Thank You Johnny

I prayed for you tonight really hard and I prayed really hard for Tony's health last night...I was on my knees both nights. Stay strong...God loves you!


Here's a little story about Keith Richards and his "Blind Angel"....

In 1979, the Rolling Stones played two concerts for the blind at the Civic Auditorium in Oshawa, Ontario. The shows were done in lieu of a jail sentence for guitarist Keith Richards, who was convicted of heroin possession in Toronto two years earlier.

A Stones fan from Quebec City, Rita Bedard, convinced Judge Lloyd Graburn to allow the band to play the benefit shows instead of jailing Richards. Richards referred to Bedard, who's legally blind, as "my Blind Angel," and although he forgot her real name over the years, managed to have his staff track her down in 1994 to invite her to a Stones concert in Toronto.


and in a performance at Montreal 2003....

Keith got a huge applause and had to interrupt and tell everyone, "hey, I've got a show to do!" laughing of course.... He did a brilliant "Slipping Away" very clear, heartfelt vocals...close to the studio version. The crowd gave him love all night. Keith dedicated it to "his blind angel, Rita....She knows", he said. ...The girl who helped bail him out with the judge in Toronto in '77. Rita was in attendance for the show.

After a thunderous welcome from the crowd when Mick introduced him, Keith quieted us all down and then made a very rare dedication as he peered through the lights to pick out 'Blind Angel, 'Rita'. He waved out in her direction and began to sing Slipping Away. It was electrifying, very emotional and beautifully played.

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I was at a meeting the other day, talking to my friend Hannah. An older women, she's just very jolly. She's such a good reader. Eloquent. She reminds me of santa clause. She wears this huge, russian-looking fur hat. I think this is why assumed she had money. She always asks me for rides to Pathmark after the meeting. Not sure what I assumed she was doing at Pathmark at 10 PM every night, but I never really thought of it. She was talking about some guy that pisses her off, and she mentions sort of peripherally that she was homeless. Shame on me, I thought. Shame on someone. Shame. Shame. Shame. I hugged her and she almost started crying. What does homelessness look like? Not her. Not her. There was nothing I could give her, excpet a ride. I don't have a penny to my name. There's nothing but white space in the refrigerator. Maybe a home for her dog, her best friend? I have a cat I can barely take care of. We waited outside for my friend who was driving. It was freezing and it felt like we were standing outside, waiting, forever. It was cold. She offered me a coat. I took it. It was the only gift I could give her.

"The first step is Love, the second, mercy"

Joe Connelly, Bringing Out The Dead

What I Believe (Article)

Liz Schylinski ’06 in the Post – Standard

What I Believe
Saturday, November 04, 2006
By Liz Schylinski

I believe it's inevitable that we hurt the ones we love and cut people off in traffic.

We say things we don't mean, kiss people we shouldn't. I believe that reality becomes apparent on Sunday afternoons while grocery shopping.

I believe that blue-skied days come and go without the chance to go for a walk in the sunshine, that time is sometimes wasted, hearts are sometimes broken. But I believe that everyone experiences these things.

It is the lack of attention to these similar, small experiences that creates hate and divides this world. We become obsessed with being right, money, power and greed. I believe we forget our commonality. Sometimes I would like to ask government officials or chief executive officers or big men in big suits: How do you live? I'd like to sit with them for an hour, talking about the people they have loved and lost with, the people who have made them weep and laugh and given them faith.

I have a feeling that their answers would contain themes similar to those of the world's garbagemen, the grocery store clerks, or the men and women who eat at soup kitchens. Whether you make $200,000 a year or $4 and hour, you still have stories about your parents; you have people who have hurt you; you have people who have supported you at one time or another. I believe these things unite us.

I believe coffee is best served black and water with lemon. I believe that magic hides in the smell of dusk in July and in dewy mornings in September. I believe passion can be found in the scribbles falling from the tip of my pen, in the thoughts peppering the pages of Virginia Woolf and in rainy runs.

I believe that everyone should read the Sunday paper, listen to the Beatles and take vitamins. I believe it's important to say thank you at the grocery store and acknowledge that things will fall apart and you will cry. I believe it's important to cry and to learn to be alone. I believe you must take things as they come, that tomorrow isn't promised and the realization of that is sometimes very difficult to comprehend.

I believe that if you care about something you should stick with it, that there are some times when you can change your mind and times when you shouldn't, and knowing the difference is crucial. I believe it's important to have routines, keep promises and respect those who understand if you don't do either once in awhile.

I believe it's important to go to the public library every month for nothing more than a reminder that you are a part of a bigger society and that books and reading and writing are so very important.

I believe it's important to try things out, to know what you believe in and "be the change you wish to see," as Gandhi urged.

I believe we must embrace leadership roles and take chances as they come our way. I believe it's important to forgive, to pay attention, to love the little things: to find the sweat shirt you are most comfortable in and the CD you can't live without. We must create our lives into our own masterpieces.

I believe in "delicious ambiguity," the power of forgiveness, of memories, of simple calls just to say "hello." I believe in the love of my mom, being brave and acknowledging when you are wrong.

I believe that Le Moyne College gets education right in educating the "whole person," that Barnes & Noble is the best place to buy books and have coffee, and that anything you would ever need in life can be found on Erie Boulevard.

I believe that falling in love is hard, but it's worth a shot. I believe that driving and running cure anxiety. I believe in watching reruns of Nickelodeon and Sunday night TV and working hard.

I believe in different ideas and different ways of thinking. I believe in listening, loving and learning to believe in each other.
--

GIVING OF MYSELF

And whoever is chief among you
Let him be servent
Even as the Son of man come not to be minister unto,
But to minister,
And to give his life a ransom for many.

MATTHEW 20: 27-28

Patrick Laffey Photography

Yesterday I had coffee with two amazing artist friends. One, I knew about and the second, I was delighted to discover. His talents are self-taught. Perhaps, innate, like most talented people. Here are some of his works. He works out of Hackettstown, for the pure love of photography. I asked him for prints and he REFUSED to charge me??? Kindness?? Doing something for the sheer love of it?? That's art in and of itself...beautiful! For more of his work go to www.bluecollarart.com. You can also e-mail him directly at plaffey@netzero.com.

Sr. Helen Prejean's Prayer

www.prejean.org
Working on a documentary on forgiveness, my friend
Johnny and I started to reflect on the movie Dead Man Walking. Intrigued, we started doing some research on the famous nun who devoted a large part of her life to one man's salvation. Dude, see the movie if yuu haven't. You'll walk out a different person than who walked in! Here's a prayer she had on her web site. Oh, and our good 'Ole friend Gandhi has been mentioned repeatedly in my search for Sr. Prejean! Coincedence? I don't believe in coincidences. Check out her latest book, Death of Innocents, and let me know what you think. I haven't read it yet! For more about Sr. Prejean and her work go to http://www.prejean.org

Sr. Prejean's Prayer

God of Compassion
You let your rain fall on the just and the unjust.
Expand and deepen our hearts
so that we may love as You love,
even those among us
who have caused the greatest pain by taking life.
For there is in our land a great cry for vengeance
as we fill up death row and kill the killers
in the name of justice, in the name of peace.
Jesus, our brother,
you suffered execution at the hands of the state
but you did not let hatred overcome you
Help us to reach out to victims of violence
so that our enduring love may help them heal.
Holy Spirit of God,
You strengthen us in the struggle for justice,
Help us to work tirelessly
for the abolition of state-sanctioned death
and to renew our society in its very heart
so that violence will be no more.
Amen.