A LONG AND WINDING ROAD....

One of the nicest things about Saturdays is getting the Arts and Books section of the L.A. Times. This past Saturday, a piece was done on Paul McCartney. He's 66 now...still working...still producing quality stuff...his band is in their 20 and 30s and one can only imagine the "worshipping/teaching" that must go on...the interviewer caught McCartney during rehearsal in a relatively empty theatre that was actually in N.Y. where he was sitting on an empty stage with nothing but a piano. He started toying with the keys and began playing "Let It Be", which "could make a bare cinder-block building feel like a cathedral..." wrote Geoff Boucher. When he finished the song, there was a mini standing ovation from the people who were setting up the stage and the few who were there to witness it. In fact, Boucher wrote, that they were "dabbing their eyes".

McCartney spoke about how "Let it Be" means something very different to him now than it did when he originally wrote it in 1969. He said, "In truth, a lot of them [songs] mean new things to me. I hear stuff I didn't hear in the past." He mentioned the song "Long and Winding Road" also and said, "What it means to me here and now, from this perspective, when it has been a long and winding road for me, well, it's so different. When I wrote that song, it already had been a long road, you know, from my youth up to that point. We were going through quite a lot. But now I look back and that song..."

I get that. Things can look differently. I looked at the pictures that Emily sent of our family from the 80s and perspective kicked in. At the time, I thought, "yeesh, look at my arms and that hair!", or something like that. Then I looked at it and I saw my cute little sons and daughters gathered around me, their little faces and bright eyes. I didn't see their futures or their children, or even their missions. I just saw them on that Easter afternoon. I even remembered who took the picture. It was Uncle Bill who was kind enough to bring his Kodak camera with him and give us that photo. I saw Eric with his little arms crossed and his big attitude. I saw Emmy with her ready-to-please smile who I'm relatively certain had to corral Eric into place. I saw Jette with her pretty little face that belies the fact that her right arm was draped over her little brother Eli to hold him in place because he was a fireball of activity and I saw Eli whose face can barely contain the fun he was having with the game of Jai Lai they were playing, which Jette and I are still holding the baskets for.
And I can look at it longer and see a musician/composer, a couple of mother hens, a father, a poet, a financial analyst, two husbands, two wives, two returned missionaries, a couple of comedians, a writer...four adults who contribute to their communities, who are raising children of their own, who are patriotic, who are giving back.

Yea...it's been a long and winding road since 1987 and I see things differently...and I've learned that we don't divide our love, we multiply it...and I'm grateful for everything that's happened to me because I've learned from it, even if I didn't realize it at the time...and I'm thankful for family that loves me, warts and all...and if I had ruby slippers on right now, I'd click them together three times...there's no place like home....wherever home is right now....heartland or desert....