MOIRAJO
  • Barry Manilow & Mother T
    • Post 1 "I Write the Songs"
    • Post 2 "I Am Your Child"
    • Post 3 "Life Will Go On"
    • Post 4 "Sweet Life"
    • Post 5 "Can't Take My Eyes off of You"
    • Post 6 "As Sure As I'm Standing Here"
    • Post 7 "All the Time"
    • Post 8 "Mandy"
    • Post 9 "Here Comes the Night"
    • Post 10 "Lay Me Down"
    • Post 11 "It's A Miracle"
    • Post 12 "Sunrise"
    • Post 13 "Looks Like We Made It"
    • Post 14 "Daybreak"
    • Post 15 "Where Do I Go From Here?"
    • Post 16 "Somewhere Down the Road"
    • Post 17 "It's a Long Way Up"
    • Post 18 "Ay Amor"
    • Post 19 "Copacabana (At the Copa) Remix"
    • Post 20 "New York City Rhythm"
    • Post 21 "If I Can Dream"
    • Post 22 "Memory"
    • Post 23 "You Begin Again"
    • Post 24 "If We Only Have Love"
    • Post 25: "Put Your Dreams Away"
    • Post 26 "Good-bye My Love"
    • Post 27 "Please Don't Be Scared"
    • Post 28 "Keep Each Other Warm"
    • Post 29 "Ready To Take a Chance Again"
    • Post 30 "The Stars in the Night"
    • Post 31 "We Can Be Kind"
    • Post 32 "Look to the Rainbow"
    • Post 33 "Life Will Go On"
    • Post 34 "God Bless the Other 99"
    • Post 35 "Not What You See"
    • Post 36 "Welcome Home"
    • Post 37 "Everything's Gonna Be All Right"
    • Post 38 "Do Like I Do"
    • Post 39 "Brooklyn Blues"
    • Post 40 "Old Songs"
    • Post 41 "Could It Be Magic?"
    • Post 42 "I Made It Through The Rain"
    • Post 43 "Paradise Cafe"
    • Post 44 "Beautiful Music"
    • Post 45: "Harmony"
    • Post 46 "One Voice"
    • Post 47 "Appendices" Let Freedom Ring" >
      • Postlude "Even Now" : Seeing Barry at Barclays After 37 Years"
  • Blog: E-Lifts
  • Weekly Message
  • Sermon Podcasts
  • Links
  • Contact

Post 7:  "All the Time"

Picture
“Deliver me, O Jesus, From the desire of being loved, From the desire of being extolled, From the desire of being honored, From the desire of being praised, From the desire of being preferred, From the desire of being consulted, From the desire of being approved, From the desire of being popular, From the fear of being humiliated, From the fear of being despised, From the fear of suffering rebukes, From the fear of being calumniated, From the fear of being forgotten, From the fear of being wronged, From the fear of being ridiculed, From the fear of being suspected.” Mother Teresa, Simple Path


As preparation for Confirmation, the Catholic rite of passage, Father What-a-Waste asks us, “what do we want to be when we grow up?” The night before, flipping among the handful of television channels we had back then in the troglodyte era of 1970s television, I caught a segment of a show about poverty among the elderly. Watching this show felt just like when I stood at the altar.

I heard another snippet of the song, another line, beckoning me, simple. Like it was Jesus saying over and over, “follow me.” It all came to me. So when Father What-a-Waste posed his question, I was ready. I began to write as if I were channeling the Holy Spirit on speed. I wrote a passionate essay that I wanted to build housing for poor old people when I grew up. Like for the lady under the bridge with the moldy pizza. Like a Donald Trump for the poor. Only nicer and with better hair.

 I never wrote so fast in my life. It just flowed. However, I wrote the wrong answer. My response did not fit Father What-a-Waste’s handout – which was looking for answers like: “I want to be a housewife when I grow up” or a beautician, a fireman, a policeman. etc., etc., exactly what the rest of the kids wrote. As Father What-a-Waste began citing our nation’s future gardeners, morticians and ballplayers, he came to my essay.

He began to read and then stopped.

Even Father What-a-Waste appeared stumped. Everyone stared at me, on cue. Was this some plot of the Zombies to take over the world? The classroom grew quiet.

Father put my essay aside as if it contained traces of phlegm and went quickly to the next one. The Politburo threw the Handbook at my head and hissed, “What the hell did we teach you about keeping your damn mouth shut?”

So I began a practice that would last decades: I tore my essay up.

However, a few notes of the song had broken free and refused to be silenced.

“Someday, you will follow me.”


Notes:
http://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/838305.Mother_Teresa?page=8

Give the gift of music to the next generation through donations to:

The Manilow Music Project
8295 South La Cienega Boulevard
Inglewood, CA 90301
info@manilowmusicproject.org


Click here to go to the next post or click here to return to the previous post.

Picture
© Moira Ahearne 2017. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.