I became insane with long intervals of horrible sanity.
Edgar Allen Poe

The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one's time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all.
- H. L. Mencken

Many people would sooner die than think; In fact, they do so
-Bertrand Russell

What I have been telling you, from alpha to omega, what is the one great thing the sigil taught me — that everything in life is miraculous. For the sigil taught me that it rests within the power of each of us to awaken at will from a dragging nightmare of life made up of unimportant tasks and tedious useless little habits, to see life as it really is, and to rejoice in its exquisite wonderfulness. If the sigil were proved to be the top of a tomato-can, it would not alter that big fact, nor my fixed faith. No Harrowby, the common names we call things by do not matter — except to show how very dull we are ...
-James Branch Cabell

July 07, 2014 - 1:00 p.m.

Exquisite Wonderfulness

I haven't updated in three days Since then I've been to the world's best Fourth of July Party and the New Bedford Folk Festival I have so much to write about but don't have much time. So for now I'm going to write about one microcosm. One small event that says so much. I'll try and tell this with the minimum of back story.

Every year at Falcon Ridge The Steeple Tent sets up next to the Budgiedome. Joe and Emily and the rest of the extended clan are part of my Falcon Ridge Family. This year they can't attend which means I miss my annual fix. But for the first time both Emily and Joe and their kids were at New Bedford when I was. So I got to see them. Part of Falcon Ridge tradition is that I'm the Steeple Tent tapeworm, they feed me then we sing together. So we decided to have dinner together at New Bedford. On Sunday night we grabbed some Portuguese sausages at a place that Mike recommend, he joined us for dinner, then went to the "Meet the Performer's Tent" to see the Kennedys. Pete and Maura are part of what we all bonded over. We sing "Stand" every day at Falcon Ridge.

Now a bit more back story from another side. I've been having a bout of existential angst Even the great weekend was not driving it away. This is the story of what did.

Before the Kennedys arrived Joe and Emily's kids asked me to read a book to them, Dirty Joe the Pirate: A True Story. I love reading to kids and like to think I'm good at it. That stared the ball rolling Then Pete and Maura arrived. The Kennedys are human Prozac. It's hard to not feel good when you're around them They don't even have to be singing.

When the Kennedys sang Dharma Caf� they asked the mermaids to come down front and dance. The mermaids are Emily and Joe's daughters who dragged Emily with them.

A little after that I made my Facebook status, "Watching the Kennedys with friends. All is right in the world." Or so I thought but things got better.

The finale was Stand, you know the song we sing every day at Falcon Ridge The family sings it all year round. They run the Steeple Coffeehouse. The kids have grown up with the Kennedys as part of their lives. In the middle of the song the two eldest 8 and 6 ran onstage next to Maura and joined in. While Maura sang they refrain they sang the counter refrain in rock steady rhythm.

Allah, Buddha, Yahweh, Jesus, Brahma
People get ready there's a train it's coming
Many different legends, just one story
All aboard the train that's bound for glory

Maura's face lit up as bright as I ever saw. Joe was right on it taking a video.. Emily was kveling and crying and I as in the midst of this and it was the best thing ever. This is part of the exquisite wonderfulness. Or as Emily put it, this was the Falcon Ridge moment.

I assumed that Jake Jacobson took this picture but it doesn't have his usual watermark. I'll give him photo credit till I hear otherwise..

I'll get around to writing about the party and the rest of the festival and I'll tell you all about the commute and what I ate soon. There's a particularly stupid idiot story. For now I have to eat breakfast. It's sausage, egg, and cheese on a bagel time.


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please hold me accountable.





Memories: Not that Horrid Song - May 29, 2018
Wise Madness is Now In Session - May 28, 2018
The NFL and the First Amendment - May 27, 2018
On The Road Again - May 26, 2018
Oliver the Three-Eyed Crow - May 25, 2018



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Horvendile July 07, 2014
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