I am behind the times as usual. I heard this on Sirius' Bluegrass Junction channel yesterday: "Pistol and the Pen".
While perhaps somewhat unusual as a Bluegrass song, folk music has always had a lot of morbid elements to it, and somebody said that a lot of Bluegrass is "boy-meets-girl, boy-kills-girl, boy-goes-to-prison". I see that the video seems to be associated with the death of Country singer Mindy McCready with whom I was unfamiliar prior to her taking her own life earlier this year.
The juxtaposition of the pen and the pistol is one that I can understand. It reminds me of the manly Robert Service poem, "The Quitter". Webb offers a modern, civilized version for those of us caught in the desperation of what may sometimes seem to be a life of pointless suffering. I suppose not everyone can relate, but a lot of us have found the pen to be an effective flotation device when sinking in a sea of despair, pain, and chaos.
Plato For the Win!
6 hours ago
2 comments:
That was a good song and video. I liked the poem too. (I never claimed to be a sophisticate.) I'm gonna stick my neck out and say all of us, have been through, are going through, will go through what seems like pointless suffering. Sounds odd, but it's good to know friends have gone through the same. Use the experience to grab on to God.
I think you are right. Suffering is sometimes understandable looking back at a distance to give a wider view. I see some that will apparently require being viewed from eternity to appreciate.
Walk by faith, not by sight.
I don't think we're unsophisticated just because we like Robert Service.
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