So, music became a channel of my emotional life quite early, and it is my ongoing therapy. I’d say it is cheaper than therapy, but when I add up instrument costs, time, and how much I’ve invested, I actually think psychotherapy would have been less costly.
Continuing to pray for the many survivors of the storms. We were fortunate to be missed this time around. Plenty of chances for compassion for us all–giving, praying, helping, going, cleaning and building. We may be in for more of this.
But I woke up alive again this morning. At 57, waking up always feels like Christmas. I’m so happy for every day! It’s been a frantically busy time, but I love everything that makes it that way. So, I thought about this song I recorded last year. I wrote it thinking about the Scotch and Irish immigrants to this country who came, struggled, and persevered against resistance (that seems to be the way). And they brought us a lot of wonderful music, a way they escaped the hardships of daily life with dance, laughter and song.
I called it, “Scotch Irish Outburst.” It’s just my musical picture of a group of people dancing on a Saturday night after a hard week. You can feel good even when things seem bad. Art is necessary, even after storms.
I hope you like it. I used drum tracks from Jim Dooley and I played the rest of the instruments. Recorded in my basement, I have no idea when in 2011.
CLICK TO HEAR “SCOTCH IRISH OUTBURST” and have a wonderful day! God is love.
The Flatpickin' Pilgrim's Progress 
This MacArthur-McRight descendent thanks you for a beautiful piece. The steady beat certainly fits
my memories of the great-grandparents and aunts and uncles and mother I knew and their descendants who loved us and formed us. During SS, we remembered all those whose lives were touched by these latest storms whether directly or indirectly. Blessings, Relma
Thank you, Relma. What a lovely sentiment. Thank you for writing. You reminded me of theologian Jaroslav Pelikan’s great quote: “Tradition is the living faith of the dead; traditionalism is the dead faith of the living. Tradition lives in conversation with the past, while remembering where we are and when we are and that it is we who have to decide. Traditionalism supposes that nothing should ever be done for the first time, so all that is needed to solve any problem is to arrive at the supposedly unanimous testimony of this homogenized tradition.” –Jaroslav Pelikan, interview with U.S. News & World Report, July 26, 1989 (the interview focused on his book The Vindication of Tradition).
Tradition and ancestors are great friends to the living of these days.