Here’s the latest….

Poetry of Music Writings mktdaf

Music: The story behind “The End of the Road (Mabel’s Song)”

Solo piano player Joe Bongiorno
Solo piano player Joe Bongiorno

When I first heard Joe Bongiorno‘s new release, The Flight of a Dream earlier this month, I knew that he had a winner on his hands. I’ve listened to it now maybe six million times…but that’s been a couple of weeks, so I had time. It’s great! (Click here to hear samples – you’ll get it!)

I discovered that he had put a song called The End of the Road (Mabel’s Song) on the album, and although I know Joe well, I didn’t know of anyone named Mabel in his life. His response touched me deeply:

Been asked ALOT about the story behind this song from the new album…. You might remember a post of mine about 9 months back.

This song was inspired by that experience. Here it is from Feb 3rd of this year:

The new album...
The new album…

The doorbell rang this morning. A sweet elderly lady standing there with a worried look. I greeted her and she asked for Mabel. Mabel was the lady who lived in our house previously (we had just moved in four months before), and I knew she had she had passed away.

I really didn’t want to bear this news to the kind lady. She then told me that she had driven two days from Texas to come to the house to see her. She had written Mabel a letter and it had been returned to sender.

I remember this letter coming before the holidays. She had no other way to attempt contact than to come in person. With a frog in my throat, I let her know that Mabel had passed away. She sighed, as if almost with relief that what she feared was true, and then her eyes welled up sadly.

She looked to her husband still sitting in the car and shook her head sadly. He understood the look & turned away as if to hide his emotion. I invited her in for a little visit but she said sweetly, “It’s time to go home”.

Perhaps this is a reminder to me to reach out more often to friends and family. It’s a reminder, too, that life can change at any moment, for any of us… for someone my age, I have lost very few people who were dear to me.

I am quite sure that I’ll get my fair dose of this in the days to come….

Here’s the song (click here to listen).

Thoughts mktdaf

Thoughts: Stay in touch….

When was the last time you actually touched the person to whom you said, “Hey, stay in touch!”

I think it was Bob Hope who said, “People who throw kisses are hopelessly lazy.”

Here’s a little two minute essay, telling the story:

Writings mktdaf

Choose one….

For some reason, I remember Wayne Gretzky saying, “You miss one hundred precent of the shots you never take.”

Don’t get caught up in the choices. It’s what you do, not what you choose, that matters.

Choose one, and shoot! (said the Great One.) Photo by Ian Byington, in Cook Street Village, in Victoria, BC.
Choose one, and shoot! (said the Great One.) Photo by Ian Byington, in Cook Street Village, in Victoria, BC.
Whale News mktdaf

Whales: Twenty years after “Free Willy,” what have we learned, and what have we missed…

It was twenty years ago, today....(actually, July 16th....)
It was twenty years ago, today….(actually, July 16th….)

Do you remember where you were, the first time you saw Free Willy? For me, it was in a movie theatre in Eugene, OR, USA, with a packed house that screamed & cheered & clapped when Willy gets away at the end (see the poster at right, for spoiler). It was a football game where the home team won, a fairy tale that wasn’t Grimm, it was a tale of justice, unpeeled. It was awesome.

One of the byproduct events of the movie was the eventual real-life release of the whale who played Willy, a captive killer whale named Keiko. Was this a good idea? DId it work out? Did humans learn anything from the experience about orcas, or about themselves?

I got to shake David Kirby’s hand last summer when he was passing through Friday Harbor (WA) on a promotional tour for his new book, Death at SeaWorld. I found him thoughtful, articulate, and an impassioned warrior against marine mammal captivity. Reading Death at SeaWorld made want to read the article linked below.

He shares his take on what we could have learned, what we missed, and perhaps what lies ahead in this penetrating essay. Let me know what you think.

Here’s the link to David Kirby’s remarks about Keiko on the 20th anniversary of Free Willy.

And…. here’s the trailer for the movie, back then.

Poetry of Music Writings mktdaf

Poetry: Far better things…..

Let the tears wash your sorrows into the new day beyond....
Let the tears wash your sorrows into the new day beyond….

Part of the path to purification is walking (or running, if you’re fast that way!) through the fires that burn away the stuff…that keeps us from pure love. The fires are tough, usually painful, sometimes unbearably so – but there’s always another day. There’s always another sunrise. There’s always later…which is a great place to look back from.

Here’s one of my favourite expressions of this, from Rumi:

Sorrow prepares you for joy.
It violently sweeps everything out of your house,
so that new joy can find space to enter.
It shakes the yellow leaves from the bough of your heart,
so that fresh, green leaves can grow in their place.
It pulls up the rotten roots,
so that new roots hidden beneath
have room to grow.
Whatever sorrow shakes from your heart,
far better things will take their place…

~~Rumi

In the Other News Thoughts mktdaf

Look ahead….

Gigi
Gigi

There are a number of uplifting & inspiring people on the Internet, and one of them is Gigi Young.

Check out her YouTube essays & website, and you’ll get the idea.

She posted this about a week ago, and it’s been echoing in my head ever since….I kept catching myself wanting to understand the past before I felt I could move ahead with the task at hand.

This kind of thing helps.

 

Looking ahead....
Looking ahead….
Starpeople Writings mktdaf

As the harvest moon rises….

The moon rose tonight through lowhanging clouds over Ross Bay below Victoria, BC....lighting up the night & the seas reflecting her beams....photo by Ian Byington.
The moon rose tonight through lowhanging clouds over Ross Bay below Victoria, BC….lighting up the night & the seas reflecting her beams….photo by Ian Byington.

Beautiful moon tonight, hey?

Here’s a song to go with it: Play here! (It’s me singing “Brother Sun, Sister Moon” for you….)

Happy Harvest Moon to you!

Starpeople mktdaf

Starpeople: Why I’m checking on them (and maybe, why they check on me & us)

Searching....
Searching….

When I was a kid, the big excitement in the early 1960s in the States was space. We were going to space & to the moon & the stars, and we were making the rockets to get there. We were also making the people to go there, and they were stronger & smarter &  tougher than the average bear, because they had to be. They we going into space!

The Mercury 7 were the early heroes of all this, and I knew them & their stories just like I knew the stats on my baseball cars & the details of all those Hardy Boys books we read…and I loved them.

One of those astronauts, Gordon Cooper, became one of the leading proponents of his belief, based on things he had personally seen, that the Earth was being visited by folks from other planets. You can read a quick version here, and here’s a short video of Col. Cooper addressing this:

Other astronauts have reported seeing things as well, with perhaps the most prominent & articulate being Dr. Edgar Mitchell, the sixth man to walk on the moon (Apollo 14). In this interview with James Fox, he reviews his thoughts & experiences regarding what’s there, and the possible reasons people want to deny it.

Over the last few years, people have asked me what I think, and I usually respond that I’m curious, like everyone else. It’s as simple as this: I’ve personally met over two dozen people who have described their encounters with ETs (extraterrestrials), both visual & actual contact, and they’re reliable witnesses, far as I can tell.

That’s the sort of thing I would like to share, here.

So, being curious, I keep asking questions. Hope you do, too.

Thought for the day…


"All of life's important answers must be in the form of a question."
-- Alex Trebeck

About Brother Ian

brother ian in actionOver the centuries, Brother Ian has been collecting stories & information & discourses for the purpose of elevating the human condition as needed, dissecting it when necessary, and building the case for hope.

In the spirit of noting that organized crime, organized baseball, organized labour, and organized religion tend to engender controversy & occasional discord, I promise to be neither organized or critical of those who are.

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