Beyond Words

Introducing “Beyond Words” my first solo album in 40 years.

While I have played as part of other bands, contributed arrangements or songs, been a co-writer as a member of other groups or artists, this is my first foray into my own compositions.

I chose an instrumental album at the encouragement of my wife, Tonya, simply because of the volume of snippets and rough outlines on my voice memos. In the next few weeks I will describe what inspired the title of each piece and how it speaks to me. Most of them flowed from a session of just relaxing with my instrument—thus the more quiet sound. Each song came about as a result of how I felt at the time.

Below is a my site where there are links to iTunes, YouTube, and other music downloading websites:

https://jonathanvarnell.my.canva.site

Jonny’s Proverbs #10

The first step to gaining wholeness may be to recognize the brokenness, yet the first step to awareness is to recognize that a back brace will not fix a broken leg.

A Case of Convenient Guilt

This morning I read an article which reflected an attitude becoming more prevalent in society.  The director Roman Polanski (see the Comcast article here) has finally been taken into custody for a crime he committed thirty years ago.  It seems  the Swiss have a new found sense of justice for they arrested him when he landed on their soil.

What dumbfounded and amazed me is that this man admitted to raping a 13 year old girl in court negotiations, yet somehow escaped justice.  The comments of the French minister and president especially dropped my jaw.  They think he’s paid enough for his crime and ought to be left alone.

Strange to say these same people wouldn’t be so lenient had it been their own daughter or themselves.  Polanski has lived in pretty good circumstances, releasing movies and receiving awards without being harassed too much.  Though he regrets his misconduct according to interviews, he doesn’t want to serve his time.

What is it that makes us think that some crimes are more negotiable than others.  Here’s a man who broke the trust of a kid, scarred her for life and messed up his own life, yet some in power want to excuse his crime and let him off the hook.  It doesn’t matter if he was a survivor of the holocaust, he committed a crime against a defenseless child and deserves punishment.  Just because he’s famous doesn’t give him special privileges or let him off the hook as far as justice is concerned.

Now before you think I’m being vengeful or recommending capital punishment, let me make clear that I don’t think he ought to serve out the rest of his life in prison, but the normal sentence for what he’s done.  Obviously he’s quite unwilling to do so and by his behavior has thumbed his nose at the US justice system by continuing to release his art and work in our country.

Let me put this in perspective for us a little better:  If a man was molested as a child by an aunt or uncle, we have sympathy for his troubled soul, scars and struggle to regain some balance in his life.  However, if this man does the same to several children when he grows to puberty and beyond, we have to cut off his access to the them and protect the helpless.  Just because he’s been hurt doesn’t give him license to hurt others with impunity.  In fact, it should make him hyper aware of the pain and scars he will cause them by his own actions.

It doesn’t matter in one sense that he’s been molested himself when he continues the behavior himself because it’s still a crime.  No one in their right mind would say it’s ok for me to steal another person’s guitar just because someone else stole mine, right?  How can we apply different rules to sexual crimes than we do to thieving?  Stealing someone’s innocence and sense of safety is a bigger crime than taking money in my estimation for you not only damage their ability to make a life but their very sense of self.

No, Mr. Polanski needs to take his consequences like everyone else and not be let off just because he’s famous.

A Day to Save the Earth

There are several billion people on the earth and all living, breathing, breeding, eating and eliminating.  With all of this activity, you’d think that someone would stop and recognize the dire consequences of people breathing out once they breathe in…I mean come on, we’re talking about a carbon foot print pretty hefty here.  We need oxygen but breath out carbon, which means humans all other breathing creatures are contributing to the global warming crisis just by breathing in and out.

Next, most people on earth eat fairly spicy foods, which produce?  You guessed it, methane.  There are more cattle of course than humans on the earth producing several times the amount of methane as human beings, but we need to eat them, milk them and use their hides for shoes, rock n roll-show-your-stuff-pants and cool leather jackets.  Not to mention cheese products and whatnot.   And anyway they don’t reason very well so trying to persuade them to stop contributing to the earth overheating is like talking to a wall.  They either don’t care or are too engrossed in being part of the food chain to worry about other stuff.

So it’s up to us humans to solve the methane problem.  My suggestion is that we have one day world wide set aside to save the earth where no one farts, burps or has a bowel movement to prevent any methane from escaping at all.  I know many a lady would welcome a day her husband didn’t belch of fart in some form, and it’s all for a good cause, to save the planet.  But this would mean we’d all have to be pretty self-controlled about our bodily functions because the explosions at night would be hard to prevent, unless, of course, you know a healthy way to plug the offending outlet.

I declare the need of a day of fart fasting for every human being alive.

If you care, you won’t let ‘er rip.

And please stay away from fried foods, beans or other gaseous products which inspire such unseemly, thoughtless and utterly disgusting expressions.

Help humanity survive by holding it in, people.  You’ll be glad you did.

For one thing, you’d be able to keep the SUV, and the Lear jet and that gas stove…O, and those plastic bags.  Let’s may be even…

Prioritize

In a recent show on “World have Your Say” I heard a climate change prophet condemn the world at large for not doing more to prevent the problem.  It was an interesting show, since he also called the radio show host out on the carpet for inviting the opposing view into their midst.  He actually sounded offended she would even consider the opposing view or allow it to be heard on air.

Now while I don’t know the science as much as some or the truth about what causes this phenomenon, I do believe it’s pretty easy to figure out part of the problem is humans.  I mean go to Africa where the regulations on emissions are less stringent, then stand behind one of their buses.  One whiff of that fresh, heavy, black exhaust will cure anyone of thinking we aren’t at least partially to blame for changes in our atmosphere.

Yet what I found almost heartless is some of the people who wrote in seemed to ignore the greater problem the world has with getting along with each other.  It’s as if they think the answer to the world’s problems is curing climate change rather than giving everyone a sense commonality.  It’s really easy to focus on green issues when you don’t have a gun pointed at your head or someone else eager to lop it off.

Before the people in Darfur will be able to focus on the damage they’re doing to the environment, they will need to solve the problem of suviving with their heads connected to their shoulders.  Before anyone will care about the issue of trees being harvested at an alarming rate, their economic sustainability must be addressed.  No one will care about the environment when their children are freezing or unable to eat.

The luxury of being in a free society with wealth for even the poor (by the rest of the world’s standards the westernized nations’ poor are richer than most third world middle class) is that we can sit and chew the fat about less basic issues.  A person worried about their next meal is less likely to focus on any other agenda than getting their belly filled.

I’m not denying the need for cleaner energy because I’m actually an advocate.  The Judeo/Christian mandate in Genesis told us to take care of our planet and everything in it, so those with any other view or priority have fallen down on the job handed to them by the Creator.

I have no problem believing the science which calls for more responsible care for our world.  In fact I applaud it.  But what I find purely utilitarian and cold is the attitude of some who would ignore the basic human problem of war, war caused famines, political domination and lack of freedom.

In the 1980s we saw an intervention for Ethiopia in the form of a huge Rock concert.  We also saw the Etheopian government starve their people while the grain and other gifts for their country sat on the docks till they rotted or were eaten by rats.

How do we force people to be concerned with issues such as climate and polution when they can’t feed themselves or their desire for self-preservation has been squashed?

Here’s a saying from my childhood that deserves consideration:  “People don’t care how much you know till they know how much you care.”  And it rings true in even this situation.  Pushing clean energy on people who barely read or write is a crime.  Anyone who claims they know better than the uneducated should educate instead of mandate.  If we want the people of the world to grow concerned for their planet, we have to secure their livelihoods or they will care less about any future beyond their next meal.

So I advocate teaching people cosmopolitan thinking which hopefully will lead to understanding and acceptance of differences in beliefs, cultures and customs.  Only then will we find any kind of unity on the survival of our planet.

Categorically Speaking

Categories don’t set value, people do.

What has always surprised me about humans is that we seem to think somehow what one does for a living actually dictates our intelligence, ability to accomplish great things and value.  

If I’m not mistaken, Socrates was a slave.

I’m a little tired of being categorized, but I know there’s no help for it…not really.  I find that we look at what a person does for a living, their financial status or ability to make the world around them go  “Oooo” and judge them accordingly.

As an example, I once heard an interview with a prominent actress.  Now the roles this woman took were quite deep and interesting, but to hear her talk showed a different side all together.  Beauty and brains are not synonymous, let’s just say.  Her rationale for her outlook on life, religion and family seemed steeped in image consciousness without any real connection to the people she claimed to value.

Now I can only judge her by her interviews, behind the scenes she might actually be quite charming, quick on the draw and intelligent.  It’s not the first time a camera or public interview rattled even a great thinker.  Many people aren’t good with words unless they have them written down.  Categorizing this actress as an idiot would be a mistake on my part because I don’t know her, have no ability to ascertain her true identity or in any way know the person behind the public persona.

That said, she still lost a lot of respect when she failed articulate her mind well.

Yet it’s unfair of us to relegate anyone to a hopeless place in history, social standing or success just because they don’t meet our criterion for how to accomplish these things.

Vincent van Gogh would probably appear to us to be anything but a genius if we had to live with him for a while.  A man who would cut off his ear and give it to a hooker is not someone who relates well to people, for that is abnormal behavior.  I don’t know what he was like in person but to be honest I’ve been around people who express themselves in similar ways and they are very hard to deal with, let alone be around for any length of time.

I’m sorry to harp on it, but, again, perception dictates our ability to accept or reject.  When characteristics are at a distance, we can be more objective about them.  When they get in our face, it’s harder to overlook the obvious smell of oddness that hangs about some people.

I’m an artist, so I know plenty of artists who are worlds unto themselves.  I’m told (though I cannot relate to the knowledge except intellectually) that I also am an odd duck, a world unto myself, and out of step with the social beat.  Though this is probably true and I’ve heard it enough to believe it, it’s not why I am writing this article.

No, what spurs me to write is that I’m tired of the value we place on jobs, status, social standing, certain types of intelligence and the like.  I get tired of people being of less value just because they haven’t accomplished all another person deems valuable.

Why do we condescend to the maid or servant?  What makes them any less valuable than us?

What value does a janitor lack that the doctor who needs the other’s services possesses?  Both positions are vital to the smooth operation of any public place, yet one is considered far more valuable to society than the other.

I once told my wife that I had no pride about where I work.  It’s quite true, I will work anywhere without shame because work is work to me.  It holds no value other than the fact that it provides the means to survive.  For a time I stocked doors and trim for a company.  My brother couldn’t believe I liked it because it was a low end job, though it paid well.  I believe his exact words were,  “I can’t believe you would want to do this job over being a contractor.  This job holds no future, no respect and takes no skill.”

See, though I try to explain my position, most people like him will probably never understand people like me.  I am a musician, what I do to earn money is incidental to the fact that I’m allowed to create music and make it art, hopefully.  My passion isn’t the day-job I hold but the night work I do on a song.

Yet I don’t consider my value any higher because I’m creative in the musical field than the work I do during the day.  It’s part of my identity, for sure, but it doesn’t make me any more or less valuable in my own eyes than anything else I do.  Neither does what I do encapsulate my identity.

Long ago I began the fight against measuring up to other’s expectations.  This fight began externally and ended up internal.  The best way to explain what happened is to say that I learned that the problem isn’t them, it’s me.  I’m my own worst enemy when it comes to valuing myself.  I’m making this a self-centered issue, rather explaining that our self-worth is wrapped up in our own perceptions and education–socially, culturally and family–that we have to reassess our perceptions and discard those which don’t meet reality before we can actually see the truth either about ourselves or others.

I don’t like being categorized by others, therefore I refuse to do it to them.  I would rather give someone the benefit of the doubt than to judge them unfairly.

Accepting someone based on their job or social standing appalls me to the degree that it makes me nauseous.  I guess when a person has been marginalized enough, they find it offensive in any form.

Though I hate categories, I know they are real, true and mostly accurate.

Value, on the other hand, is mostly preference.

Proof

…Of my Christian walk is not chain letter.

I get tired of chain letters telling some meaningful story about faith then almost ordering me to forward it as proof that I’m proud to be a Christian.  By the order they imply that if I don’t, I’m obviously ashamed of my faith and their right.  Manipulation is a shameful trait and not Christlike at all.

So, I don’t forward.  I like the stories sometimes though.

Still, why do we think that some email is gonna’ make a difference in the truth about who I am?  It’s not proof of anything but that I have a button I can hit that says “send” and could mean that I just want to impress someone on my email list.

To me, the best proof is a changed attitude and heart, which should, by default, change the way we act.  The rest is window dressing.

The Nature of Light

Light is a substance we can measure.  I am not a scientist or physicist, but the truth of light is well known even to a guy so devoid of scientific genious.

The essence of darkness is nothingness.  Darkness is the absence of light so when we say that the darkness is pressing in, what we are really saying without realizing it is that our light is getting smaller and nothingness is beginning to take over our consciousness.

This is the biggest human problem in the history of the world for we fear being nothing more than almost anything else.  Therefore, if darkness is becoming nothing, light is becoming something.  Follow this reasoning to its obvious conclusion and we have people who realize their value and know it become something, those who lose this perspective or are robbed of it from get-go will come to nothing.  Destructive people end up being destroyed because what we practice will come back to us in one way or another.  Thieves will eventually be robbed or sentenced, for a stronger thief will take the weaker until that one becomes weaker than the one to follow, or society, which hates being robbed, will catch up to the thief and make them pay it back with interest.

Here is our job as humans, I believe:  To creat light in nothingness so that everyone realizes they are something and worth much.  In this way we subtract the darkness, which by even saying this we are using an oxymoron because darkness is nothing and already had all substance subtracted.

Light is the only substance therefore if we cling to the light, we become identified with it, which then leads us to being worth something not only to ourselves but those around us.

Light Versus Dark

I have been thinking a lot about this issue lately.  Have you ever noticed that some people focus on how dark their lives are while others the light?  I guess it comes down to perspective, of course, but in the end much of what we see is a choice someone makes.

As I’ve said before, it comes down to mostly us, how we view things, what opinions we hold and what direction we choose to face.  Yet sometimes we have no control over whether or not the darkness will sweep in and take us by surprise.  Like a wise man once said,  “As fish are caught in a cruel net, or birds are taken in a snare, so men are trapped by evil times that fall unexpectedly upon them.”  Solomon.

If we take a look at the financial crisis of today–markets plummeting, jobs being lost, people in a panic, we can see the darkness spreading and there’s absolutlely nothing we can do about what other people will think or do.  In other words the only person I have control over is myself and even that can be something of a tenuous hold, for I can’t prevent the earthquakes, tornados or other disasters that happen without my knowledge of their buildup or source.  Since I can’t predict these things, all I can do is be as prepared as possible and work with what comes.

So, now that we know what we can’t control, let’s look at what we can.

Our attitudes, thought life and focus belong to us.

I once heard a first person story about a missionary who visited a leper colony.  As this missionary was singing, he noticed a particular man with barely any mouth or nose singing along with him.  The man lifted his patchwork hands (meaning he had missing fingers) and praised his God with gusto.  Mystified, my missionary friend beelined over to this guy after the last song anxious to ask how this was possible.

The leper, clearly in the dying phase of his condition, chuckled and said something like this (I’m quoting from memory after twenty odd years so forgive me if I don’t get the exact phrasing down),  “Bobby, you in the West think that you deserve stuff and that your stuff will make you happy, yet you are not because you’re always scare to lose it.  I’ve lost everything a person values, yet found light for my soul and it has taken all the darkness and pushed it back so that I’m excited about my future, which makes me content with my present.”

I’m not preaching religion here, merely pointing out that if we are set upon by disease, catastrophic or financial loss, it isn’t the end of our world–though it might feel like it.  We can still make a living, find food and a host of other things no matter our circumstances.  The one thing that becomes our greatest enemy is dependance on the weather, other people or good luck to see us through.  A man without a plan is one who can be defeated easily, so have a plan to take on the odds and make something out of them instead of letting the defeat control our whole lives.

It’s what we choose to look at that will determine the outcome of our lives not our circumstances.

As an addendum, however, I must mention that some people have been given the physiological short end of the stick.  Those who suffer from mental illness, depression or other dark mind diseases cannot be helped through choosing to look at the light because they have their own bodies and chemistry to fight first.  If the actual soup of our makeup is flawed out of the starting gate, the only chance we have to see the light or recognize it is to get help from someone already there to balance out our chemical defaults.

Yet that’s what those who don’t have these issues must be on the look out for in others and be there with a helping hand to offer them a chance.

Last thought for this truth I believe.

For just an experiement, walk into a pitch dark room and try to see around it with your naked eye.  After you’ve tried this, get a candle and light it in the room.  Depending on how big the candle is the light will defuse the darkness a lot or a little, but no matter how much it dispells the darkness, it still pushes it back.  Light and dark cannot occupy the same space at once for they cancel each other out.  Yet darkness is not an entity in and of itself but simply an absence of light.  Therefore, the brighter light we bring into a room, the better will see all our obstacles.

If we are experiencing darkness, shining a little light on our subject at hand will help dispell the fear of the unknown.  At the same time, the more light we shed on the room or place we are in, the better equipped will be to not only cope with our space, but actually be productive in it.

Remember this truth:  Light and darkness can never occupy the same exact space at the same time.

The Mysterious Universe

The first thing I saw in the morning news was an article on a new mystery of the universe called “dark flow”.  As far as the scientists who observed the phenomena are concerned, they can only speculate as why this “dark flow” is rushing at such high speeds and taking galaxies with it.  It defies all gravitational forces and baffles them as what could be pulling it in its given direction.

I am always amazed at how intricate, detailed and complex the universe is.  There’s so much to discover we’ve barely scratched the surface of what’s to be known.  Someday even our best educated guesses will look like medieval meanderings to our descendants.  But for now, I can only sit and gaze at the dangerous, wondrous and wholly fascinating beauty that is our home.