Two things have inspired me this week: 1) Symbols and 2) Vince Gill!
I know a few things for sure but not many. I know that friends, coaches, consultants, counselors, therapists, parents, pastors, songwriters, Bible, and environments help us live our life either better or worse. I know that! But I had never thought about the fact that SYMBOLS should fit into this list. But they do…symbols can give us insight into who we were, who we are, and how we want to be…symbols are things like the familiar and well-known Mercedes Benz emblem, the cross, a peace sign, a rainbow, a caution light, a green light, a red light, logos, and so many more…they all mean something to us. But to discover this week that a circle, a self, a myth, and an art piece as symbols can help me discover more clues about myself based on what I like or don’t like…I had never really considered this. But it’s true. Music is one of those pieces of art!
I love music! When I was small, I acted like Johnny Cash. My mom and dad bought me a guitar, and I would turn it around on my back like he did, and day after day I would say, “Hello, I’m Johnny Cash.” My mom and dad invested in guitar lessons for me, but unfortunately, I just didn’t seem to have the musician gift and only learned about five chords. But it was enough…I would fall in love music forever. My mom is a musician piano player, and a gifted one at that. She can hear a train blow its horn and tell you what key it’s in. She has perfect pitch. Her musician background translated quickly into me loving music, of all kinds, and has been a great addition for me through the years as a pastor for over 30 years.
So, I guess you could say that today I am a “frustrated musician,” that has the acute ear of my mother which attracts me to many concerts and varities of music over and over not so much because I need something to do but because I love what I “feel” hearing the lyrics, the sounds, and the energy of artists on a stage. I FEEL what they have crafted, and I listen. But, I can’t play a thing. But I can produce through others what I want to hear. And I can sing the styles, the harmonies, the bass low-end harmony and baritone harmony and I get it…I see where it fits and how it should sound. I hear a missed note in a band, the mix, the bottom end of the bass in the sub-woofer, what’s not sounding good, what is, and the voices and their harmonies and how beautiful they are.
My mom taught my friends and me harmony, how to sing as a quartet, and how to stand on a stage and hold a microphone. She could follow any chorus or song I would sing if she were at the piano that particular Sunday and I would sing at the end of a sermon. Growing up, I wanted to board a silver Eagle bus and be a quartet man, then I wanted to be a country singer, and instead, God would lead me to a call to help people find life eternal. A call I have loved with all my heart.
Today, my love for music is at an all-time high. Simply put, there is a soul, a heart, and a meaning behind most lyrics of any type of song no matter the genre. These lyrics can give off hints, smokescreens, clues, and signals of what a person’s background, persona, wounding, pain, hopes, dreams, desires, and heart is like considering what has been written. I think that is why I love music, musicians, and songwriters…it’s very similar to sermon writing. Same concept. A life can change with a story!!!
I must admit, in my fantasy world, I can still see myself in a dream somewhere walking out on stage to sing the low harmony with Vince Gill. Instead, I am gratified and satisfied to sit in the audience and experience a tear come down my cheek as I hear him feather out of his lips the beautiful words of beautiful songs, like “best thing I ever did was be your dad.”
I listened to a newly “fit” thirty-five pound less version of Vince last night in Birmingham, Alabama at the historic Alabama Theatre. I ran into a long-time friend, Mike Anderson, for who my son Jordan worked for one summer and is doing Production Management for Vince this summer. Vince looked great and sounded even better. He’s 65 and singing and writing better than ever. He looked last night like he did when I first remember discovering him right about the time he got his big hit, “When I Call Your Name” many years ago…sharp, crisp, well put together, and confident excellence. I met Vince many years back and have met him several times since at various places and have probably heard him sing over 200 times over 20 years. He wouldn’t know me, but I know him.
My friend Terry Fields was listening to him one night at Third & Lindsley the year I turned 50 and asked Vince to record a special video birthday wish, something I will never forget. I follow him, his writing, his music, his songs. I like his style. He’s real, authentic, non-judgmental, sensitive, emotional, chasing after God, simple, a sinner and a saint like the rest of us, and loves hard! He’s the common super-star that never “saw the red light.” He’s for everybody! It never gets old to be around Vince Gill…I need to be around him. Why? Because I need to hear and see what he is FEELING afresh and anew. He grows himself personally and musician-ally. He describes life for us as listeners, the good and the bad, and he lets himself be where he is on the journey, with compassion for himself. He’s ok with that. He understands that the journey is the success, not some destination. Vince just gets it!!! He causes me to feel my own feelings and heal from my own wounding.
He sang a new song last night that specifically touched me because not being too far behind in age, perspectives do change as we grow older, and hopefully like Vince said is happening to him, gratitude becomes more prevalent, hopefully, and it hit my heart dead center. This new song is called, “I Gave You Everything I Had” and he wrote it to describe how he is seeing his own life in reflection at 65. As I turned 57 this year, I find myself more emotional, more filled with gratitude, and I resonate with what Vince is saying “as you get older and realize that you don’t have as much time left as the amount of time you’ve been here…and that’s a weird one when that needle finally tilts to the other side.” True.
You may relate in your own life to several of these lyric lines…
I’ve still got songs I’m dying to sing
I’ve said goodbye to some real good friends
Life looks different through an aging lens
I don’t question it will end
I’m just more grateful now than I’ve ever been
I gave you everything I had
I miss Oklahoma and my Mom and Dad
Best thing I ever did was be your Dad
I sang every song like it could be my last
So many dreams I’ve yet to cast
This gypsy life hadn’t been so bad
Writing when inspired helps me process. Being honest with yourself to identify your own “feelings” in the moment takes courage and when you do it, you begin to heal, lift, rise, and love more than ever before. It changes the world as songs and sermons have done for mega-years.
Kim and I have made our minds up that instead of allowing the culture to tell us that the second half of life is going to be the “dreaded crisis years” after mid-life…we don’t receive nor buy that! The second half of life is the best part of life! Especially if you age gracefully and not passively!!!
The “gypsy life” is really all our lives for all of our lives whether you travel as a musician, transfer your job to a new city, travel the world with your hobby, lose a family member, or create a new dream…nothing stays the same, nothing lasts forever. It’s really about following God’s nail-pierced hand as it points to the next best place He prescribes, and then THE FINALE…eternity, forever!!
“This gypsy life hadn’t been so bad…”
