A Love Offering

There is this fellow who posts to the same internet list about Bluegrass music that I post to as well. Why do I post to such a list? Well I used to make music my profession while enjoying hobbies such as short order cook, painter, deckhand, tree inspector, truck driver and other things during the daylight hours and like a lot of musicians, I made those hobbies pay for themselves with a bit left over for things like food and rent. Well meanwhile back on the list this guy whom we will call Mr. C. likes to write about the part of Bluegrass that deals with that Old Time Religion. I'll tell you right off that religious or not, if you play BG, you are going to be exposed to some gospel singing. It just goes with the territory. Also, if you do festivals and don't do a bit of the Sunday morning show, your stock with the promoter can fall and with that your fee. Anyway, the sacred music is by and large pleasant to hear and the message is one that makes sense on the surface. Not only that, but singing gospel music is lots of fun. what with lots of clever harmonies and all and not too many hot licks, so if your a drunk or dope addict and have spent Saturday night plying your craft, you can get through a gospel sing OK so long as it doesn't require complex musicianship from your hungover hands. See, Old Texino tells it like it is. Lets get back to Mr. C. Now like I said, this fellow is religion personified. If there is a BG (stands for Blue Grass) group known for their religiosity playing anywhere within 100 miles of this man's homestead, he will be beating the drum to let you know about it. Here is how it goes. "On Saturday at 7pm so and so and his somebodies will be playing at someones Baptist Church in the middle of nowhere come one come all admission is free a "Love Offering" will be taken. OK? Now I know what a "Love Offering" means. It's the same thing as "A collection will be taken" like they do in regular church. Well it's not actually the same you see because it's really a way that them phony TV preachers cooked up to ask for money using a code "Love Offering" because it could mean something else, like a prayer. It means money though and the fact that they won't come out and say so in a church is bothering me. I mean church gets money from it's parishioners or whomever. It's not like God and Jesus are real people who have a terrestrial payroll. By the look of some churches around these parts they don't need on either since they build like there is no tomorrow, which is a point of interest when you think about some of the preaching context. Oh well, remember Mr. C? Sure you do, the love light of bluegrass Music in totality. Well, somehow Texino got on Mr. C's personal mailing list and Jemima slap my behind if that man is not one of the most hateful creatures cruising the keys of cyber space. I tell you if there is a vicious lie running loose out there about, say Senator Obama from Illinois or Sen. Clinton from N.Y. or any other piece a non-truth crafted to spur hate against anyone who is not a white person with the log headed assumption that the original Jesus Christ looked like a cross up of Sigfried, Roy and a Lion (but not gay and with no tail) well Mr. C. will be sending it out to his Big List of Like Minds + Texino and one other guy who's there by mistake too. Now Mr. C. has not learned the value of the bcc option in his email, so I have access to his Like Mind List and in my wisdom, I have decided that these folks could use a "Love Offering " of some sort. You know, some times you have to get someones attention in order to correct a bad behavior pattern. Or it used to be so. Things may well have changed since I was last a disciplinarian. Still, you got to go with what you know. You remember I was saying how I fooled around making my hobbies pay while I was really a musician? Well I'm not certain I listed all my hobbies like forklift driver and internet technician, one or two more escape me. I'll have to make a list one day.