I want to reach out over the lough
And feel your hand across the water
Walk with you along an unapproved road
Not looking over my shoulder
I want to see, and I want to hear
To understand your fears
But we're north & south of the river
Can we stop playing these old tattoos ?
Darling, I don't have the answer
I want to meet you
Where you are
I don't need you to surrender
There's no feeling
Thats so alone
As when the one you're hurting is your own
North & south of the river
And that brings us to tonight's word: JACK OF ALL TRADES
From the first time I heard U2 back in high school I was immediately drawn to both the music and the message. There was a war being fought on the green and orange island of Ireland. And I was following it through a reporter firsthand. I was given a drumbeat to March to in my teens by the drummer Larry Mullen Jr who had spent time in the military marching band. It was a legit snare beat. And then you had a lead vocalist who begged for peace through the glass and rubble in the streets. Turns out it was a typical divide and conquer strategy. Bono's father was Roman Catholic and his mother was a Protestant. Probably not the best mixture back in Dublin 1960. Much like a mixed marriage in the south in the 50's. In northern Ireland people were killed for dating or marrying across religious lines. So this was the music I was listening to at a young age. Pretty heavy stuff. As most of my friends were listening to Madonna and Wham, deep inside I was learning to march to God's drum. I had no idea that social consciousness could be delivered through music. I also had no idea that it would change who I was. I was raised Catholic and there's just not a lot of social consciousness in that religion. Just allot of kneeling. And passing the hat around (round 2?). Didn't quite know it or get it at the time, but those seeds were being planted. All our past experiences are leading us to this moment in time.
I know Bono can be pretty annoying (I know) but if you imagine yourself in his shoes living as a teenager, or younger, and thinking that someday your mother or father or both could disappear from your life just for finding love, well that's something hard for a youngun to swallow. And I got to tell you, sometimes they didn't just disappear. Sometimes things are done in front of family members that I won't get into. The war in Ireland was pretty ruthless. Belfast.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omagh_bombing
Of course when you follow Bono, he is not a one trick pony. He led me to Amnesty International and trying to free prisoners of conscience throughout the world. Aung San Suu Kyi. That led to AIDS awareness right about the time Freddy Mercury died. Also led me to the extreme poverty in Africa. RED campaign. Thru Live Aid, we've been fighting starvation there for over 30 years. Seeing these videos and images the other day unearthed a lot of old bones in the backyard. 30 years later and what's changed? All the HOPE, all the democrats and republicans, what's changed? Until this RV happens we are going to have the same tools playing the same games. I for one am sick of it. If this RV didn't happen, then in 30 years we probably would be going to have the same argument. With the same puppets at the helm. But hey....we know that's not gonna happen, right? It's time for change. And we are that change. Change the chosen ones can believe in. Peace on Earth. Finally Peace on Earth.
Fast forward to 2016. A YouTube recommendation put one Bruce, Springsteen song in my path. A song called Drive All Night. Then another called dream baby dream. Then I started to realize that Bono and this man were cut from the same cloth. But Bruce sang of an entirely different war. A different social injustice. Bruce's war was a silent war that invaded American towns and cities and slowly boarded them up and foreclosed on it's farms. Where economies dried-up and jobs disappeared, not to come back. This war took its toll on families who's only desire was to live in peace and raise their children healthy and happy in a good world. Too much to ask?
Now that our eyes are open (hopefully) to the game that was really being played...kinda makes the silent war not so silent. In Ireland when a pub is bombed it was usually a faceless bomber who claims responsibility at a distance. And with our Midwest Farms and cities drying up, it's the same bloody thing. Faceless bankers repossessing farms and houses, causing droughts, and other dirty handed tricks to take peoples land away. And if the collateral damage was a broken family so be it. They cared not.
So I came across the song "Jack of all trades". It's about a husband or father who learns to do any job, take any work he can just to keep his family going. A man who believes that we are going to be shown the light soon. Believes in a world that Jesus told us about. But he's also a man with withering patience. I gotta tell you, this song is as good as or better than anything U2 is ever written. Up there with Dylan too.
So this one goes out to all of us Jack of all trades out there that are doing everything we can to just scrape by. If it were just us, maybe it wouldn't hurt so much. But it's not just us. I hear many on calls that have wives and single moms with kids who depend on us to put food on the table. Doing it for loved ones in our lives that deserve more than we ever had. Who deserve to be happier than we've ever been. For anyone out there who is pulling weeds or cleaning toilets or begging just to put food on the table for your sweetie and your family, this one's for you. For all us guys and gals keeping it together with duct tape and bubble gum until big Joe squeezes the handle. For the Jacks of all trades, this one's for us. Salud.
And that's the word
Heisenberg
Tank, you silver tounged fox, you. Detroit or Bust
https://youtu.be/TsjjE8jXDts
https://youtu.be/nh36ExFkdL0
https://youtu.be/VBYiDnXP_UE
https://youtu.be/OtGb5MPCMlg
"Jack Of All Trades"
I’ll mow your lawn, clean the leaves out’ your drain
I’ll mend your roof, to keep out the rain
I take the work that God provides
I’m a jack of all trades, honey we’ll be all right
I’ll hammer the nails, I’ll set the stone
I’ll harvest your crops, when they’re ripe and grown
I’ll pull that engine apart, and patch’er up ’til she’s running right
I’m a jack of all trades, we’ll be all right
The hurricane blows, brings the hard rain
When the blue sky breaks
It feels like the world’s gonna change
And we’ll start caring for each other
Like Jesus said that we might
I’m a jack of all trades, we’ll be all right
The banker man grows fat, working man grows thin
It’s all happened before and it’ll happen again
It’ll happen again, yeah they’ll bet your life
I’m a jack of all trades, darling we’ll be all right
Now sometimes tomorrow comes soaked in treasure and blood
We stood the drought, now we’ll stand the flood
There’s a new world coming, I can see the light
I’m a jack of all trades, we’ll be all right
So you use what you’ve got and you learn to make do
You take the old, you make it new
If I had me a gun, I’d find the bastards and shoot ’em on sight
I’m a jack of all trades, we’ll be all right
I’m a jack of all trades, we’ll be all right