction of Tohoku. For as many as seem to care, why the apparent hangups? My (somewhat educated) guess is that bureaucracy has been the predominant thing in the way.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">As for the rest of us, those of us who took action and showed up and continue to even three years on, i salute you and support you and i hope that i have demonstrated that by following and promoting your various efforts in this vein via the various social media outlets. To any of my fellows in the Tohoku reconstruction trenches with me who have supported or promoted the efforts of the Heal Japan benefit, <i><b>thank you</b></i>. </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Your support matters considerably. </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Now, <i><b>let’s get </b>(back) <b>to work...!</b></i></span></span><br />
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michelehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11992559677020494307noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5688465052077906279.post-43045351315323287152013-10-19T04:42:00.002-07:002013-10-19T04:44:33.570-07:00i met Virl<b>In the interest of saving all of our eyes, i'm inflicting a larger sized font on y'all with this post. Let me know how you feel about it, please.</b><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><i>Warning:</i> </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">i’m about to “come out” about something in this post that i’ve been far more closeted </span>(“in the closet”) about than i am about being gay. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: small;">*gulp* </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: small;">Consider yourselves warned. </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: small;">Here...we...go.</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">i was born and raised a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (“Mormon”). But that's not what i'm in the closet about.</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">Though i was born here in “the States”, my family moved to Japan right after my baby brother was born, so i was mighty mighty young when we left the United States and my earliest memories and the majority of my formative years took place in Japan. We eventually returned to the U.S. settling in California, in a suburb just outside of Los Angeles. And it was there that the remainder of my "growing up" took place.<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">Fortunately for me, upon relocating back to the United States, there were a couple of kids my age that i went to school with who lived very near me that i subsequently became friends with. One of these kids was Alicia. Alicia and i used to trade things. Specifically, i remember trading her a Barbie doll for her Bonne Bell Dr. Pepper Lip Smacker lip gloss. To this day, i feel like that was a damn good trade. i was never all that attached to the two Barbies i ever recall owning -one of them being one of Barbie’s friends (...Skipper? The hell if i remember). i do recall having a Barbie camper at one point -which i thought was dang cool. </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">One day while at Alicia’s, we got to talking about boys we thought were cute. She and i were all of 9 years old when this conversation took place, mind you. And all i know of “cute boys” at the time is... (i had absolutely no idea i was or would be gay or that something called “gay” even existed at the age of 9, you realize) i had a soundtrack LP from the very first Power Rangers-type show ever created called Go (Five) Rangers which was airing in Japan at the time we moved back to the States. i thought the guy that played the green ranger was cute, so i showed her the picture of him in the gatefold soundtrack LP cover. Thinking back on her reaction, i don’t think she was moved by my taste in boys. Instead, she hastily went and fetched something to show me <i>her</i> example of a cute guy, promptly returning with an LP of her own to show me. “<i>This</i> is who <i>I</i> think is cute! He’s Mormon.”</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i><b><u>This</u> was the album cover that Alicia showed me on that fateful day.</b></i></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">And that was “it”.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">In hindsight, the fact that he was a Mormon, like me, was oddly the more significant part of the attraction to me as i don’t recall being bowled over by his looks, initially. Mormons are urged to marry Mormon, and even though i was all of 9 years old, my young brain was well aware of this. i’ve often heard fans say that they thought they would marry their teen idol; that wasn’t the case for me. i didn’t ever figure that i would be the one to marry the guy. Yet it was that this guy was Mormon that drew me in, initially.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">Soon thereafter, the variety show premiered. The year was 1976. And i was hooked.</span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAntWnIb-hoTSLoj_rrN7MHjUxnl_-gB1M-F26fU0C6MN0nu2M4TPqU8tHury7lePEQEq14yOyalxBiHrdthzhrwr11zBJGbuwZ1AWE6UKPAx5R4pw3L7UQJEKDSz1sHZSym9PlW2AF3w/s1600/d&m1975.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAntWnIb-hoTSLoj_rrN7MHjUxnl_-gB1M-F26fU0C6MN0nu2M4TPqU8tHury7lePEQEq14yOyalxBiHrdthzhrwr11zBJGbuwZ1AWE6UKPAx5R4pw3L7UQJEKDSz1sHZSym9PlW2AF3w/s320/d&m1975.jpg" width="242" /></a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i><b>Oh my heck, sooo freakin' CUTE, they were!</b></i></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">i became the “f-word”; a (can’t...bring...myself...to...say..it...) f...f...fan. (what a <i>dreadful</i> word) And not just a bit of one. i became a <i>big</i>...’ol...fanny fan. And not just for a minute or even a still somewhat respectable “spell”; it went on for <i>years </i>(of my precious lifespan).</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">i was a quiet fanny fan. i didn’t really know anyone other than Alicia who thought that Donny Osmond was the bees knees. In fact, i learned as i went, that it was not “cool” in the slightest to be an Osmond fan. Nevertheless, i was never ashamed of it. Everyone i knew knew and i didn’t care what they thought. Read what my peers wrote in every one of my junior high and high school yearbooks and it’ll tell you that it was well known that i was a big ‘ol Osmond fan.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">The Donny & Marie variety show enlightened me to the fact that the “cute guy” had a sister, eventually leading to the discovery that they were, in fact, just two of a rather large family comprised of five <i>performing</i> siblings ...and two siblings, Virl and Tom, the eldest in the family, who didn’t generally perform due to hearing impairments. In total, there are NINE Osmonds: </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">Virl </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">Tom </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">Alan </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">Wayne </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">Merrill </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">Jay </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">Donny </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">Marie </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>and...</i> </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">Jimmy</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>(risidual fanny fan-ness right there *cringe*)</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">i never got to meet nor so much as ever <i>see</i> them back then despite the fact that the Donny & Marie Show taped in Hollywood, just 20 minutes away from where i lived, and had even been given their address by friends i went to church with who knew them. My folks weren’t interested in making that happen for me and i was too young to do anything about it myself at the time. It was torturous to be deprived of that, and i resented it for years thereafter. In fact, i still do, somewhere underneath; the Osmonds will never again be who they were when i loved them most.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">Life for me back then was pretty dark and in the years since i’ve come to recognize that the Osmonds -and the other teen idol-types i was enamored with back then- served as an escape from that. They seemed happy and i wanted that. They were my drug. And in hindsight, i suppose that’s better than having done the real thing, or any number of other things i could have done to escape my reality at the time.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">My mom’s family of origin was and remains predominantly in Utah, where they settled upon coming to America on a ship from the Netherlands in the 1950s, and there were also reasons being Mormon that journeying to Utah get incorporated into one’s life at times, so much to my Osmond-obsessed elation, from time-to-time i got to be in the vicinity of the empire that was Osmond in the latter part of their heyday. i was in heaven, though longingly painfully, if i so much as caught a glimpse of anything Osmond when i did get to go to Utah. The Osmond Studios was, in fact, enroute to one destination point we went to most when we were there. </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">Finally finally one day, i miraculously got my dad to stop at the studios just so i could find out if maybe just maybe they offered something in the way of a tour of the studios to the public, so when i found out that they did, it became crucial in my young mind to take that tour. It makes me incredibly sad to think that just getting to experience something like that was for me so virtually impossible back then. But i have a Broom Hilda cartoon frame that i clipped out of the newspaper years ago while growing up that i still have to this day: a frame of Broom Hilda sitting next to Santa in his sleigh and Santa saying to her, “When you believe in something that strongly, it <i>has</i> to happen.” Something about that spoke to me even way back then. And boy, has that proven to come to pass for me in some incredible ways in the years since. But at the time, all i had were impossibly elusive pipe dreams that really felt like they would never happen; a Cinderella existence with never a “prince” (translation: “savior”) in sight, except through a TV screen. It was awful and i don’t recommend it.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">Somehow, i eventually pulled it off, getting to take that tour. And i went prepared. Over the years, i had assembled rather large scrapbooks of the many articles i’d collected about the Osmonds. Just as most everything i wanted was denied me growing up, i also only very rarely had the good fortune of acquiring a teen magazine, which cost .75 cents at the time. i will forever remember the very first teen magazine that Mom bought me; it will always hold a special place in my heart. So any and every thing i ever came in to about the Osmonds was precious to me and therefore wound up lovingly stored in the scrapbooks i’d assembled through the years. There were maybe three of these scrapbooks in my collection when this particular incident was going down, each about four inches thick, and i hauled one of them with me in case i’d actually get to take the elusive tour. Why i felt it necessary to bring such a thing only makes sense in hindsight.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><b>This was the very first teen magazine that Mom bought me, which we bought at the long-since defunct grocery store, Fazio’s. </b></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">i’m not sure that “enjoyed” would be the proper descriptor for my experience taking that tour. i was such a mixture of beyond excited and nervous throughout it that i shook like a leaf, internally. i am such a different person now than i was at the age of 15, which is how old i was at the time, that though i empathize with her, i hardly relate to her anymore; to think that simply touring the building caused me to feel like that at the time. But go figure; it did.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b><i>This is the video they showed at the Osmond studios that kicked off the tour. Loved it then, and love it still.</i></b></span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">In a section adjacent to the lobby at the studio was one glass case displaying items they evidently had for sale; Osmond posters, t-shirts, OsMints (don’t ask). Being as familiar as i was to the Osmond mail order enterprise, what little they seemed to have to offer in the glass case at the studio seemed surprisingly little and disappointing to me and so before my 15 year old self had time enough to grow too nervous, i found myself almost subconsciously bolting over to the front desk where i confidently asked, “Is there someplace i can go to buy Osmond stuff?”. Indeed, there was, and she promptly got on the phone making a call (something to the effect of, “I’m sending her up”) and drew a map for me to get there. </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">“There” proved to be just down the small dirt road adjacent to the studio to what’s probably best described as a storage building that those in-the-know referred to as the “OzArt building”. That Dad actually took me there, despite how ridiculously close it was, was yet another miracle.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">As i got out of the car, i hauled out with me the scrapbook i had brought and approached the door to the building with Mom trailing behind me. What on earth possessed me to lug that behemoth of a thing with me will forever elude me, suffice it to say that it’s evident in hindsight that i was meant to. As i neared the door to the building, it grew evident that it was ajar. And the closer i got to the somewhat open door, the more that i could see that someone was sitting at a desk just inside. And the closer i continued to get, the more that i could see that the person seated at the desk was ...Virl <i>...Osmond.</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Ho</i>-ly heck, an<i> <u>Osmond</u> ...</i>in the<i> <u>flesh</u>!</i></b></span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">Remember, i had yet to meet any of them. Or even so much as lay eyes on any of them in person up to that point. In that moment, i truly was in no way any less excited than i would have been had it been Donny sitting before me.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">As i proceeded to approach and knock on the door, Virl turned toward the door greeting and inviting Mom & i in. i have the big, cumbersome scrapbook in my arms and it doesn’t take Virl long to notice and ask me about it, so i hand it to him so he can see what it is. He was quiet as he sat back down at the desk with the scrapbook and began to leaf through the pages then said, “Did <i>you</i> do this?”. He called out to someone else who came in to the room we were in and Virl motioned him over to see my scrapbook. And as Mom and i stood there observing this, it occurs to me that the man that has just joined us is none other than “Uncle" Tom; Osmond matriarch, Olive’s brother. The Osmonds were such a family package that we hardcore fans knew even the names and faces of some extended Osmond family members.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">i felt like i had died and gone to heaven. Even had you offered me a brand new Porsche, it would have paled compared to this very first Osmond moment in the sun to me. i was simply <i>floored</i> to be experiencing what i was at that time.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">Eventually, Uncle Tom said to Mom and i, “You wanted to buy some things?”, to which i responded enthusiastically in the affirmative. He then led us into a warehouse of sorts filled with tall racks containing all of the Osmond merchandise my little 15 year old heart could possibly have ever wished for. Uncle Tom pulled from the racks everything to show and offer us from long-since out-of-print LPs to rare magazines to things as interesting as a metal keychain version of a ticket to Donny’s infamous Broadway show that closed after opening night, “Little Johnny Jones” (which by the way, no, i didn't buy). i was pretty sure at this point that i really was in heaven. Little did i know that this experience was about to get even better. Just how i made my selections, i’ll never know, but eventually i did at which point Uncle Tom led us back in to the front office portion of the building where Virl was still sitting at the desk looking through the scrapbook i had brought.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">As we approached, Virl turned toward us motioning us toward him. i wish to high heaven i could remember exactly what he said to me, but here it is to the best of my recollection. He said, in reference to the scrapbook that he continued to look through, “This is <i>really special</i>. My mother would really like to see this. Do you think i could borrow it for a while so that she can see it?” Woven into this conversation, Virl pointed out to me that he saw journalism strengths in me for having looked through my scrapbook and that if i hadn’t looked into it already, he definitely thought i should. i’m surprised i didn’t pass out cold at that point. Why never, ever in my wildest dreams could i have gotten such a compliment ...and directly from a member of my family of <i>heroes? </i></span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i><u>Really</u>?!?! </i></span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">This was quite a request, that i loan him that scrapbook. Little did he know that those scrapbooks were my most prized possessions at the time, and the one that i had brought with me that he was asking me to loan him was my very favorite of them. But it was <i>them</i> wanting to borrow it, so though it was hard for me to relinquish in a way, i was more honored than i was fearful that i might never see it again, and so i agreed to loan it to him.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">At this, he rifled through some of his file drawers in the room and returned with a small stack that he handed me. His sister, Marie, had recently married (for the first time) and Virl did the photography for her wedding. The stack that he handed me proved to be photographs- black and white 8x10 posed shots of Marie and Steve in front of the (Mormon) temple and a couple of 5x7s of Marie and Steve’s recent appearance on Good Morning America that he had shot. And he was giving them to me. And yes, i still have them.</span></span></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">"Uncle" Tom, michele @ 15, and Virl on the very day this story went down </span></i></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">in 1982 in Orem, Utah</span></i></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">(Osmond capital of the world)</span></i></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">As i relive this memory in writing it out, i’m finding myself getting emotional here, at this point of the story. As i mentioned earlier, life was dark for me back then and this single episode in my life to that point, however brief, was the one brightest, most positive experience i really had had up to and even beyond then. i’d be very surprised if Virl has so much as a vague recollection of this interaction with an awkward 15 year old girl that went down some 31 years ago. </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">But... it speaks <i>volumes</i> for who Virl Osmond is; who he was then and, i imagine, still is.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">Maybe because of how i grew up (or maybe not), i am to this day hyper-sensitive to our ability as human beings to “see” one another. “See” is the word i use. Probably the closest thing to what i mean with the word “see” is “care”. i am extremely painfully aware of how very little people evidently care about one another. And it colors how i see and experience life and view the world tremendously. </span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCxiiSLSizKWPE-LAnzxGha0m9i9gf5sPjYGdz9gzJSkI6_ypprnW7RqrNIXwxOQUhx1OoGIA2I1yjJTwu_i19j5M70BC18pW6VKVYpIwB26hBEYPTleFYyFxtDCcEzTPg96MIJnMgpEQ/s1600/keepsmiling001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCxiiSLSizKWPE-LAnzxGha0m9i9gf5sPjYGdz9gzJSkI6_ypprnW7RqrNIXwxOQUhx1OoGIA2I1yjJTwu_i19j5M70BC18pW6VKVYpIwB26hBEYPTleFYyFxtDCcEzTPg96MIJnMgpEQ/s320/keepsmiling001.jpg" style="cursor: move;" width="203" /></span></a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Virl also gave me this that day. Maybe he saw me even better than i realized. i treasure it still today.</span></i></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">For whatever reason, Virl Osmond “saw” the 15 year old version of me that day; moreso than maybe anyone else ever had, and with rather laser-like precision. i didn’t “get” that back then; i only knew that what i experienced with him in that very short period of time felt tremendous ...tremendously validating. And maybe it’s more important to experience that at the age of 15 or so than at any other time in ones life, although it’s vitally important at any and every point <i>throughout</i> ones life. All i know now, in hindsight, is that this one interaction with someone i considered tremendously special at the time proved to alter my life in a positive way.</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">With this newfound insight that someone else had given me about myself, i returned to my everyday existence and promptly pursued a course in journalism the following year in high school. Ms. Davey ended up being not only my journalism instructor but my English instructor the very period preceding; in other words, i had English with Ms. Davey immediately followed by my journalism class, also instructed by Ms. Davey. She once humorously apologized to me for this, which i found endearing considering that she proved to be my absolute favorite instructor of the entirety of my student years. </span>Upon receiving my grade on my most significant journalism project of the year, she wrote that she would be recruiting me to join the high school newspaper staff the following semester. And journalism went on to become my major in college.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">Virl was right. Without knowing me, he saw that talent in me, even at 15; one i wasn't even aware i had. And he took the time to tell me so.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">That talent grew into a skill that has carried on throughout my life into other projects and ventures including a ‘zine that i published for over five years that earned a worldwide subscription base, photography --which parlayed into everything from shooting for major photo agencies, later launching my own photo agency, to doing stills photography for motion pictures, right up to my position as editor at All Japan News, the job i held up until i signed on to work for Starbucks in order to devote more time to the music. </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">Virl Osmond impacted my life tremendously in one rather brief interaction 31 years ago, and he has yet to know it.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">When it comes to being the “f”-word (fan), it’s more-or-less tradition to have a “favorite”. Odd, to me, but being that i’m gay and openly so, i’ve been asked at times why Marie isn’t my favorite Osmond <i>(yeesh). </i> Donny was the initial draw - and admittedly remained the primary draw (think Rosie O'Donnell's "thing" for Tom Cruise, maybe)- through most of my Osmond fan “career”, and though i’ve always considered myself an “<i>Osmond</i> fan” in the general all-inclusive context, the Donny <i>and</i> Marie pairing was admittedly my Osmond bliss. i blame their variety show for that. </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">It would prove to be two more years before i would finally meet the “it” Osmond. And though i was ecstatic to have met him at the time (although you’d never have known it from the outside), the experience in hindsight pales profoundly by comparison -and hence, i won’t provide the rather boring details of that event.</span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: small;">Hopefully <i>this</i> will suffice:</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">That Broom Hilda cartoon played out well through those years of active fan-dom. i’ve since met and spent time with each and every Osmond on countless occasions and have had both good and bad experiences with each of them along the way. But i’ve only seen and interacted with Virl <i>twice</i>, and briefly at that, in the 31 years since our initial meeting. And it’s been good ...<i>every</i> time.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">The last-most-recent time i saw Virl was at the Osmonds' 50th Anniversary which was filmed for and aired on PBS in 2007; one of few events i "had" to attend, moreso anymore to get to see and spend time with the good, lifelong friends i made as a result of having been the hardcore Osmond fan i was for all those years. In fact, the friendships that formed for me as a result of being an Osmond fan are <i>the</i> thing that i treasure most from having taken that journey. Because of my interest in the Osmonds, i have friends across the country and around the world to this day. They have made my life better for being in it and i can't help but marvel at times how God brings certain people together while on this life journey. He must have a sense of humor, God. 'Cause, really, by way of the <i>Osmonds...?</i> That's a riot!</span></span></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">My core group of Os-homies and i with Virl at the Osmonds' 50th</span></i></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">i asked Virl for his email address when i last saw him short of sharing with him my intention to contact him to relay this story to him and to thank him adequately, as it hardly seemed the time nor the place to do so at the time. That was six years ago. Goes to show you how life can get away from you (pay attention, peeps). This intention comes to fruition, <i>finally</i>, right here and now.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">Maybe it’s plenty evident by now that i’m pretty damn over the “f”-word stage anymore. Maybe it was just a phase. Maybe my priorities changed. Maybe a lot of things. i don’t much see them anymore, as i don’t make a point to even when any of them make their way out to my neck of the woods. i doubt they miss me. i doubt they miss any of the “f”-words that used to come around that don’t anymore. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">But i will always love the Osmonds. </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">And if you were to ask me today who my favorite Osmond is, i’d have to say it’s ...Virl.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">[Happy birthday, Virl</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">and from the bottom of my heart, </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i><u>thank</u> <u>you</u>.</i>]</span></span></div>
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michelehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11992559677020494307noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5688465052077906279.post-86430954792534191702013-10-06T16:06:00.001-07:002013-10-06T16:06:11.294-07:00Abe vows to speed up reconstruction from 3/11 disasters | The Japan Timesold news ...and yet not<br />
<a href="http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2013/03/11/national/abe-vows-to-speed-up-reconstruction-from-311-disasters/#.UlHsDn7JAKs.blogger">Abe vows to speed up reconstruction from 3/11 disasters | The Japan Times</a>michelehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11992559677020494307noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5688465052077906279.post-21525789036109704052013-08-20T14:35:00.000-07:002013-09-06T01:00:53.367-07:00"Shane's Song"<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: small; letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The Starbucks store i currently work at is not the store i originally got hired to work. Some two years or so after signing on to my employment at Starbucks, an opportunity arose and i was offered a “trial run” at another store. It was then that i first met Judy and Carol and it was they that, in large part, sealed the deal in my decision as i agreed to the transfer. There are wonderful “partners” (Starbucksese for its employees) at every store i’ve had the opportunity to work at, but both Carol and Judy were hysterically funny, sarcastic as shit -like myself, and ...just more mature and “age-appropriate” for me. Both Judy and Carol are single mothers.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: small; letter-spacing: 0.0px;">A few weeks in to my new post, in to the store walks this kid in his late teens wearing a bandana around his forehead with what looks to me like Japanese writing on it which of course, caught my attention. Any kid who wears a bandana with Japanese writing on it scores points from me ...just because. This was my first impression of Shane. Who turns out to be Carol’s son -Carol’s only child.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: small; letter-spacing: 0.0px;">When Shane learned of my ethnicity, he asked his mom if she would ask me to translate the writing on the bandana i soon learned he seemed to wear always at the time, as he was wearing it every time i saw him. So Carol brought it in for me to take home so i could ask Dad to translate it for him ...since i’m personally incapable of such a thing. Once the translation reached Shane, Carol informed me how elated he was to have received it. Way cute. My first personal connection and interaction with Shane. Any kid who expresses interest in one of my cultures is a friend of mine ...just because.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: small; letter-spacing: 0.0px;">So i’d see Shane from time-to-time, more by default than anything ...because i worked with his mom. Sometimes he would pick her up after work, so i’d see him then. Sometimes he’d be early to pick her up and he’d make faces at us through the glass windows while his mom and i finished closing the store.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: small; letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Specifically, there was the Angels game. Of 2010. Three years ago, already. Mike Scioscia (manager of the Angels baseball team) is a “regular” at our particular location, and is one of the nicest people to grace our store. Generous to the degree that he has invited the entirety of the staff of our store not only to attend a game, but got us all passes to be out on the field with him pre-game and access to the VIP area, which we took advantage of dining in together. Shane joined his mom and the rest of us for that happy occasion. We rode to and from Anaheim - probably an hour and a half drive each way, mind you - with Shane busily playing DJ in the car by changing out the music on the stereo the duration of the trip.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: small;">L-R: Shane, it's me notme (down low), Judy (seated), Carol (down low with me), Jenny, and Tim</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: small;">all of us dining inside the VIP area at Angels Stadium</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: small; letter-spacing: 0.0px;">There were a smattering of other occasions we interacted, Shane and i; private moments when he and i would mosey away from the crowd to smoke a cigarette together from time-to-time, or he’d occasionally simply “bum” one from me but, maybe almost oddly, my favorite interaction with Shane -which struck me as special even just after it happened- was the night i was going to check out at my local Target. In that moment, i’d forgotten and wasn’t thinking about the fact that Carol had told me that Shane was working there, and as i was waiting my turn for a cashier, a male voice swooped by calling me by name saying, “I can take you over here, Michele”. i was touched by that particular interaction; how observant he was to have spotted me, how intentional and thoughtful and ...sweet. And it’s <i>that</i> interaction i keep flashing on most.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: small; letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Tuesday, August 6th, i was invited over to a friends’ house who lives near the store after work. i left their home just before midnight and was taking my usual route home from work when i came upon what felt like a surreal, albeit serene and peaceful scene: a police car parked horizontally in my path at an intersection. It took me a second to adjust for it being so unexpected and odd and wasn’t quite sure what to do. i then noticed a lone police officer standing on the meridian just outside my car window to the left, but he made no effort to communicate with me; no motioning to go this way or that; nothing at all. It felt strangely quiet. Eventually i figured i best take the only evident alternative and made the U-turn taking me in the complete opposite direction of my intended destination.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: small; letter-spacing: 0.0px;">We lost Shane as he was riding his motorcycle having left his grandmother's, where he was residing at the time, just ten minutes prior the night of August 6th. And that was the reason my path home was closed off that night. Had i gone home after work as usual, instead of going to my friends' home, it would have put me exactly there around the very time Shane crashed his bike and lost his mortal life. </span><br />
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</span> <span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">i have a hard time believing that how that night played out for me is coincidental. It is not.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: small; letter-spacing: 0.0px;">i learned that we’d lost Shane by way of a friend texting me about her concern for Carol on Thursday, the 8th. That was around 5pm. By 6pm, i found myself writing “Shane’s Song”. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: small; letter-spacing: 0.0px;">i hope he likes it. i will miss him.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: small;">L-R: Carol (Shane's mom), Judy, Mike, yours truly, and Shane</span></div>
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michelehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11992559677020494307noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5688465052077906279.post-26910494561212440772013-07-05T00:31:00.000-07:002013-09-06T00:56:05.501-07:00God Bless America<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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It’s July 3rd as I begin to write this post, and that being the case, the playlist i selected to listen to on my iPod for my drive home from work tonight was my 4th of July playlist. Yes, i have one. On my iPod. i'm a dork like that.<br />
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<b>John Adams HBO title theme</b> </div>
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This is my single most favorite piece of soundtrack music <i>ever composed</i> and makes my heart swell with patriotism - and the hairs on the back of my neck stand up - every time i hear it. </div>
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It is pure <i>brilliance</i>.</div>
<br />
i tend to be admittedly cynical about this country of ours anymore. i can’t not see the plethora of things that i see that i personally don’t agree with going on in this country. i am but one person -and will be the first to admit that i am not perfect --who IS?-- but i do my best to do this daily walk conscientiously as i go; to be part of the <i>solution</i> versus part of the problem -which could most certainly fuel a blog entry all of it’s own.<br />
<br />
i can’t help but wonder how much of a factor living in and having spent the majority of my life in Los Angeles-ish has been when it comes to how i feel.<br />
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Our national anthem: </div>
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“<b>Star Spangled Banner</b>” </div>
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originating from Francis Scott Key’s 1814 poem, “Defense of Fort McHenry”, was later set to music and declared our national anthem in 1931</div>
<br />
Verse 4:<br />
Blest with vict’ry and peace, may the heav’n-rescued land<br />
praise the pow’r that hath made and preserv’d us a nation!<br />
And this be our motto: “In God is our trust”<br />
<br />
<br />
The overly-complicated simple truth about how i feel however, is that i am deeply saddened by what it seems we (America) have become. And i suppose that i should clarify that by “we”, i’m probably predominantly referring to those who have steered this country bringing us to exactly where we find ourselves as a nation.<br />
<br />
No, it is not all “bad”; of course not. And i’m not so cynical that i can’t see or appreciate the good about this country of ours. <br />
<br />
Yes, there is still “good” about America. Fraught with all that it is, overshadowing my throbbing feet from having been on them all day at work, the work that i do predominantly to secure health insurance, there must be a reason that i got tears in my eyes on the eve of July the 4th as i listened to patriotic music.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
“<b>America</b> (My Country ‘Tis of Thee)”: Samuel F. Smith (1832)</div>
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My country, 'tis of Thee,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sweet land of liberty</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Of thee I sing;</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Land where my fathers died,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Land of the pilgrims' pride,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">From every mountain side</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Let freedom ring.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My native country, thee,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Land of the noble free,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Thy name I love;</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I love thy rocks and rills,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Thy woods and templed hills,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My heart with rapture thrills</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Like that above.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Let music swell the breeze,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And ring from all the trees</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sweet freedom's song;</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Let mortal tongues awake;</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Let all that breathe partake;</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Let rocks their silence break,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The sound prolong.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Our fathers' God to Thee,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Author of liberty,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>To Thee we sing</b>,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Long may our land be bright</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>With Freedom's holy light</b>,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Protect us by Thy might</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Great God, our King.</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Our glorious land to-day,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">'Neath education's sway,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Soars upward still.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Its hills of learning fair,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Whose bounties all may share,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">behold them everywhere</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On vale and hill!</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Thy safeguard, liberty,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The school shall ever be,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Our nation's pride</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">No tyrant hand shall smite,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">While with encircling might</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">All here are taught the right</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">With truth allied.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Beneath Heaven's gracious will</b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The stars of progress still</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Our course do sway;</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In unity sublime</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">To broader heights we climb,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Triumphant over time,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>God speeds our way!</b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Grand birthright of our sires,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Our altars and our fires</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Keep we still pure!</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Our starry flag unfurled,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The hope of all the world,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In peace and light impearled,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>God hold secure!</b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span><br />
<br />
Maybe how i feel about America is reflected in what i experience at work every day: it’s a seemingly endless stream of faces -all-too-many, not so nice. A population in which kids more often say “thank you” than adults do.<br />
<br />
America can be a strange place. Nowadays.<br />
<br />
And i wish that you could see yourselves.<br />
<br />
And a few of you DO --and therein lies my hope in this nation. It lies in those of you who step up to the plate of <i><b>we</b></i>, the people alongside me versus worshipping at the altar of <i><b>me</b></i>, the people.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/OFtNVEbasOo?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
“<b>Battle Hymn of the Republic</b>”</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
(<i>unbelievable</i>, this video above -- it'll remind you we've <i>no right</i> to squander our lives nor take for granted the freedoms that <i>so countless many</i> lost their lives defending)</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord<br />He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored,<br />He has loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword<br />His truth is marching on.<br /><br />Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!<br />Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!<br />Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!<br />His truth is marching on.<br /><br />I have seen Him in the watch-fires of a hundred circling camps<br />They have builded Him an altar in the evening dews and damps<br />I can read His righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps<br />His day is marching on.<br /><br />Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!<br />Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!<br />Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!<br />His truth is marching on.<br /><br />I have read a fiery gospel writ in burnish`d rows of steel,<br />"As ye deal with my contemnors, so with you my grace shall deal;"<br />Let the Hero, born of woman, crush the serpent with his heel<br />Since God is marching on.<br /><br />Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!<br />Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!<br />Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!<br />His truth is marching on.<br /><br />He has sounded from the trumpet that shall never call retreat<br />He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment-seat<br />Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer Him! Be jubilant, my feet!<br />Our God is marching on.<br /><br />Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!<br />Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!<br />Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!<br />His truth is marching on.<br /><br />In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea,<br />With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me:<br />As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free,<br />While God is marching on.<br /><br />Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!<br />Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!<br />Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!<br />His truth is marching on. </span></div>
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<br />
This country was founded through a very thick, devoutly Christian lens, as reflected even in most every single one of our best-loved patriotic songs. And being that we Americans have enjoyed, if not taken for granted, life here in the most powerful nation of the current Modern age, i am convinced that this country gained it’s status as such <i>because</i> of it’s Christian-infused foundation.<br />
<br />
Should this indeed be true, that would also make said country “enemy #1” to the opposition; the dark side. Our enemy is a fierce one that knows plenty well that<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
“If a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand.”</div>
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<i>-- Mark 3:25</i></div>
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--which he appears to be using quite effectively against us.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
“<b>America the Beautiful</b>” </div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
penned by Katherine Lee Bates, 1913</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">O beautiful for spacious skies,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For amber waves of grain,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For purple mountain majesties</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Above the fruited plain!</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>America! America! God shed His grace on thee</b>,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And crown thy good with brotherhood</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">From sea to shining sea!</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">O beautiful for pilgrim feet,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Whose stern impassion'd stress</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A thoroughfare for freedom beat</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Across the wilderness!</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>America! America! God mend thine ev'ry flaw</b>,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Confirm thy soul in self-control,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Thy liberty in law!</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">O beautiful for heroes proved In liberating strife,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Who more than self their country loved,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And mercy more than life!</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">America! America! May God thy gold refine</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Till all success be nobleness,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And ev'ry gain divine!</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">O Beautiful for patriot dream</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">That sees beyond the years</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Thine alabaster cities gleam,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Undimmed by human tears!</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>America! America! God shed His grace on thee</b>,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And crown thy good with brotherhood</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">From sea to shining sea!</span><br />
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Yes, i wonder if our Founding Fathers are proud of what the country they so valiantly founded; investing in, even giving their very lives to, has become. But the America that is still beautiful is ...<i>you</i>; America the beautiful is, and really always has been, we, the people --and our national parks, of course. (wink)<br />
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As i rounded the crest, patriotic music streaming from my iPod along my drive home from work, i gasped, tears instantaneously filling my eyes, as the straight stretch of road before me opened to unveil a beautiful display of fireworks dead on before me. It was a rare, magical moment that took my breath away, if only for a second. (ha- thank God it wasn’t longer!)<br />
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As i wrap up this blog post, it is the 4th of July --and i guess that, in the end, what i wish for each of us as we continue our brief mortal lives individually and collectively as “we, the people” who form the nation, is that we honor and live mindful of those who came before who built this nation that people from all over the world continue to clammer to be part of even today.<br />
<br />
Our Founding Fathers evidently did something very “right”.<br />
<br />
My hope is that we honor their legacy and keep kindled the spirit upon which America was founded by following their lead to the best of our ability here and now. That is my prayer for “we, the people” of the United States of America on this 4th of July of 2013.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
"<b>Heal Our Land</b>"</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
written by Orrin Hatch & Janice Perry</div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
This is a newer versus "traditional" song that i love.</div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: arial; white-space: pre;">Heal our land
Please grant us peace today
And strengthen all who lack the faith to call on Thee each day
Heal our land
Please keep us safe and free
Watch over all who understand the need for Liberty
Heal our land
Heal our land
And guide us with thy hand
Keep us ever on the path of Liberty
Heal our land
Heal our land
And help us understand that we must put our trust in Thee
If we would be free
Protect us by the power of thy rod
And keep us as one nation under God
Heal our land
Heal our land
And guide us thy hand
Keep us ever on the path of Liberty
Heal our land
Heal our land
And help us understand
That we must put our trust in Thee
If we would be free </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: arial; font-size: 13px; white-space: pre;">
</span></div>
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Finally, i end with the patriotic song i like best for it’s lyrics...<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/8avuCV7mjKk?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
“<b>God Bless America</b>”</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
written by the incomparable Irving Berlin</div>
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<br /></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">God bless America,<br />land that I love,<br />Stand beside her and guide her<br />thru the night with a light from above;<br /><br />From the mountains, to the prairies,<br />to the oceans white with foam,<br />God bless America,<br />my home, sweet home.<br />God bless America,<br />my home, sweet home.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>God bless America, indeed</b>.</span></div>
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<br />michelehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11992559677020494307noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5688465052077906279.post-17642928513095620412013-03-15T02:49:00.000-07:002013-07-05T00:32:32.896-07:00doing things that matter: the Heal Japan benefit EP2013 shot off like a freakin’ rocket and at best, I have barely managed to hang on - which is why it has taken me this long to post a new blog entry.<br />
<br />
Today, I actually have a day off in which, for once, I’m not beholden to be any particular <i>where</i> or do any particular <i>thing</i> - and I can’t remember a day when that has been the case. It’s been a helluva long time - and I’m all-too-aware that one day like this is too precious and will be too brief. -But in it, in addition to taking out the recycling, laundering and changing my bedsheets, and doing the dishes, I...choose...to...<i><b>blog</b>!</i><br />
<br />
You know I choose to work at Starbucks in the effort to devote at least <i>some</i> quality time and energy to my music while attempting to maintain Starbucks’ eligibility requirements to secure healthcare benefits. That being the case, I already feel as though I juggle two jobs. Then, this January, I met someone who asked me to join him on some projects he is working on that I believe in to the degree that I agreed to jump on board --so it’s been nonstop for me since. And then there are relationships with family and friends that require investment in and the usual chores of everyday life to have to tend to. And I know that most of you feel this crazy frenzied pace we all seem to be caught up in anymore. Through it, I feel that something significant has been lost. And I miss Mayberry.<br />
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Through and despite all of this, God helped see the production of the first commercial release of my music through: the Heal Japan benefit EP --of which a physical limited edition is currently in production.<br />
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The single from the 3-track EP is a song I wrote in 2009 during a severe pang of homesickness for Japan, called 日本を愛す (<i>Nihon wo Aisu</i>).<br />
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And i give you the music video for it:<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/kOa9VBIvAU4?rel=0" width="480"></iframe><br />
<br />
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In the end, I want to have lived my life doing things that mattered. That being the case, this EP benefitting the survivors of the triple-fold disasters that struck Japan on 3/11/11 is the single most important thing I have done in my life ...so far. I’ve invested over a year of my life -often working on it 'til 4am or later- and earnings (you appreciate how little I make working where I do) into producing this project on the faith that some of you still care as deeply and feel as strongly as I do about the aftermath in Tohoku ...and are willing to DO something to prove it!<br />
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The survivors in the Tohoku region of Japan who were most severely impacted by these events are still suffering now two years on. Though the world appears to have moved on, I have not forgotten nor will I abandon them. The Heal Japan benefit EP is my “shovel” --the one thing I knew to do to help; something that would have the potential to do more for my investment of time and money than were I to get myself to Japan and literally grab a shovel. <br />
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I did this because I believe I am not alone in how I feel about this; I just need to find you guys and ask you to jump on board with me! There is strength in numbers, so grab YOUR shovel, however small, and JOIN ME! <br />
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I've done most of the work to make it as simple -and affordable- as possible for you. So now all YOU have to do to help restore Japan is:<br />
<br />
<b>* buy the EP</b> (for less than the price of your daily name brand latte ...or just buy the single for even less --<i>it all helps!</i>)<br />
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<div style="background-image: url(http://www.cdbaby.com/Images/Links/linkmkr_btn9.png); border: 0; height: 190px; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 225px;">
<a href="http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/micheleshigoka" style="border: 0; display: block; margin: 0; padding: 10px 0px 0px 11px;"><img alt="Michele Shigoka: Heal Japan: A Music Benefit" height="167" src="http://CDBaby.name/m/i/micheleshigoka.jpg" style="border: 0; margin: 0; padding: 0;" width="167" /></a></div>
<center>
also available on</center>
:<br />
<center>
<a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/ri-benwo-aisu-nihon-wo-aisu/id606779728?i=606779972&ign-mpt=uo%3D4">iTunes</a></center>
<center>
and</center>
<center>
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Heal-Japan-A-Music-Benefit/dp/B00BN02VVM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1363340229&sr=8-1&keywords=michele+shigoka">amazon</a></center>
<br />
<center>
<b><i>and</i></b></center>
<br />
<b>* help us spread the word through your social media and web presences! <br />
<br />
We're at:</b><br />
<br />
<a href="https://twitter.com/311healjapan">twitter: 311healjapan</a><br />
<a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/Heal-311-Japan/208325885980838?ref=stream">Heal3.11Japan on Facebook</a><br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/kOa9VBIvAU4">YouTube: post & share the music video!</a><br />
<a href="http://311healjapan.com/">311healjapan.com</a>: get on our email list (you get to download the single for free as a thank you for signing up ;) & post links to us!<br />
<br />
Roll up your sleeves and join us! Because <i><u>together</u></i>, we can heal japan!michelehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11992559677020494307noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5688465052077906279.post-42635377037978175712012-12-04T00:52:00.000-08:002012-12-04T01:12:25.828-08:00"Brave"The music keeps coming, thankfully. A <i>lot</i> of it, in fact --and sometimes I can't begin to keep up with it. The past month or so has clobbered me, frustrating me in this arena as I've not had the necessary combination of time and energy to <i>do</i> much with it. <br />
<br />
November is a particularly busy month in my family due to Thanksgiving (my favorite holiday!) and three familial dates --one of them being my parent's golden anniversary this year, which I saw to investing as much as I could into as it was more-or-less up to me to pull off something special for them. (Making life special is evidently up to we females)<br />
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And because all of that apparently wasn't yet enough to kill me, the past couple of months saw me making a greater number of lattes as well (translation: I've been working more than I was) and so the combination of all of these things and then some has had me quite literally <i>spent</i>.<br />
<br />
That said, I <i>have</i> somewhat miraculously managed to etch out an initial sketch or two of what's been going on for me, musically, in the interim. What I'm learning I may be sharing with you most, musically, here via the blog are what I call "sketches"; a raw initial rendering of a new song I'm working on -just my guitar and me - a preview of sorts- hoping they're somehow enjoyable for you even in this form.<br />
<br />
Here is the latest complete song sketch sound file and the lyrics to... <br />
<br />
<center><b>Brave</b><br />
<br />
<iframe width="100%" height="166" scrolling="no" frameborder="no" src="http://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F69652967&show_artwork=true"></iframe><br />
<br />
There is so much sadness in me<br />
so much no one here on Earth can seem to see<br />
except for You<br />
except for You<br />
<br />
I don't want to play his stupid games<br />
but You've been standing here beside me in the rain<br />
If not for You<br />
I'd not get through<br />
<br />
I wouldn't do this<br />
no, I couldn't do this<br />
You're my reason<br />
through You I conquer the grave<br />
I wouldn't be here<br />
no, I couldn't be here<br />
it's all You<br />
You're the song that I sing<br />
You have made me brave<br />
<br />
On my white horse riding in<br />
there's no way that I can't win<br />
with You<br />
with You<br />
<br />
I wouldn't be here<br />
no, I couldn't be here<br />
it's all You<br />
You're the song that I sing<br />
You have made me<br />
it's all You<br />
You're the reason I sing<br />
it's You who makes me brave</center>michelehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11992559677020494307noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5688465052077906279.post-62553684482313419072012-12-02T01:40:00.000-08:002012-12-02T01:40:13.170-08:00inspirationalEvidently, I'm hardly alone in being a sucker for quotes. It's a "girl thing", ya? These days, there appears to be an entire <i>industry</i> built on them.<br />
<br />
This one is not quite a quote, but a parable of sorts, whose form, I've learned, was quite adapted from the original by the time it was introduced to me. Once in a while, a gem comes to me by way of my dad ...and this is one of them:<br />
<br />
<center><b>The Star Thrower</b><br />
<i>adaptation of the original by Loren Eiseley</i><br />
<br />
There was a young man walking down a deserted beach just before<br />
dawn. In the distance he saw a frail old man. As he approached the<br />
old man, he saw him picking up stranded starfish and throwing them<br />
back into the sea. The young man gazed in wonder as the old man<br />
again and again threw the small starfish from the sand to the water.<br />
He asked, "Old man, why are you doing what seems to be a waste of time?"<br />
<br />
The old man explained that the stranded starfish would die if left<br />
in the morning sun.<br />
<br />
"But there must be thousands of beaches and millions of starfish!",<br />
exclaimed the young man. "What does it matter?"<br />
<br />
The old man looked down at the small starfish in his hand and as he<br />
threw it to the safety of the sea, he said, "It matters to <i>that</i> one."</center><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmCBeHsnvRThhoIfEKNQ5mh-unBbgfFcpZcsMg4rQWuzUarrksLZD2dBGyDKA-hJegfcTvURHLXnIf8ImxLSOebhLzxmwRV0xiXYx7dIESRg_mGUzh646vGg1qpsajm53Xc0wCSHwUy_k/s1600/starfish.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="267" width="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmCBeHsnvRThhoIfEKNQ5mh-unBbgfFcpZcsMg4rQWuzUarrksLZD2dBGyDKA-hJegfcTvURHLXnIf8ImxLSOebhLzxmwRV0xiXYx7dIESRg_mGUzh646vGg1qpsajm53Xc0wCSHwUy_k/s400/starfish.jpg" /></a></div><br />
...I love that story.michelehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11992559677020494307noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5688465052077906279.post-67776726694793134342012-10-21T23:31:00.000-07:002012-10-21T23:31:43.345-07:00why Jesus? :: a beginning<br />
<center><b>“For therefore we both labour and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Savior of all men, specially of those that believe.”</b> <i>-- 1 Timothy 4:10</i></center><br />
<br />
<center><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkdWfqSTqK_QM8otCO80Ejt7Hf8oNroM942fKwdk93roTvShhYSBmV694LWv7wT03-__xbQXjHQ6cxX0oem5R2sCw8bAC3ajAQGvQjY4Oc-TrGqt3xaxMUhxd7dFCkUuxI9yESAz1fsQ0/s1600/lighting+a+candle.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="300" width="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkdWfqSTqK_QM8otCO80Ejt7Hf8oNroM942fKwdk93roTvShhYSBmV694LWv7wT03-__xbQXjHQ6cxX0oem5R2sCw8bAC3ajAQGvQjY4Oc-TrGqt3xaxMUhxd7dFCkUuxI9yESAz1fsQ0/s400/lighting+a+candle.jpg" /></a></div></center><br />
<br />
The concept of spirituality ...the answers to why we’re here and why we exist are so intangible and subjective.<br />
<br />
I call Him Y’shua, because that was His name, but for the sake of this particular post, I’ll refer to Him by the name He’s best known by here in the West.<br />
<br />
The truth is, ultimately, I consciously <i>choose</i> Christ. But I believe I chose Christ because He chose me first. By this, I mean that I was born into an actively Christian family and raised practicing their religion. I personally am not a fan of organized religion (likely to be it's own blog post somewhere down the road), but thanks to having been raised in one, I was introduced to who Jesus is from the onset of this crazy life. And for that, I am forever grateful.<br />
<br />
There are many, many, <i>many</i> who were equally fortunate in this regard, but I am who I am and believe what I do today only in part due to this. There are “Christians” and there are <i><b>Christ</b></i>ians- and being a <i><b>Christ</b></i>ian requires conversion. <i>True</i> conversion. And it seems to me that what it takes to truly convert is to have been to hell.<br />
<br />
It’s when nothing makes sense that Christ does; just as light is most noticeable when it’s most dark.<br />
<br />
And, trust me on this, the only way to fight darkness is to let the light in. Then again, I think science has my back on this one.michelehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11992559677020494307noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5688465052077906279.post-61234733627528842242012-09-30T03:07:00.000-07:002012-09-30T16:00:00.836-07:00the good, the bad, and the ugly<center><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDA2HWbGuIdXTkgMPR-HzUI10i20UfQ2XPx3a3OoChfYe0pNhmhtf_u4I3AwybhXDzuQDvL5CIihMtrKMurWVZSWqK4XgbrImyNNypzzRoyJFcAE2-EeuwCRddP17kRMyWNhRynOMveK0/s1600/CrazyWorld.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="128" width="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDA2HWbGuIdXTkgMPR-HzUI10i20UfQ2XPx3a3OoChfYe0pNhmhtf_u4I3AwybhXDzuQDvL5CIihMtrKMurWVZSWqK4XgbrImyNNypzzRoyJFcAE2-EeuwCRddP17kRMyWNhRynOMveK0/s400/CrazyWorld.jpg" /></a></div></center>
<br>
<br>
So evidently I'm having a rough day ...or three. And I may as well dispel any possible preconceived notion that I'm anything but human and as such, have my good and not-as-good days -though unless you live with me, I defy you to be able to tell if or when I'm having a less than stellar day. I just don't believe in sharing any bad mood I may be having with anyone else. Not <i>your</i> problem, y'know? There's plenty of that going around out there already, thank you very much.
<br>
<br>
But I digress.
<br>
<br>
Aside from the social aspect that comes built into my job whether I'm in the mood for it or not, I haven't participated in a single social thing in two weeks now, and yet I have so much on my proverbial plate at any given time that it makes my head spin. That said, I don't know how those of you who have kids do it.
<br>
<br>
Allow me to clarify here just for future reference that when I refer to "social", I'm most likely <i>not</i> referring to going to a nightclub or anything of that nature. I outgrew that eons ago now, thank God. Rather, as a case in point, the "social" thing I did two weeks ago was that I met up with a friend and her kids to spend the day at a mall.
<br>
<br>
But back to the point: I wonder, quite regularly in fact, just when and how the world got to be quite this frenetic. Or <i>is</i> it the world? Is it the U.S.? Or maybe L.A.? Or maybe it's just ...me.
<br>
<br><i>Nah</i>.
<br>
<br>
What <i>might</i> just be me though, is the degree of palpability with which I feel maybe a sense of collective anxiety that seems to be permeating the world -or maybe <i>my</i> world- that seems to be virtually inescapable ...short of moving. To somewhere remote.
<br>
<br>
Maybe it's just me (yet again), but I'm painfully aware of the "have to"s and "should"s on my to-do list endlessly crowding out the "<i>want</i> to"s we all have. <br>--Or worse yet, all too many "want to"s getting relegated to "ya, right"s --you know, filed either under "unrealistic" or that awful category of "someday" that all too often doesn't come. Too much stick and not enough carrot will cause even the best of dogs to bite ...eventually. But this is simple Psychology 101 that much of Europe evidently figured out long ago.
<br>
<br>
So, <i>is</i> it just me, or did we lose considerable quality of life over the fairly recent past? And if so, what the hell happened?!
<br>
<br>
I've always been interested in and open to other perspectives, so I welcome your's.
<br>
<br>
So...
<br>
<i>is</i> it just me?
<br>Or is it <i>you</i>, too? michelehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11992559677020494307noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5688465052077906279.post-30080135966972778002012-09-11T02:55:00.000-07:002012-12-04T01:47:00.943-08:00writing "Stay" I think I may well be in the throws of writing the hardest song I’ll ever write. <br />
<br />
I got home at around 10pm this past Wednesday night after having had dinner with a dear friend who met me at the store as I was coming off my shift and I happened to surf through my incoming text messages as I was unwinding to discover my cousin Debbie’s Facebook post from earlier that night which read: <br />
<br />
“It’s very sad when your mom doesn’t remember she’s your mom. Alzheimer’s sucks.” <br />
<br />
My mom is the eldest in her family, Deb’s mom the second eldest, so the two were particularly close while growing up -and for a variety of reasons, one of them being a shared love of songwriting, Deb and I have grown close in recent years. <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimCp7Hw1g0XAGF41fUXCgwal6eBANEJgN1-xSJq04IZmchF2JN67hrJtvuCsNop1y5e9ymnFAYZoHDA5_YGQN3K3vooriXlsIPvxOfxYXsPJ40CbTDPs6Ma5Ms4zttgNVFjB00NigYE2g/s1600/Mom%2526Poppy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="273" width="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimCp7Hw1g0XAGF41fUXCgwal6eBANEJgN1-xSJq04IZmchF2JN67hrJtvuCsNop1y5e9ymnFAYZoHDA5_YGQN3K3vooriXlsIPvxOfxYXsPJ40CbTDPs6Ma5Ms4zttgNVFjB00NigYE2g/s320/Mom%2526Poppy.jpg" /></a></div><center><b>THEN: Mom</b> <i>(left)</i> <b>& my Aunt Poppy as kids in Holland.<br />
That's some <i>massive</i> bow atop Mom's head, ain't it?!</b></center><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0nePWiBrDhoo5rgHOtVb2sKIF7XQAEMDH19bRa3vg6LkuE6eak-e5zFx4cR6zE-ex7Dp4gjSt8JA8Zb3fOz-t8hFaJmIltLFoQZCKdTvq3rN0L8Px0Rx3nK2gxb9GsFlsXduEQdFCDyI/s1600/20080719.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="320" width="316" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0nePWiBrDhoo5rgHOtVb2sKIF7XQAEMDH19bRa3vg6LkuE6eak-e5zFx4cR6zE-ex7Dp4gjSt8JA8Zb3fOz-t8hFaJmIltLFoQZCKdTvq3rN0L8Px0Rx3nK2gxb9GsFlsXduEQdFCDyI/s320/20080719.jpg" /></a></div><center><b>NOW-ish: Aunt Poppy</b> <i>(left, this time!)</i> <b>& Mom</b></center><br />
<br />
Deb’s mom was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s about a year ago now. Deb’s a single self-employed SuperMom of two. <br />
<br />
Deb is one of five kids in her family. When her mom’s condition worsened and it became evident she could no longer live alone, it was Deb who took it upon herself to ensure her mom the care she needed. But pretty quickly, Deb noticed a decline in her mom’s spirit and made the noble but harrowing decision to move her mom in with her full-time --Alzheimer’s and all. <br />
<br />
Needless to say, Deb is one of my hero(ine)s. And though she’s younger than I am, I aspire to be like her when I grow up. <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvIBNWLUZoekj05CcMefGP5Pgpm02usbz-eWr6bTQdsCaj3XlahuZplIyNra3R2FA9yKpNLruLgftANK7L_GXyB8768T7mvj3IgchX8kWee6yNBmqQeJpvv7S9gOGdjLxEMRjDtboP0Vs/s1600/P1030836.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="255" width="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvIBNWLUZoekj05CcMefGP5Pgpm02usbz-eWr6bTQdsCaj3XlahuZplIyNra3R2FA9yKpNLruLgftANK7L_GXyB8768T7mvj3IgchX8kWee6yNBmqQeJpvv7S9gOGdjLxEMRjDtboP0Vs/s320/P1030836.JPG" /></a></div><center><b>That's Deb on the left. Can you tell we're related? <i>...lol</b></i></center><br />
<br />
Deb and I are fairly in touch despite the fact that we live a couple of states away from one another, so I’d been aware of the ups and downs of my Aunt Poppy’s condition, but learning that Deb had recently experienced for the first time what I can’t help but think has to be one of the most heartbreaking experiences with Alzheimer’s -your own mother not recognizing you- broke my heart --and triggered a flood of thoughts and emotions: love for and fear about the mortality of my own aging mother (not that it isn’t already very much in my awareness), about my Aunt Poppy’s long (and emotionally painful) goodbye (as I’ve heard it called) with Alzheimer’s, sadness, love, and empathy for Debbie’s experiences with her mother. <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheRuOPbaGsZtrmmBFOzsN4BUsr1MS-OnI4fevUmwMRR4dtNi4QFx2i_PxPfWYH2yrjJ44vw3qE09Vvm012RjmB2WTHBnrUWrlBpmEa3ojzTfWoNTnPheLMl1jy6Vi9xlQ3-8zUHl44dB4/s1600/20100701.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="320" width="284" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheRuOPbaGsZtrmmBFOzsN4BUsr1MS-OnI4fevUmwMRR4dtNi4QFx2i_PxPfWYH2yrjJ44vw3qE09Vvm012RjmB2WTHBnrUWrlBpmEa3ojzTfWoNTnPheLMl1jy6Vi9xlQ3-8zUHl44dB4/s320/20100701.JPG" /></a></div><center><b>Mom & Aunt Poppy sharing incredible memories.<br />
World War II Nazi-occupied Holland, they grew up in<br />
...<i>and</i> are still here to tell about it!<br />
...for now.</center></b> <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOYRxfz1N-fagW-IPDFyKFoNynzaZl6hU8X4d6G3I6Cms_xuSFtUOku0ouKehXM6NqV6MGzTJ8r-J8TRvQxUbP18V6LE9d9CN3Im6G6z9iebliBQM6aKhbEvICv1kPcQks1jClnBlVPsM/s1600/20080717.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="180" width="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOYRxfz1N-fagW-IPDFyKFoNynzaZl6hU8X4d6G3I6Cms_xuSFtUOku0ouKehXM6NqV6MGzTJ8r-J8TRvQxUbP18V6LE9d9CN3Im6G6z9iebliBQM6aKhbEvICv1kPcQks1jClnBlVPsM/s320/20080717.jpg" /></a></div><center><b>Mom & I visiting -& having a pizza party with- Aunt Poppy</b></center><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioOxwaJQsiUhN7aKDSfIy7EegtdC7Fw_OgjzCaKclZJKZjr5V9-vMwn4GBRkxhNIzfZcoPP_zqstMIzoAQLxNYkL8piLW_-c1Cniu07QuPc2PoUUjbzUTmd-PFs5ePo7PBvJIxV5h5l6k/s1600/20080721.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="320" width="283" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioOxwaJQsiUhN7aKDSfIy7EegtdC7Fw_OgjzCaKclZJKZjr5V9-vMwn4GBRkxhNIzfZcoPP_zqstMIzoAQLxNYkL8piLW_-c1Cniu07QuPc2PoUUjbzUTmd-PFs5ePo7PBvJIxV5h5l6k/s320/20080721.jpg" /></a></div><center><b>Mom & I</b></center><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuR9VercXFBiWrh-w68uTEn57dgQYharYMX3SIVG6jmQRQFTJsCaA4H_x0NJRwC416TqPhSsXJpmy67fWlK237x1cbXDbwmY2CzOX70cTDPIUVSonmJDyk8f3v37H-IxAQCO8a7eZr9AE/s1600/20100701No2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="240" width="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuR9VercXFBiWrh-w68uTEn57dgQYharYMX3SIVG6jmQRQFTJsCaA4H_x0NJRwC416TqPhSsXJpmy67fWlK237x1cbXDbwmY2CzOX70cTDPIUVSonmJDyk8f3v37H-IxAQCO8a7eZr9AE/s320/20100701No2.JPG" /></a></div><center><b>Aunt Poppy & Mom laughing together. I <i>love</i> this shot!</b></center><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhg0hOF2MaqGGOsxJBJOR-LTjFWbvsMZdr53_o-HNvThWA33vq5nYc99p-ypSH2RjQdfj8d71CNA3dtNhsjyVfJcKnkai3uA2KY53IreTL9tI2i9l6FY-hly_WkbChClZMGNaxZbubTUPg/s1600/20100502.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="220" width="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhg0hOF2MaqGGOsxJBJOR-LTjFWbvsMZdr53_o-HNvThWA33vq5nYc99p-ypSH2RjQdfj8d71CNA3dtNhsjyVfJcKnkai3uA2KY53IreTL9tI2i9l6FY-hly_WkbChClZMGNaxZbubTUPg/s320/20100502.JPG" /></a></div><center><b>I love my mom!!!</b></center><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhg0YBiXYHJjlOJBVzHZv5UqTbgKWBvBIPddG7t3le85OvncOgWrwsMzeS2ONGgh1yLORPGX2CL-59J4ir0NPRSlt6ootPuWtCLE79jcj9O0vSdwPsDjy4MaFw3zlsxnHRPeKMDkIAbdks/s1600/20100630.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="320" width="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhg0YBiXYHJjlOJBVzHZv5UqTbgKWBvBIPddG7t3le85OvncOgWrwsMzeS2ONGgh1yLORPGX2CL-59J4ir0NPRSlt6ootPuWtCLE79jcj9O0vSdwPsDjy4MaFw3zlsxnHRPeKMDkIAbdks/s320/20100630.JPG" /></a></div><center><b>All of us, together!</b></center><br />
<br />
Within minutes of having read her post on my phone, words set to a melody I can only describe as “haunting” came to me so strongly that I bolted up to my recording device to capture it before it vaporized, as these things have a way of doing. <br />
<br />
I’ve been in the throws of writing, recording, and mixing the song in the days since. Truth is, it’s been <i>consuming</i> me -in between my shifts at Starbucks, of course. It’s taken so much out of me that I felt for a day or two there like I’d been hit by a mac truck. Surreal it’s been, to say the least. <br />
<br />
Out of curiosity, I revisited the original vocal snippet I’d recorded when the song first began to come to me and discovered, much to my surprise, that it was not just a line or two, but the entirety of the chorus that flowed out of me that night. For me, that’s unusual. <i>Very</i>. <br />
<br />
Anyway, here’s the very first “take” of it: <br />
<br />
<center><iframe width="100%" height="166" scrolling="no" frameborder="no" src="http://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F59331736&auto_play=false&show_artwork=false&color=ff7700"></iframe></center><br />
--just the guitar and my very raw initial vocal that I recorded after 11:00 at night. Had no intention of keeping the very first vocal take as it’s almost always strictly for helping me build the song by -at least how <i>I</i> do it. In my case, the first take is usually quite bad --and you're probably getting a prime example of that here. But the more I listen to that first take, the more it’s grown on me, flaws and all --because it’s <i>real</i>. I laid down this first vocal when I had just finished writing the song and I think it captured the guts-out emotional rawness that giving birth to the song rendered --and I think it somehow captured a downright magical quality: I hear -and feel- in it a forlorn “little Michele” crying out for her Mom ebbing and flowing, waxing and waning with the grown woman I am at present. And that’s about as “real” as it gets. <br />
<br />
And through all of this, I can’t help but think about how the world and my life experiences to date virtually snuffed out the music in me along the way (freakin’ lucifer) -but I now believe with all my heart that God protected that last burning ember from going out --because it’s always been there in my heart, however quietly-- while working the various jobs that I’ve had through the years, while doing laundry, while balancing the checkbook yet again, while paying the bills, through the meaningless rat race, and even as I sweep, mop, haul trash, clean the bathroom, do dishes, and make lattes in that green apron. <br />
<br />
Despite the world telling me for <i>decades</i> otherwise, somehow, I always knew. <br />
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And I wish I were ready to share the studio version that I’m working on with you --‘cause God is doing <i>amazing</i> things to it!michelehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11992559677020494307noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5688465052077906279.post-85076310369735226042012-09-03T01:11:00.000-07:002012-12-04T01:03:15.969-08:00"The Greatest Love You'll Ever Know" (demo)Said on the <a href="http://311healjapan.com">Heal Japan project site</a> that I'd share new demo tracks with you from time-to-time, so here's one for you...!<br />
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<iframe width="100%" height="166" scrolling="no" frameborder="no" src="http://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F57919154&auto_play=false&show_artwork=false&color=ff7700"></iframe><br />
<center>(demo)</center>michelehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11992559677020494307noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5688465052077906279.post-83433495551290847982012-09-02T23:11:00.000-07:002012-09-30T16:12:14.163-07:00walking by faith<center><b>For we walk by faith, not by sight.</b>
<i>--2 Corinthians 5:7</i></center>
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Do you know that in France (and maybe elsewhere) it is considered rude to ask someone what it is they "do" (for a living)? I "get it", France, and think you're far more evolved than we here in the U.S. of A. are about this.
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What you do is not who you <i>are</i>. ...<i>IS</i> it?! (good grief, I <i>hope</i> not!)
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So, I'm a barista at Starbucks. That's what I "do" and what I've been doing for the past 5 1/2 years of my life as I launch this blog. Every job I've ever held has been the result of a great deal of thought and research on my part, and was the case concerning this one as well, believe it or not.
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEij3FUoj9yCVorpW2x7zQNAZFfNb2jWXMOdVb4z89i5Ou2r2g4xcVDdPc4GEOSlwRtrOhM_tqJn7ZSKkBwM9YBm4p4XhSaZHp2v_CQbwBhJsCjQ_KAxU4UZMq-pfSFrJLXrwaNwNlFyS0s/s1600/StarbucksOakPark.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="320" width="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEij3FUoj9yCVorpW2x7zQNAZFfNb2jWXMOdVb4z89i5Ou2r2g4xcVDdPc4GEOSlwRtrOhM_tqJn7ZSKkBwM9YBm4p4XhSaZHp2v_CQbwBhJsCjQ_KAxU4UZMq-pfSFrJLXrwaNwNlFyS0s/s320/StarbucksOakPark.JPG" /></a></div>
<center>Where I spend too much of my time & energy</center>
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It took 3 years before Starbucks finally agreed to hire me- and so several months into my tenure there, I finally asked the store manager who'd hired me why it took so long. "Overqualified." she said, without skipping a beat.
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The job I'd held up until that point was at a local Japanese magazine, as an editor. And prior to that, "white collar" positions fill my resume since college.
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUgHq8KS4ND8jW7anMyMEt8rvc7mX_IVIgaS8NVg46zrutoWBXBnxi6k93mSbhJjyinijD9vHiDlQ_63ojrJo5ghdUDXlkBn51eajlLttu5_cfVl1yglJw3fjKJMKjJTa1Ev0CQJDXuUE/s1600/20111120-StarbucksOakPark-Michele%252Bsuperheroes.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="240" width="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUgHq8KS4ND8jW7anMyMEt8rvc7mX_IVIgaS8NVg46zrutoWBXBnxi6k93mSbhJjyinijD9vHiDlQ_63ojrJo5ghdUDXlkBn51eajlLttu5_cfVl1yglJw3fjKJMKjJTa1Ev0CQJDXuUE/s320/20111120-StarbucksOakPark-Michele%252Bsuperheroes.JPG" /></a></div>
<center>I had to rub my eyes in disbelief when <i>these</i> guys came strolling in. What is one to make of this number of superheroes convening at a <i>Starbucks?!</i> (...let alone MY Starbucks). It wasn't Halloween, so I'm convinced they were the real deal. (and only because I realize you don't know me, yes, I'm being sarcastic)</center>
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So why Starbucks? I ask myself that question <i>still</i> - particularly on the hard days - which unfortunately are often. My answer to that question <i>now</i>, is different than it was going in ...somewhat. Going in, my aspiration was to open my own coffee shop-type thing. I couldn't think of anything that looked like a better business model and wanted to learn all I could from the inside and was willing to do so from the ground up. The green apron experience contains probably a blog all of it's own, suffice it to say the experience <i>this</i> side of the counter ain't what it appears to be from <i>that</i> side of the counter and has eroded considerably even in the time I've been with the company. In the interim, the dream of launching a coffee entity of my own gave way to different priorities and this job, while still a balancing act despite it being part-time, earns me just enough to make my thankfully low ends meet and offers the possibility to purchase healthcare benefits should certain requirements be met.
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<center>Once in a while they ask me to do the artwork for the store.</center>
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The "different priorities"? I began writing songs around the age of 13 and have yet to stop doing so. And I finally "get" that I'm meant to follow wherever it is it proves to lead.
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Though this stint at Starbucks is far from an ideal situation, my experience with full-time jobs is that work consumes the best of one's energy and waking hours leaving in it's wake little quality of life. ...and then you die. No thanks. -Mind you, this is my view of full-time jobs as a single, kidless lesbian, so I sure as heck don't get how the <i>rest</i> of y'all do it! I used to, in fact, say half-jokingly to my co-workers back then on my way home for the day, "I'm gonna grab a bite, take a nap and a shower and see you back here in a few short hours for another 8 hours of this!"
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This little blue-collar part-time job kicks my ass and everything else, regardless (I defy Howard Schultz to last a <i>week</i> as a barista and <i>triple-dog dare him</i> to be on the television show <i>Undercover Boss</i>), but with it, I get to put what matters most on the <i>front</i>-burner versus the back-burner.
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That said...
maybe you have found your way to my blog through one of my music project sites.
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<a href="http://311healjapan.com">The Heal Japan EP</a> is the front-burner project at the time of this writing ...which is coming to fruition at such the snail's pace for how slowly I can afford to fund it's progression that it is near exasperating to me at times. And hence, the title of this particular blog entry. Because this endeavor is proving to be a tremendous exercise in it.
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The concept for this project came about early this year (2012) centered on a song I'd written in 2009, <i>Nihon Wo Aisu</i>, and is a benefit release in the effort to aid the Tohoku region of Japan still recovering in the aftermath of the triple-fold disasters of 3/11/11. You can hear the demo tracks at the project site. So far, I've managed to get the tracks recorded and mastered and have still the miscellaneous art (photography, disc, cover, & promotional), CD production, distribution, and promotion to take on ahead.
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Because I can't move any faster on these next steps than I can manage to sock away to fund them, I'm launching this blog to stay connected, report activity along the way, and to chronicle the brutal reality of the experience as we go -and I thank you for your interest.
michelehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11992559677020494307noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5688465052077906279.post-45578019621771207992012-09-02T21:11:00.001-07:002012-09-02T21:12:30.849-07:00think.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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michelehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11992559677020494307noreply@blogger.com0