Rainbow Stew
Failure is just the bottom of success.
I’d rather say I’m sorry than ask for permission.
I’ve lived pedal to the metal my entire life. My childhood years are filled with stories of how I broke all but three pieces of my grandparent’s wedding china. Or the time I dismantled my crib during a so-called time-out. Broke the TV and glued the piece back in. Nobody noticed, right?
I can’t count the trips to the ER, but in every city, the nurses knew my name. Don’t get me started on wrecked cars, auto-pedestrian accidents, or self-inflicted wounds. Add in large farm-animal casualties. Not small farm animals, just sayin.
But in all this time, guess what I never thought of? How did the metal feel? Did it like having the pedal pushed hard up against it all the time? Just once, did it want to hear Metal to the pedal? And hard. Probably so.
Unilateral actions, by nature, disallow exploration of the other being. Those actions actually negate those others completely. That negation starts with pushing hard and not asking permission. I’m coming around. And back.
You all know my five elements, yada yada. Please subscribe here because I’m about to mention Merle Haggard and he might trigger the Outlaw in you. Then you might think, Oh Crap, not another redneck story. Yup. Strap in. You might recognize yourself.
MERLE HAGGARD, BARACK OBAMA, RAINBOW STEW, UTOPIA, AND EASTER
How’s that for a headline? Doing my research for this piece (ok, beer-drinkin' and rabbit-holin’, back off), this gem popped to the top. Quite the Google K-word juice. But please click. I don’t get anything, I just thought it a fascinating read. From said piece:
America now stands at a crossroads. Two very different groups— each pointing in the opposite direction— say they know the way. If we will just believe, behave, and follow, we will find joy, peace, and prosperity. While I decidedly favor one group's ideals over the other, I do not believe that either will lead us to a place free of conflict and crisis.
Merle wrote the song whenever and released it in 1981. That article was in 2010. And here we now 2022. Putin just mentioned the N-Word. Not that one. Black Russians are a drink. So are White Russians. Dictators are aware of the power of words.
NUCLEAR. As in: He uttered those words. I heard them. I veered into a Goodwill, bought an old school desk, and crawled under it. I keep silently shouting it. World. Broken. Post. Free. Apocalyptic. Leader. It’ll sink in soon.
Not that I want it. How many things in your life that you do that you don’t want to do? Or conversely, how many things that you want to do, you don’t do? I bet the difference sucks. The Poet of the Common Man wrote about those feelings. Because he felt them. Always bubbling up. We had time to dream about Utopia.
There’s a section of his bio that is near the top. As all facts should be.
As an inmate at San Quentin from 1958 to 1960, Merle Haggard saw Johnny Cash play at the prison on January 1, 1959. It changed his life. Haggard was later granted a pardon by Ronald Reagan when the former actor was Governor of California.
Rainbow Stew
There's a big brown cloud in the city
And the countryside's a sin
And the price of life is too high to give up
Gotta come down again
When the world wide war is over and done
And the dream of peace comes true
We'll all be drinking that free bubble up
And eating that rainbow stew
When they find out how to burn water
And the gasoline car is gone
When an airplane flies without any fuel
And sunlight heats our home
One of these days when the air clears up
And the sun come shining through
We'll all be drinking that free bubble up
And eating that rainbow stew
[Chorus]
Eating rainbow stew with a silver spoon
Underneath that sky of blue
We'll all be drinking that free bubble up
And eating that rainbow stew
[Music break]
You don't have to get high to be happy
Just think about what's in store
When people start doin' what they oughta to be doin'
They won't be booing no more
When a president goes through the white house doors
An' does what he says he'll do
We'll all be drinking that free bubble up
And eating that rainbow stew
Hag’s song was the best part about this lame Gambler movie. But that’s the thing. Everyone thought the movie sucked. And it did. Merle’s song gave it a kick in the ass. It failed on its own. Not because of the soundtrack. Maybe that’s life, right
I wrote last week about closure being the other side of vulnerability. By vulnerability, I mean those feelings that you keep locked down. You know, the ones that scare the hell out of you. Open those like a fire door: cautiously.
But once that door is opened, the other side proves itself. Not in every way that you might have imagined. Maybe not in any way that you imagined. But, down the road, the door you opened and closed becomes a touchstone in your life.
I look at failure like that. It’s just failure. Some failures end up dead. I get that. I have certainly put myself in the position to fail and cause death. Not only my own, but the actual death of other human beings. You know, those others that we so casually speak of. I didn’t cause death. I thank GOD daily.
I have no power to prevent it. Hell, I fucking caused it. Utopia is possible. We’re living in it. Right here and right now. We just don’t know it. And, worse even, we won’t believe it if the wrong person tells us.
Blasting my jams on the 101 at 5 am through the beautiful gray lady I call DTLA on an empty Saturday morning is therapy. She makes me sing. And laugh. But in a sudden turn of spiteful self-reflection, she presents herself as an over-bearing claustrophobic presence.
As a state-licensed Theoretical Therapist (State of Confusion) I’m confronted with a word association problem. Come at it from your own street corner.
believe ~ not trust
behave ~ misbehave
follow ~ lead
joy ~ drudgery
peace ~ war
prosperity ~ poverty
How is this for owning some contradictions? Care to be Fancy?
Wherever you are, the opposite is there as well.
Keep reading and keep looking,
Ric
On you next drive, play this and imagine you are on the 101 . . .