Yesterday someone texted me and in greeting, asked how my Tuesday had been going. I quipped back something like, "Rainy - so lazy". Afterwards I realized the interchange had set a ripple going and my mind had been singing the Moody Blue's "Tuesday Afternoon" behind all the thoughts and speech. When attention caught up to the internal songfest going on, I immediately remembered a scene from the movie "Bobby", an Emilio Estevez film that tells the story of what took place the day and night Senator Robert Kennedy was assassinated......
(http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/17/movies/17bobb.html)
I remembered that this song was used in one of the scenes. I decided to look for it and found a rendition on youtube and sent it to my friend. Here it is below:
(http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/17/movies/17bobb.html)
I remembered that this song was used in one of the scenes. I decided to look for it and found a rendition on youtube and sent it to my friend. Here it is below:
Great song, great album.
I was around 17 years old when "Tuesday Afternoon" was first recorded and I was 17 years old when Bobby Kennedy was assassinated (June 6, 1968).
This is where my memory had flown to, the assassination of the Kennedy brothers. Perhaps it flew there because of the bible reading we studied yesterday morning; Luke 6: 17 - 26
From The Message translation
You’re Blessed
17-21 Coming down off the mountain with them, he stood on a plain surrounded by disciples, and was soon joined by a huge congregation from all over Judea and Jerusalem, even from the seaside towns of Tyre and Sidon. They had come both to hear him and to be cured of their ailments. Those disturbed by evil spirits were healed. Everyone was trying to touch him—so much energy surging from him, so many people healed! Then he spoke:
You’re blessed when you’ve lost it all.
God’s kingdom is there for the finding.
You’re blessed when you’re ravenously hungry.
Then you’re ready for the Messianic meal.
You’re blessed when the tears flow freely.
Joy comes with the morning.
God’s kingdom is there for the finding.
You’re blessed when you’re ravenously hungry.
Then you’re ready for the Messianic meal.
You’re blessed when the tears flow freely.
Joy comes with the morning.
22-23 “Count yourself blessed every time someone cuts you down or throws you out, every time someone smears or blackens your name to discredit me. What it means is that the truth is too close for comfort and that that person is uncomfortable. You can be glad when that happens—skip like a lamb, if you like!—for even though they don’t like it, I do . . . and all heaven applauds. And know that you are in good company; my preachers and witnesses have always been treated like this.
Give Away Your Life
24 But it’s trouble ahead if you think you have it made.
What you have is all you’ll ever get.
What you have is all you’ll ever get.
25 And it’s trouble ahead if you’re satisfied with yourself.
Your self will not satisfy you for long.
And it’s trouble ahead if you think life’s all fun and games.
There’s suffering to be met, and you’re going to meet it.
Your self will not satisfy you for long.
And it’s trouble ahead if you think life’s all fun and games.
There’s suffering to be met, and you’re going to meet it.
26 “There’s trouble ahead when you live only for the approval of others, saying what flatters them, doing what indulges them. Popularity contests are not truth contests—look how many scoundrel preachers were approved by your ancestors! Your task is to be true, not popular.
As I look back to this time, I have the feeling that the assassination of Bobby Kennedy was the final death knell for the "All You Need Is Love" idealism of my generation. We had lost John F. Kennedy November 22, 1963 (I was 12) and Martin Luther King Jr. April 4, 1968, just a few months before Bobby was killed.
Anyway, during the last scenes of the movie "Bobby" (see trailer above) they played an excerpt from Bobby's famous "Mindless Menace of Violence" speech which I post part of below: (the full speech can be found on youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhANTymDIYk as well as the short impromptu speech he made the night before right after he had received news of King's assassination https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoKzCff8Zbs)
Bobby was shot and killed a few short months after this speech. Our well meaning but tremendously immature generation lost the last of their most viable and visible leaders. I was so young then and so incredibly immature that I really had no idea of the import of what was happening around me. It was just another murder after all. They happened all the time, in movies, in books, in TV programs and TV news. I am a still a little shamed and always enormously sad when I think about how oblivious I was to everything! (For example, back then I often comforted myself with the thought it really didn't matter what happened to others, I just needed to take care of myself and those important to me and let others worry about their own problems. I had enough of my own. I often set aside worries and concerns about pollution, global warming, potential nuclear war, etc. with the thought that whatever happened to those who were left after I died, really didn't concern me as I would not be here to know what was happening or suffer any of the dire problems that were being predicted at the time). Talk about the self-centered dream!!! *sigh* I do however, forgive this part of me even though she will still show up and try to run back into that self protective isolated cocoon in moments of fear and despair. I can have compassion for this part when she is not in the forefront as I see how fear bound she is. However, she still causes me some shame when she appears, and perhaps this is the useful aspect of this emotion..... to wake us to our self-centeredness. Again, I do not know. (Have to smile as I reread this before publishing as I refer to my self-centered-self as she rather than I...........lol)
What I do know, is that to be fully what we are, - to be, speak, act our truth/dharma clearly, faithfully, and without contentiousness or agenda, is both the gateway to, and the epitome of freedom, liberation, love, heaven .....whatever your name for this is.
My heroes reflect this quality.....
Ikkyu
Jesus of Nazareth
Mother Teresa
Mahatma Gandhi
Siddhartha Gautama
Peace Pilgrim
.................and so on
And, they demonstrate a truth. If you are yourself/dharmic, if you trust God/Buddha Nature/the Universe/(use your name/concept here) - then you absolutely trust/love/are whatever happens -
and know
that what happens
just simply happens -
and that's okay (and also sometimes not, even as it is)
26 “There’s trouble ahead when you live only for the approval of others, saying what flatters them, doing what indulges them. Popularity contests are not truth contests—look how many scoundrel preachers were approved by your ancestors! Your task is to be true, not popular.
Some of my heroes were killed like the Kennedys and King were because they lived their truth. This is a possibility when we become visible, literally and figuratively. But, not speaking up, not rocking the boat , while giving an illusion of safety and stability is only that, an illusion. To quote Martin Niemöller:
When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.
When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.
When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.
When they came for the Jews,
I remained silent;
I wasn't a Jew.
When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.
When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.
When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.
When they came for the Jews,
I remained silent;
I wasn't a Jew.
When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.
Some will say whatever happens will be for a greater good, and certainly, "good" flows from any event just the same as "evil" flows at the same time from the same event. One step back in perspective and one can see the in-breath and out-breath, the Yah and the We of being in all events and circumstances. Still, as I sit here and remember what was, and what is today, I feel like we failed. I failed. The world is as lost today, if not more so than when my generation was born. And I think it is no coincidence that our loss of King and the Kennedys in our youth led to our killing John Lennon in 1980 during our impoverished adult years.
All I can say to those of you who follow us is; I am so sorry we failed you, that I failed you! My fervent wish is that you will do better than we have done.....
(.....and still, everything is well)
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