Rainey Blogs on Some Days

A spring day in May has the power to make a person feel young again, even when that is no longer true. Why? Spring brings hope. Things return to life, pointing toward the radiance of summer. Age feels powerless against imminent waves of heat.  Spring means I can't help rolling down the car windows to let the wind blow through my hair and let the stereo blare Jackson Browne's “Before the Deluge.” I don't think I'll be dying in spring because the prospects of lying in the sand by the ocean shore lifts my soul above the declines of the rest of the year. People move to Florida to escape chill of fall and winter, but if the reality of those seasons does not catch you then their shadowy metaphors soon enough will. So I plan to stay up North and ride out the seasons until they get the best of me. Today's luminous leaves are suspended on firm branches so green and secure, and will remain so for several months. But you can be sure that fall's chill will begin to fell ...

The Shema (Deuteronomy 6:4) is the biblical passage that a worshipping Jew recites more than any other passage. It is recited daily in the morning and evening prayers, on the Sabbath, and as part of many liturgies. But when it says, "The LORD is one," what does it mean? I like to think of God as often working in the world incognito and showing up in places that you would least expect Him. For example, I think God goes undercover as a pop musician sometimes and His truths show up in the poetry of the songs. One of the recent times this happened for me was a few months ago after I had gotten the Jackson Browne  CD, I'm Alive , from the library. I was struck by this 1970s and 1980s star whose songs were so content-rich. Somehow though, when he was at the height of his popularity, I mostly missed him and his everyman lyrics of love, loss and pain. (I managed to miss Shakespeare too, but that is another story.) So I explored his music to find out what all the fuss had been ...