Please lock me away
And don’t allow the day
Here inside, where I hide
With my loneliness – Paul McCartney, as sung by Peter & Gordon
On Saturday night last weekend, Marti and I had the privilege of enjoying a unique, one-of-a-kind experience featuring Peter Asher, his touring band joining with our local 60-piece concert band for one of two special weekend concerts. Peter is half of the ‘60s duo, Peter & Gordon — Gordon Waller having passed away in 2009. Peter & Gordon’s debut single, “World without Love,” written by Paul McCartney, went to number one in 1964 in over 30 countries including the U.S. and U.K.. Four of their early hits were written by Paul when he and Peter shared the upstairs room of Peter’s childhood home in London, and Paul was dating Peter’s sister.
A note from one of our supporters got me going on something yesterday. He wanted to know if I knew anything about the spiritual nature of some of the songs by the rock group Kansas, famous for their 1977 hit, “Dust in the Wind.” I knew that Kerry Livgren, the author of that song, had become an outspoken Christian some years ago, and went on a brief Internet search during which I discovered the following from one of his biographies:
Probably the most dysfunctional thing about my family growing up (and every family has something dysfunctional) was the avoidance of confrontation at all cost, and each day as I still struggle with this, I am constantly made aware of just how high a price that was. It is far worse than any confrontation anyone could experience, because the price is the cost of the relationship itself. We finally discover that the only way to truly avoid confrontation is to avoid each other entirely.
Ever since I woke up this morning, I’ve been singing, “And the wind was low, and He brought me to the water…,” a Chuck Girard song I quoted last week when I was writing about the Spirit of God. I thought of this song again because this morning, the wind is low, whereas last night, when I went to sleep, the wind was howling. It was slamming doors and banging windows. It was tearing dead palm branches from trees and sending them flying. It completely blocked the main route in and out of town by downing a tree across the road, crushing a parked car.
We are soot-covered urchins running wild and unshod
And the wind was low
John Fischer The Catch 