Tag Archives: Godspell

Day by Day

Day by Day: (adj) taking place each day; daily

My children and grandchildren have a favorite word they use in the midst of discussing entertainment and music from former times.

The word is “dated.”

Once that word is spoken aloud into the chat, they are convinced that the material is no longer relevant, and may even have been “corny” or too simplistic in its inception.

I understand it is the prerogative of every generation to ravage the art, reactions of the previous.

It’s just that with the turning of the present screw, I’m not quite sure what’s the driver.

What is determining cultural thinking?

And what is being abandoned under the guise of progress?

One afternoon, I played the soundtrack from the Broadway musical, Godspell, for my young ones. The music from that particular experience still stirs me and reminds me of a time when protesting Vietnam led to objecting to stupidity, which welcomed a search for wisdom.

In the midst of that, the nation experienced what was referred to at the time as the “Jesus Movement.”

I’m not going to use this article to either analyze nor defend that brief time in our history. All I wish to say is that a song from that Godspell musical, in my mind, personified the mood of the nation from 1971 to pre-election 1972.

Day by day

Day by day

Oh, dear Lord

Three things I pray

To see thee more clearly

Love thee more dearly

To follow thee more nearly

Day by day

It was so common and uncomplicated that it took the air from the room.

I still weep when I hear it, conjuring memories of my own time and also the sheer joy that encompassed the congregated whenever it was sung.

I enjoy much of today’s music and today’s entertainment.

I am not stuck in the past.

But I am cemented into some convictions—one of them being the power in believing that good things can be achieved … day by day.

 

Crêpe

Crêpe: (n) a thin, light delicate pancake

 Sitting here, pausing, mulling the idea and the essence of the crepe, it occurred to me that many of the transitions and outstanding moments in my life have been marked by the discovery and pursuit of some new food.

Maybe that’s why I’m overweight.

I’ve lived such a full life at the banquet table of experience.

I remember when I was about six years old and I ate pickle-pimento lunchmeat for the first time. It was so good. I liked it when it was sliced thin. I liked it when the butcher made it chunkier.

I liked pickle-pimento loaf so much that I asked for it on my twelfth birthday.

On that day, and throughout that night, I personally ate an entire pound of the stuff.

I never developed a dislike for it—just allowed it to graduate on to my next epiphany of treats.

There was a season when I discovered Chinese food. Having graduated from high school, I found myself driving my old car to downtown Columbus—that being the one in the state of Ohio—and walking around, taking in some theater, and visiting (and eventually frequenting) a little Chinese walk-in restaurant called La Toy.

I had never eaten such fare during my growing up years. I quickly developed a favorite. It was listed as Number 3 on the menu: Fried rice, Egg Foo Yung and Chicken Chow Mein.

So whether I was shopping, looking for a chance to play in a rock and roll band, trying to figure out how to flirt with a girl or going to the state theater to see the Broadway cast of Godspell, I always ended up afterwards at La Toy, munching my jaws on my favored three.

Then a few years later, when I was traveling on the road trying to scratch out a living (but actually not caring one way or the other if the electric company got their payment) I stopped in with a couple of friends at the International House of Pancakes, and posed the question:

What is a crêpe?

It was explained to me, and on a whim, I ordered some, with strawberries on top.

Crêpes are the best of pancakes. They aren’t so heavy and flour-filled. They also are the best of eggs because you don’t have to decide if you like the yolks or not. I became fond of crêpes and frequented I-Hop so often that I nearly went bankrupt from my less-than-wealthy purse.

But to this day, if I come upon a crêpe, I will order it.

Matter of fact, some day in the future, arriving in heaven, sitting before me at the Banquet Table of Life, will be pickle-pimento loaf, Number 3 from La Toy and a platter of crêpes.

 

funny wisdom on words that begin with a C