Life and How to Live it
By Mike Adams
9/19/2011 - Townhall
One night during the summer of 1989, I was over at my friend Del Rendon’s house. We both lived in Starkville, Mississippi. We also both played guitar. After playing half the songs in the Led Zeppelin acoustic catalogue, we started to talk. Del tried to convince me to start playing music for a living with my friend Shannon who is an enormously talented vocalist. Shannon was also over at Del’s house that night so we both heard an earful of compliments from our kind and humble friend.
By the middle of the summer of 1990 Shannon and I were both making ends meet playing in the local bars and also in a few bars in the Mississippi Delta. The bar we played in the most was called the Bully III in Starkville. That was where Del waited tables working for our mutual friend David Lee Odom. It took a lot of convincing but one night Del got up on stage with David and sang an old Zeppelin song. The crowd went wild. Then, Del stayed on stage and sang a song he wrote call Brainstorming. It was and still is my favorite Del Rendon original.
Eventually it was my turn to encourage Del the way he had once encouraged me. In 1993, I had finally achieved my goal of getting a PhD and landing a job as a professor. Before I left town I told Del to pick up where we left off. Starkville has a long and proud tradition of great local music. It also has a tight community of musicians who really look out for each other. Jim Beaty, Bill Cooke, Jeff Cummings, Jeff Rupp, the list goes on. I’ll never forget those guys who have dedicated their lives to making people smile with their talent, their love of music, and their love of the people they play for. (Sorry but I have a love of ending sentences with prepositions. It’s something I’m really not ashamed of).
I’m not sure I can really describe the happiness I experienced when I came rolling into Starkville one weekend in 1996 to play in the wedding of an old friend. That happiness set in as I drove past the old Bully III and saw Del’s name on the marquis. After I turned the car around and found a parking space I slipped into a seat at a table in the back of the bar. Within just a few minutes Del recognized me. He called me up to the stage to play an old tune (Zeppelin, of course) called Your Time is Gonna Come. It was a great time and it was great to see Del playing guitar and singing in front of a live audience without a hint of the old shyness that used to keep him off stage.
When I came back to Starkville in 2000 I met an old girlfriend in one of the old dives I used to play in. When Del’s name came up she started to rave about his new band called Del Rendon and the Puerto Rican Rum Drunks. Before she was finished raving about the band none other than Del Rendon came walking into the crowded bar. After we caught up for a few minutes Del went out to his car to get me a present. It was a copy of Chameleon, his band’s new CD. In typical Del Rendon fashion he would not allow me to pay him for it. So I bought him a beer instead.
I didn’t see Del again until 2004. I was doing a book signing in the MSU bookstore (yes, they do have books at Mississippi State) after a home football game. Del was playing at a local restaurant/bar called The Veranda. So I went to see him play. As usual, he called me up to the stage just a few minutes after I walked in the bar. We played a few songs and then ended where we began – with an old Zeppelin tune.
Your Time is Gonna Come was an appropriate finale. When we finished the song he just turned to me and thanked me for playing with him. That was the last time I saw Del Rendon alive.
When I picked up the phone that afternoon in the late summer of 2005 I just knew something was wrong. It was Dave Odom. He called to tell me that Del had died just a few hours before. Sadly, his death came just a few weeks before his fortieth birthday. It was the kind of sudden death so many musicians had died before him. But Del was so much more than just another musician.
Del the art teacher would be missed by his students. Del the singer/songwriter would be missed by his fans. Del the friend would be missed by his friends. His family, especially his wife and soul mate, would all be left with big holes in their hearts. They would be more like craters that no one else could ever fill.
Not long after Del passed I started thinking about God’s first great commandment. He said we are supposed to love Him with all of our hearts and all of our souls and all our minds. And that means we have no right to keep the gifts He gave us to ourselves. And, of course, His second great commandment says we are to love our neighbors as ourselves. And that means we must shower them with encouragement when they are doing less with God’s gifts than they should be.
The arrow between God’s two great commandments points in both directions. When we encourage others to use their God-given talents to make others happy we do more than just pave the way for the happiness of others. We also pave the way for our own happiness. Those who show kindness and humility are not only the ones most likely to give encouragement. They are also its most likely recipients.
Among the best lessons Del Rendon the teacher taught us is that there’s no time to be discouraged. We have to dedicate our lives to encouraging others. Pretty soon, our time is coming, too.
Views: 161
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Comment by James Robertson on September 20, 2011 at 6:24am -
“The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, the education, the money, than circumstances, than failure, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company... a church... a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past... we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it. And so it is with you... we are in charge of our Attitudes.”
- Charles R. Swindoll
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Comment by James Robertson on September 20, 2011 at 1:52pm
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“We are here on earth to do good to others. What the others are here for, I do not know.” - Matthew Arnold
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Comment by James Robertson on September 22, 2011 at 5:56am
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“Tsze-Kung asked Confucius, "Is there one word which may serve as a rule of practice for all one's life?" The Master said, "Is not Reciprocity such a word? What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others”
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Comment by James Robertson on September 22, 2011 at 6:01am
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Comment by James Robertson on September 22, 2011 at 8:42am
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The happiness of life is made up of minute fractions-the little, soon-forgotten charities of a kiss or smile, a kind look, a heart-felt compliment, and the countless infinitesimals of pleasurable and genial feeling.
- Samuel Taylor Coleridge
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Comment by James Robertson on September 22, 2011 at 8:51am
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Oh! Much may be done by defying
The ghosts of Despair and Dismay
And much may be gained by relying
On "Where there's a Will There's a Way."
- Eliza Cook
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Comment by James Robertson on September 23, 2011 at 5:53am
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1). Smile ~ A smile is the closest path between two Souls.
2). Trust ~ Trust is the bridge between two hearts on which Love walks peacefully.
3). Give ~ To give is to share Love.
4). Share ~ When you share the best of you, you get the best of Life.
5). Believe ~ Believe in the beauty of your dreams so that you make them true and share them all.
6). Connect ~ Two hearts connect through one moment. Each of which is Love. Each of which is Life.
7). Forgive ~ To forgive is to open the heart to Love.
8). Remember ~ Love is remembering Kindness as the language of the heart.
9). Open ~ It is when you open your heart to another that Life appears meaningful.
10. Laugh ~ A laugh is a soulful moment that carries Love from Heaven to share it with those we love.
11). Grow ~ Love is the Gardener that makes Life grow strangers into Friends .
12). Learn ~ When you learn from Love, you are discovering that Peace is possible as a way to co-exist.
13). Create ~ To create a space for Love to exist beautifully is to care simply, yet endlessly.
14). Build ~ To build a Life from Love is to ensure a foundation on which to stand.
15). Honor ~ Honor those who support your Greatness as they provide you with a path to happiness.
16). Bless ~ Bless the one whose eye sees you in your Truth for (s)he is the mirror to your Soul.
17). Respect ~ To respect another is to allow him/her to exist independently from your own needs.
18). Accept ~ To accept Life partly for what you see and mostly for what you cannot yet fathom is great Wisdom and great Love.
19). Dream ~ The dream of a rainbow is Life showing you your true colors.
20). Imagine ~ To let another imagine his Greatness is Leadership as a way and Love as guidance.
21). Envision ~ Love lets you envision an Immaterial power. It also lets you realize it is yours.
22). Agree to disagree ~ Create a relationship through which you can agree to disagree and see how Love creates bridges.
23). Cherish ~ (S)he who cherishes a moment of Love, cherishes the Truth within Life.
24). Hug ~ A hug is Unity given a form.
25). Kiss ~ Kiss the lips and you'll see all stars. Kiss the Soul and you'll know the Light beyond all of them.
26). Thank ~ Give thanks to all that brings smiles to your Soul for this is Divine Love wrapped in Life's dearest blessings.
27). Appreciate ~ To appreciate Love is to give a heart a chance to feel it, share it and rejoice in it.
28). Nurture ~ She whose Soul nurtures another knows Love as the closest Truth to Life.
29). Communicate ~ To communicate Happiness is Life's most empowering path to Love.
30). Live ~ Live a Life in which Love has become the most essential way of expression and Loved you will forever feel.
From Awakenings
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Comment by James Robertson on September 23, 2011 at 10:19am
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Window Through Which We Look - From Awakenings
A young couple moved into a new neighborhood. The next morning while they were eating breakfast, the young woman watched her neighbor hanging wash outside. "That laundry is not very clean," she said. "She doesn't know how to wash correctly. Perhaps she needs better laundry soap."
Her husband looked on, but remained silent.
Every time her neighbor would hang her wash to dry, the young woman would make the same comments.
About one month later, the woman was surprised to see a nice clean wash on the line and said to her husband,
"Look, she has learned how to wash correctly. I wonder who taught her this."
The husband said, "I got up early this morning and cleaned our windows."
And so it is with life. What we see when watching others may depend on the purity of the window through which we look.
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Comment by James Robertson on September 23, 2011 at 11:19am
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Comment by James Robertson on September 23, 2011 at 1:38pm
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LIFE IS BUT A DREAM
by: Lewis Carroll (1832-1898)
BOAT, beneath a sunny sky
Lingering onward dreamily
In an evening of July--
Children three that nestle near,
Eager eye and willing ear,
Pleased a simple tale to hear--
Long has paled that sunny sky;
Echoes fade and memories die;
Autumn frosts have slain July.
Still she haunts me, phantomwise,
Alice moving under skies
Never seen by waking eyes.
Children yet, the tale to hear,
Eager eye and willing ear,
Lovingly shall nestle near.
In a Wonderland they lie,
Dreaming as the days go by,
Dreaming as the summers die;
Ever drifting down the stream--
Lingering in the golden gleam--
Life, what is it but a dream?
"Life is but a Dream" is reprinted from The Hunting of the Snark and Other Poems and Verses. Lewis Carroll. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1903.
© 2012 Created by Norm Fisher.
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