{"id":48,"date":"2004-08-30T18:46:00","date_gmt":"2004-08-31T00:46:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/?p=48"},"modified":"2010-03-19T00:36:01","modified_gmt":"2010-03-19T05:36:01","slug":"observations-from-a-traveling-musician","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/observations-from-a-traveling-musician\/","title":{"rendered":"Observations from a Traveling Musician"},"content":{"rendered":"

Friday night a friend and I spent an evening with singer\/songwriter Allen Levi<\/A>.<\/p>\n

Now as a disclaimer, that might sound like it was me and him just hanging out \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not entirely true \u00e2\u20ac\u201c but in the intimate venue it felt like it was just Allen, me and a few friends.<\/p>\n

Allen pointed out that as a singer\/songwriter his main job is to notice things.<\/p>\n

I thought that was a good job summary.<\/p>\n

As an editor\/columnist\/storyteller, I think that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s my main job as well.<\/p>\n

So in the spirit of my new job summary, I want to share some of the things I noticed (with the help of Allen).<\/p>\n

People are big. Houses are small.<\/h2>\n

I think we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve all seen drawings done by younger children.<\/p>\n

People are not proportional, but yet nine-times-out-of-ten, they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re all smiling as big as they can.<\/p>\n

They may have eight fingers on one hand and two on the other.<\/p>\n

They may be as skinny as a blade of grass, with a giant pumpkin for a head, but they don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t mind.<\/p>\n

They may have no clothes or feet, but the people in drawings by children, don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t seem to mind. They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re a part of a great big happy universe, where judging and laughing at others does not exist.<\/p>\n

Allen told the story of a four-year-old friend of his who loved drawing with chalk on the sidewalk.<\/p>\n

Her drawings were a wonderful representation of how she viewed the world.<\/p>\n

And Levi noticed that in all of her drawings, Olivia would always draw the people big and the houses small.<\/p>\n

These giant people that Olivia saw would never be able to fit into their tiny houses, but that wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t important to Olivia. <\/p>\n

She put the importance upon the people.<\/p>\n

And that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what Christ did as well. He didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t care what house you lived in, what position you held, whether you were a leper, a blind man, or a He-man. You were important in His eyes.<\/p>\n

People are big. Houses are small.<\/p>\n

Southern Living vs. Southerners living<\/h2>\n

If we were to take two houses, you might find a stark contrast in their make up.<\/p>\n

The house at 610 might be the picture of beauty and class.<\/p>\n

While the house at 612 might be cluttered with bikes in the yard, mud on the floor and a wet dog chasing kids over the couch.<\/p>\n

610 has a ghost of a man, with a wife and two kids who are never seen.<\/p>\n

612 is a family of five who love each other and those around them.<\/p>\n

610 never has company, they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re too busy with their job and school and soccer games.<\/p>\n

612 never minds the interruptions of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153happy lightening,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d when people stop by unexpected, just to enjoy the company of friends.<\/p>\n

It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s never really known if the people at 610 are home or gone. <\/p>\n

The house looks the same; no one outdoors, no bright welcoming lights on and no invitations to the neighbors to visit.<\/p>\n

You can always tell if the family at 612 is home, there kids are playing in the yard with the neighbors, the barbecue is smoking, there is laughter and music in the air, and an unwritten \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Welcome\u00e2\u20ac\u009d sign always hangs in the yard.<\/p>\n

610 was pictured on a post card and a part of Southern Living magazine.<\/p>\n

612 is the picture of where real southerners live.<\/p>\n

Which house are you?<\/p>\n

Are you concerned with the appearance of perfection, or the appearance of a friend?<\/p>\n

The moon is round.<\/h2>\n

As we left the gathering Friday night, we looked up in the sky to see that the moon was about the shape of a football.<\/p>\n

Some days, the moon is full and bright in its glory.<\/p>\n

Other days, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a sliver of silver that fell to the floor from a carpenter\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s bench.<\/p>\n

And some days it doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t matter what shape the moon is, because the clouds are so thick you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll never be able to see it.<\/p>\n

But in all of its seasons, in all of its changes, the moon is round.<\/p>\n

The moon is round on your day of birth.<\/p>\n

The moon is round on the day you find your first love.<\/p>\n

The moon is round on the day you get your first kiss.<\/p>\n

The moon is round on graduation day.<\/p>\n

The moon is round on the day you get your first promotion.<\/p>\n

The moon is round on your wedding day.<\/p>\n

And the moon is round when you discover you have cancer.<\/p>\n

The moon is round when you company closes down.<\/p>\n

The moon is round when your parents pass away.<\/p>\n

The moon is round when your child is hurt in a car accident.<\/p>\n

The moon is round when your spouse passes away.<\/p>\n

And the moon is round when you pass away.<\/p>\n

And in all of its changes and in all of its appearances, we know \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the moon is still round.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The heavens declare the glory of God. The skies proclaim the work of His hands.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

If the moon is faithful to be round, isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t its Creator the ever more faithful?<\/p>\n

There are many more things I learned Friday night from a storyteller, a songwriter and a singer who took the time to notice and chose not to hold it all inside like the house at 610.<\/p>\n

What will you notice this week from the Creator?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Friday night a friend and I spent an evening with singer\/songwriter Allen Levi. Now as a disclaimer, that might sound like it was me and him just hanging out \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not entirely true \u00e2\u20ac\u201c but in the intimate venue it felt like it was just Allen, me and a few friends. Allen pointed … Continue reading Observations from a Traveling Musician<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2090],"tags":[3290,2088,2089,3292,2092,3294,3293,3295,3291],"class_list":["post-48","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-columns-reflections","tag-allen-levi","tag-belton-journal","tag-columns","tag-moon-is-round","tag-newspaper","tag-olivia","tag-southern-living","tag-southerners-living","tag-traveling-musician"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pEnSo-M","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}