Perspectives

Here are the words to the song "From A Distance" written in 1989 by Julie Gold:

From a distance the world looks blue and green
And the snow capped mountains white
From a distance the ocean meets the stream
And the eagle takes to flight

From a distance, there is harmony
And it echoes through the land
It's the voice of hope, it's the voice of peace
It's the voice of every man

From a distance we all have enough
And no one is in need
And there are no guns, no bombs, and no disease
No hungry mouths to feed

From a distance we are instruments
Marching in a common band
Playing songs of hope, playing songs of peace
They're the songs of every man

God is watching us, God is watching us
God is watching us from a distance

From a distance you look like my friend
Even though we are at war
From a distance I just cannot comprehend
What all this fighting is for

From a distance there is harmony
And it echoes through the land
And it's the hope of hopes, it's the love of loves
It's the heart of every man

It's the hope of hopes, it's the love of loves
This is the song of every man

And God is watching us, God is watching us
God is watching us from a distance
Oh, God is watching us, God is watching
God is watching us from a distance

[end of song lyrics]

Listen to Bette Midler sing it here (4:33) if you like.

Take a breath.

Now read a poem I wrote a few years ago:

Table Grace With Musings Afterward
by Robert H. Brague

“God is great, God is good;
Let us thank Him for our food.
By His hands we all are fed.
Thank you, Lord for daily bread. Amen.”
Okay, everybody, dig in!

.....God is deaf, God is blind
.....To the ills of humankind;
.....While we struggle here below,
.....Seraphim fly to and fro before his throne
.....Crying, “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts.
.....Heaven and earth are full of Thy glory.
.....Glory be to Thee, O Lord, Most High.”

.....Hogwash.

.....Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned.
.....Secula seculorum,
.....World without end,
.....Amen.

Please pass the butter.

.....And the angel said, “Hail, Mary, full of grace,
.....The Lord is with thee.”
.....(Closer than your next breath,
.....Nearer than a heartbeat.
.....With thee With thee WITH thee WITH thee...)

More coffee, anyone?

.....How is it
.....That a God so pure, so holy that He
.....Cannot look upon sin,
.....A God so high, so lifted up that His train alone
.....Filled an ancient temple,
.....Has turned from His headlong march in the opposite direction
.....And looked upon me?
..........(I believe in the Holy Spirit…)

.....How is it
.....That His single gaze pierced through
.....My carefully constructed armor?
..........(The holy catholic Church…)

.....And how, finally, is it
.....That His eyes, aflame like
.....Hot coals from an altar, yet filled with
.....Indescribable tenderness,
.....Can see everything and still, in the seeing,
......Forgive?
..........(The communion of saints…)

Cream and sugar?

.....It is not for us to know the times and seasons…
..........(The forgiveness of sins…)
...............Credo in unum Deum.

.....Now we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face…
..........(The resurrection of the body…)
...............Deum de Deo, Lumen de Lumine.

.....Then we shall know even as we are known.
..........(And the life everlasting.)
...............Deum Verum de Deo Vero.

,,,,,Neither do I condemn thee: Go and sin no more...
..........He knows. He loves. He forgives.
...............It is enough to know for the present.

Does anyone want dessert?

[end of poem]

Take another breath.

Julie Gold is not a theologian. Neither am I.

I’m fairly sure Bette Midler is not one either.

We are merely people with different perspectives.

What’s yours?

Separated at birth?

Joy Behar, American comedian, writer, actress, and former co-host with Barbara Walters on the ABC talk show The View.

Bette Midler, American singer-songwriter, actress, comedian, film producer, and entrepreneur.

One says she was born in Honolulu. One says she was born in Brooklyn.

One sings better than the other.

Other than those two teensy-weensy differences, they are practically identical.

For your information, this is my sixth foray into “Separated at birth?” territory, the others having been:

1. Barney Franks and Buddy Hackett (March 21, 2009)
2. Tanya Tucker and Paula White (July 15, 2009)
3. Larry “Bud” Melman and Truman Capote (May 21, 2010)
4. George Stephanopolous and Pat Monahan (June 9, 2010)
5. Woody Harrelson and Casey Cagle (November 10, 2010)

This could get to be habit-forming.

But can I help it if everyone seems to have a twin?

Sometimes it’s downright scary.

I’m showing my age, but...

Here’s one of my favorite singers singing one of my favorite songs....

If you’re the type who never clicks on links, it’s Bette Midler, and the song is “The Rose.” A woman named Amanda McBroom wrote the music and the lyrics in 1977, and it wound up in a film based on the life of Janis Joplin.

If you are one of the five people on the planet who don’t know this song, or if you couldn’t make out what Bette was singing in the video, here are the lyrics:

Some say love, it is a river
That drowns the tender reed;
Some say love, it is a razor
That leaves your soul to bleed;
Some say love, it is a hunger,
An endless, aching need;
I say love, it is a flower
And you, its only seed.

It’s the heart afraid of breaking
That never learns to dance;
It’s the dream afraid of waking
That never takes the chance;
It’s the one who won’t be taken
Who cannot seem to give;
And the soul afraid of dying
That never learns to live.

When the night has been too lonely
And the road has been too long
And you think that love is only
for the lucky and the strong,
Just remember in the winter
Far beneath the bitter snow
Lies the seed that, with the sun’s love,
In the spring becomes the rose.


We now return you to the cacophony that is 2011.

Oprah Who?

Friends of Oprah (Harpo spelled backwards) are filling a 13,000-seat coliseum in Chicago this week for the last-ever shows of Oprah (Harpo spelled backwards) Winfrey on network television before she goes completely cable at OWN, the Oprah (Harpo spelled backwards) Winfrey Network, which I predict will be watched only by Oprah (Harpo spelled backwards) Winfrey Network gluttons. In the first of her last two coliseum appearances, aired yesterday, we have already been treated to Tom Hanks, Tom Cruise, Josh Groban, Patti LaBelle, Halle Berry, Diane Sawyer, Madonna, Beyoncé, and The Night Of At Least A Thousand Stars. All it needed was Jerry Lewis singing “You’ll Never Walk Alone.” Only God and possibly Harold Camping know what heights (or depths) her remaining shows might reach.

Call me crazy, but I prefer goodbyes of the quieter, gentler, sweeter, more intimate sort.

Like this one, from 1992, in three parts:

Part 1 (6:44)

Part 2 (7:37)

Part 3 (4:44)

And here is a lagniappe (a little something extra) (2:55).