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September- 2014

9/20/2014

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Intimacy and farewell to a comedic genius

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"There is a thin line that separates laughter and pain, comedy and tragedy, and humor and hurt"
                                 Erma Bombeck 


I instinctively put things I care about in safe places.  What do you instinctively do?

I recently found a small rock on the beach.  I liked it right away.  Picking it up, the tiny relic fit my hand perfectly.  It was small and smooth and had an ever so slight curve.  It was something I could squeeze (like one of those free stress balls they hand out at conferences). It had muted earth-tone colors- nothing out of the ordinary but I was still drawn to it. I brought it home and put it in a safe place beside my bed. 

Then one night, I couldn't fall asleep.  I tried the "Sleepy Time" tea, a hot shower, a book but nothing seemed to work.  Time ticked on.  I retrieved my rock, squeezing it tightly, I concentrated on the feeling of my hand around that rock. I turned it over and over then finally, whispering some prayers, I fell into a deep, satisfying sleep. Later the next day, I searched for the rock; I didn't want it to get thrown out like another piece of junk lying around but I couldn't find it. 

Again, I forgot about the rock until I happened to retrieve something out of a teeny, tiny hand-made piece of pottery where I keep jewelry.  There it was!  I must have placed it there, instinctively, while half asleep.  

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"In nature we never see anything isolated, but everything in connection with something else which is before it, beside it, under it and over it"
      Johann Wolfgang von Goethe



Now, normally I would consider this a coincidence but over the next week, this little gesture of taking care of the things I value came up again and again so I began to take notice of how intrinsic this small, tiny act is to how I respond to my world. 


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            "Intimacy is not a happy medium.
              It is a way of being in which the 
               tension between distance and
                    closeness is dissolved and
                     a new horizon appears. 
                            Intimacy is 
                                 beyond 
                                  fear"
           
                         Henri Nouwen
       
                  "Alone we can do so little; 
                together we can do so much"
                               Helen Keller
"... and then we get to choose who we let into our weird little worlds?"  spoken by Robin Williams in a movie tribute. 

Robin Williams.  Like so many other people, I too, grieve the loss of the laughter and the tears he caused me to shed through his television and on-screen performances. I was really sad.  How would I honor him in this website? I didn't know this man- only what media had portrayed of him. 

I knew I had to start with at least one of his friends.  
                

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Choice: We get to choose how we spend our free time.  We get to choose our friends.  We get to choose how we think; we get to choose what we think about.  

We each have responsibilities , life pressures and, depending on our age, govern the amount of free time we have.  I used to think about time in a different way, particularly before I had kids.  The older I get, however, the greater levels of complexity cloud my perspective and compete for my time.  
     
So- who were Robin William's friends?  

The first words that caught my eye in the morning after his death were from his friend, Billy Crystal who tweeted: "No Words".   

No words.  Two little words that say so much about a man who brought so much laughter.  I decided to "dive" into the early years (1970's) to gain some perspective. The original "Saturday Night Live" cast,  then the Blues Brothers (John Belushi & Dan Akroyd), Comedian, George Carlin, although funny was a bit inappropriate for this website so I chose a clip about who he was.  Finally, Johnny Carson and Billy Crystal, respectively.   

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"one of the most beautiful qualities of true friendship is to understand and to be understood."
               Lucius Annaeus Seneca 

Saturday Night Live:  The American late-night comedy show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975.  In 1974, Johnny Carson announced that he wanted the weekend shows pulled and saved so he could take some time off.  This opened the Saturday night time slot and therefore, began the long run of Saturday Night Live!


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The Blues Brothers: A rhythm and blues band formed in 1978 by John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd as part of a musical sketch on Saturday Night Live. 

See them here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1ehMrK3itM



                          Rolling Stone magazine cover: 1979
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George Carlin was an American comedian, writer, social critic and actor who won five Grammy awards for his comedy albums. 

First listed in 1972 in his monologue "seven words you can never say on television" pushed the envelope of comedy with his quick wit and sharp tongue.  

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The Tonight Show starring Johhny Carson
with Robin Williams: air date 10/14/81.






Robin Williams returns to the Ellen Degeneres show in 2013. 


Billy Crystal and Robin Williams on the television hit, Friends.  The series originally began airing on NBC in 1994 for 10 years and is now in syndication. 


There are some people that just "get you".  One of my favorite quotes is from C.S. Lewis who writes: Friendship is born at that moment when one man says to another, "what! You too? I thought that no one but myself..." 
 When I thought about friendships, I loosely connected the word intimacy.  Who is in your inner circle? (See under chapter heading, You for additional information on intimacy) 

Imagine a pond and a rock.  The water is so still and calm that even the slightest movement causes a ripple.  

You pick up a small, smooth rock- much flatter than the one I found on the beach.  With a forward thrusting motion of your wrist, your hand releases the rock thereby causing it to skip along the surface of the water.  It is fun to count the skips before it plummets beneath the surface.

Most people we will ever meet, will be the skipped rock that glides on the surface of the water.  The rock is fun to watch.  We may notice the shape, color and texture of the rock as it glides along the surface but we really don't know much about them.    

The rings around the plummeted rock represents our friendships. The closer the ring is to where the rock fell beneath the surface, the fewer people in the circle. 


              "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."
                                                                                         Matthew 6:21
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"Time ticked on.  I retrieved my rock, squeezing it tightly, I concentrated on the feeling of my hand around the rock. I turned it over and over then finally, whispering some prayers, I fell into a deep, satisfying sleep".  

I was at church; I particularly love the music but when the worship director said that despite their technology efforts, there would be no lyrics, I thought to myself, "this will be awkward when I hum most of the song and sing "real loudly" a sentence or two.  No words were coming to my mind.   

I closed my eyes. I emptied my heart and my hands at the foot of the cross.  Remember when I said I "instinctively put things I care about in safe places?".  Safely tucked in my heart were the words to every worship song. The words were not in my mind but in my heart. Out poured all of the lyrics- song after song, my heart spilled the intimate content of God's love for me.  There is one quote that I wrestle with: "It's only after we've lost everything, that we're free to do anything". Faith is the rock we hold onto tightly.  

There once were twelve men.  Jesus called them his friends.  We call them disciples.  These men, broken and human laid their judgments and pride down.  Imagine the ridicule they must have felt?  Imagine the doubt, the indecisiveness, the second-guesses.  What did they do?  They got into a boat...  a boat that took them, not where they thought they would go, but to a place so intimate, they later were willing to die for their faith.  Jesus, in the midst of their stories (and ours), asked them to give up everything.  In an intimate gesture of friendship, Jesus removed his outer garment, knelt down and washed his friend's feet.  

Most of us choose not to allow ourselves such vulnerability but Jesus did.  The two most powerful words in the bible?   
                                               "Jesus wept." John 11:35 

I don't know your story.  Our stories have yet to be written.  I had almost finished this month's blog.  I only had a few thoughts to write down.  I felt a tug to go pray for a friend which I did.  I came back, logged onto my site and the whole editing piece was gone; I was completely locked out with only a blank, empty, new screen. Nobody could retrieve it.  After days with the company, it was finally restored.  It was, however, a good lesson.   Am I willing to loose every word I have written over the past year?

I am very human.  I don't want to give up everything (or anything) and there lies the challenge.  Jesus doesn't ask us to give up the small leftovers we would have laid down anyways but the very heart of our lives.  When we give up our control, our plans, our ideas and our dreams, we are only left with the humble, scrambled, messy pieces of ourselves.  In our weakness, He can speak to us and in that whispered intimacy we begin to hear of the  sacrifice that was made on our behalf.  It is only after I have surrendered everything that I have the ability to write, or help, or pray, or feel joy, or to love.   

Jesus is about the relationship.  Maybe you have only heard about the religion. 1) You need other believers to point you to the hope they have but 2) you are the one that needs to take the time and the willingness to give up everything.  He has a message for you and you alone.  It is not a "cookie-cutter, one-size fits all" message but one where He knows you by name.  Our culture embraces an ideology where "everyone gets a trophy" rather than everyone needing a savior.  Our time is fleeting; where will you place your trust?  


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"No matter what people tell you, words and ideas can change this world" 
                                                                                        -Dead Poet's Society

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Utube: Dead Poet Society- what will your verse be?
The regular link was taken down









Thanks for giving it a "shot" Mr Williams.  Your poetry was seen in your ability to make us laugh and cry.


The powerful play does, indeed, go on 
and you contributed a verse...
and 
a song, a wink,  
and a smile but most of all,
a laugh and a tear

 

There are many directions I could have chosen in the movie clips of Robin Williams but I chose this one because it is about what we leave behind; how will people remember you?


An excerpt from the 1989- film, Dead Poet's Society: 

"That the powerful play goes on and you may 
contribute a verse"






Robin Williams tribute video- 
1951-2014  
A Movie Montage

"...and then 
we get to choose
who we let into our 
weird little worlds"

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...may you forever
         rest in peace... 
                
           Thank you!

                         "If Heaven exists, 
                to know that there's laughter, 
                 that would be a great thing"

                                        
                               Robin Williams
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Rolling Stone Magazine:
cover 1979

So why include a song at the end of a tribute video?   

Because, you too, may contribute a verse.  What will your verse be?

Have you closed the gate?  Are we not all Desperado's in search of truth? 

While the first vinyl I bought in the 1970s' was Elton John, the second was the Eagles.  

At 15 years old, my crate of albums was stollen from me; a part of my heart closed that day.  That memory now serves as a symbol to approach God's grace empty and broken and in need of Him. 
Eagles-



noteworthy
  • Started at a concert at Disneyland
  • Hopi tribe reverence for the Eagle
  • Original members: Frey, Henley, Meisner, Leadon
  • Later members: Don Felder, Joe Walsh, Timothy B Schmidt

Eagles
The seeds that would become the original band members for the Eagles began in 1971 at a summer concert at Disneyland.  Linda Ronstadt, having recruited Glen Frey & Don Henley (who were acquaintances from the Troubadour in Los Angeles) as well as Randy Meisner and Bernie Leadon as studio musicians for an album she was working on, backed her up at a July concert at Disneyland.  After the gig, the four decided to join together to form a new band, Eagles.  The name is said to have come from a conversation that Leadon had with the band members when he recalled reading of the reverence the Hopi Indians had for the Eagle. 

The Eagles were one of the most successful bands in the 1970's.  They released their first album in 1972 and their last in 1979 but it was their fifth album, Hotel California (released 1976) that brought them their most commercial success.  It was the first album to feature Joe Walsh.  It was among the highest selling albums in the United States and is ranked 37th in Rolling Stone's list of the "500 best albums of all time".  Amid some controversy, the band broke up but reunited to produce a seventh album in 2007 and continues to tour today. 

Why this song? "Freedom, oh freedom, well that's just some people talking. Your prison is walking through this world all alone."

That is a lyric from this song.  The truth is you, and you alone, have a choice.  Open the gate to love.  There is a savior that knows you by name.  

What is the rock you hold on to? 

Info found in Discogs & Wikepedia 
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    A person who searches for depth and beauty in the simple things.

    A daughter, wife, mother, friend and servant for the one true king. 

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