Rock &
Roll Church of All Nations, North America®
est.
1995
"Every
Soul...Got To Rock & Roll"
Don
Harthcock, President
ordained
by Universal Life Church, Modesto CA, 1969
non-academic D.D., honorary
About
RRCANNA™
RRCANNA is not the
least bit organized.
Devoid of dogma or doctrine,
RRCANNA emphasizes a personal code of honor, a personal sense
of humor, and taking personal responsibility for one's own
actions and their consequences.
Donny has been accused of
being an anarchist. Well, OK. I prefer "Iconoclast."
The following generalities
are not Rules. Feel free to argue, if your thoughts are your
own.
I don't believe that there
are metaphysical Judges who decide What People Deserve. RRCANNA has no gods. We lean toward the atheistic approach of
Buddhism.
I believe that Life goes
on.
I believe that all events,
though seemingly random, are connected in a way that cannot be
understood in the present reality.
I believe that so-called
Creation, like God, cannot be understood, and that attempts to
understand the concepts of Creation and God are pointless. I
revere scientific inquiry. Science can be another avenue to
At-One-Ment with That Which We Call God.
I believe that religions and
religious leaders, for the most part, are full of
baloney.
There have been Great men and
women who have had Great things to say. There still are. Choose
your gurus carefully; you don't really need them, and in some
instances they have done great harm. If you go through Life
memorizing and repeating other peoples' observations, making
none of your own, you are limiting yourself.
Human beings are basically
herd animals who seek the company of other human beings, and
who follow the leader. Occasionally, one takes a different
path, and...always...others follow. This is called
Growth...don't be afraid of it.
RRCANNA has no
building or official headquarters. The image to the
right is of ULC Headquarters in Modesto CA. Click on
the pic for more info. ->
I'm pretty sure you'll agree
with me that Herb, Health and Nutrition sites on the web today
are not generally regarded as being satirical or witty. Getting
information from these sites is sometimes a lot like work, and
seldom is there any real "fun" involved. If you believe that
this is as it should be, and that humor, satire and social
issues are inappropriate to "health" sites, you're in the wrong
place.
If you believe that doctors
and the FDA always have your best interests in mind, that
herbalism is quackery, that John Lennon was evil, that guns are
ba-a-a-ad, that AIDS victims got what they deserved, and that I
am going to hell because I don't believe that Jesus was born of
a virgin or that he was re-animated after his execution or that
he died for my sins, it is not likely that you will enjoy your
visit with OpinionSoup.
If you believe that sex
should occur only in the missionary position between married
people of the opposite sex and only for the purpose of
procreation, that Wicca is demon-inspired, that chicken soup is
not good for colds, that it should continue to be
illegal to possess or use power plants, that the War On Drugs
is a good thing, that my vote for Ralph Nader was "wasted," or
that George W. Bush will be good for the country, you will not
like me very much. Leave now, or prepare to be offended. PS:
Donny is not a Republicrat.
If, on the other hand, you
are hip, educated, politically incorrect, slightly radical or
Just Curious about all things alternative, then you have
stumbled upon a site to which you may want to return. Perhaps
you will even want to recommend OpinionSoup to
others.
About Don
Harthcock
When I was fifteen I was a
Baptist, because my mother was. Having been taught that every
word in the Bible was true, I became upset almost immediately
upon setting out to read it straight through, a summer project
I had chosen. I had planned to go right on from Genesis to
Revelation, but Genesis stopped me in my tracks. I went to our
pastor and nervously asked my question (I had to get an
appointment through his secretary).
"What was the Land of Nod?" I
asked.
I wondered how Cain had found
a wife when the Bible plainly said there was only Adam, Eve and
Cain, at that time - Abel having been murdered by Cain and Seth
not having been born yet. I thought I had missed something,
like where were the girls? I could not locate in Genesis any
mention of another creation East of Eden, and, with the
enthusiastic ignorance of youth, I thought I was perhaps the
first person ever to notice this. Being a very provincial boy,
I was unaware of the existence of Bible scholars, and I could
not have imagined that I would become one. I believed that my
pastor would explain it all.
"Well, son," the preacher
answered, dismissively, "there are some things we are not given
to understand."
His disinterested response
astonished me so greatly that I have never forgotten it. I was
intensely interested to find answers to this and other
questions I hadn't even asked, yet, but I was shooed away like
an annoying insect. He was clearly upset. Did he have no answer
to give? I will never know, but I suspect that it was simply
Politically Incorrect to discuss such things with a teenage boy
in such a small town. Especially a small town in Mississippi,
where I was born and partly raised. Baptist preachers have been
fired for less.
Rev. Bragg did not tell me
that the Garden of Eden story was a myth, borrowed from other
Middle-Eastern mystery religions. He did not tell me that this
story was incorporated into the Hebrew canon of teaching
stories about 1000 BCE, during the reign of King Solomon. He
did not tell me that this story was the response of the King's
rabbis to problems with citizens "going beyond permitted
boundaries." His simplistic religion did not permit him to
explore any possibilities challenging the notion that every
word in the Bible is literal truth. In other words, Rev. Bragg
did not tell me the truth, because he was incurious about truth
and had no truth to tell.
I haven't been a Baptist,
since, but I am forever grateful to that preacher. He
demonstrated to me very clearly that Christians are so busy
worrying about Heaven, they don't know how to LIVE. For years I
believed that this philosophy was original with me, and then I
discovered Nietzsche, who may or may not have said it
first.
Ecclesiastes, the Preacher,
said "There is nothing new under the sun." That's not all he
said. Go read it, now. How much do you know about Ecclesiastes,
the Preacher?
Many years later when I was
studying Zen Buddhism, I was contemplating a trip to India. A
wise Asian man advised, "You are an American; you were brought
up Christian. God lives in your own back yard; he won't be any
easier to find in India." I think the seed of OpinionSoup was
planted, then.
Having served four years in
the Air Force, I took my discharge in New Jersey in 1966 and
traveled immediately to Chicago. There, a USAF buddy and I
resumed our folk-singing that we had started in Japan as "The
Sunrise Singers," heavily influenced by The Kingston
Trio. We became "The Early Tymes," a couple of real
ingenues, and we played mostly at The Earl of Old Town, at 1615
North Wells St. "The Earl" was the baby of Earl Jay John
Pionke, who took many of us under his wing, including John
Prine and my good friend Steve Goodman. Steve was my opening
act at The Earl, but when he wrote The City of New
Orleans and Arlo Guthrie had a big hit with it, he passed
me like a rocket.
After a time of personal
growth in a hippy commune on Ewing Street in Los Angeles, which
we named The Rose Feldman Company, the group grew up,
got radical, and evolved into "Ewing Street Times." We became
well-known in Miami, where I got married and became a father.
We were "headquartered" in Coconut Grove, and we played mostly
at The Flick coffeehouse in Coral Gables, adjacent to the
University of Miami.
We changed personnel several
times, and we enjoyed our young lives, our travels, and
considerable popularity on the college concert tours arranged
by Good Karma Productions of Kansas City. Those were great
days, fronting such acts as Brewer & Shipley, Dion, It's A
Beautiful Day, The James Gang, Jerry Jeff Walker, Jethro Tull,
Livingston Taylor, Miami Sound Machine, Michael Martin Murphy,
The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Richie Havens, Steve Martin, and
Theodore Bikel. To be honest, we terrified Good Karma, who
somehow got the idea that we were more dopers and radicals than
hit record prospects, and who then eventually replaced us with
Black Oak Arkansas. What ever happened to them?
Two of the former members of
Ewing St. Times, Don
Dunaway and
Shake
Russell, have web
sites (Shake has become a very successful songwriter in Texas,
and Dunaway is a well-known Florida folkie). *John Vandiver and
*Michael Mashkes, are dead (John was murdered by crackheads,
and Michael died of Marlboro-related cancer). The whereabouts
of *Billy Berosini, *Tom Harris, *Skip Haynes, *Mike Daniel and
*Judy Hauff, are unknown.
*Michael's guitars went to my
son Brian, in Miami.
*Michael's long-time
companion Maria, known to some of you, is now a Ph.D. Dance
Therapist in California. Her second husband, Karl, passed away.
Maria is now also playing bass in her own band.
*Billy Berosini (aka Vaclav
Berosini), when last I heard, was playing bass with the
remnants of The Grateful Dead. I don't know where he is; I last
saw him in 1984, in Coconut Grove FL. Billy's former wife
Rachel, known to some of you, died of cancer in 2003. Billy's
daughter Fonda is involved in the film industry in Los Angeles.
Billy's sister Estrella is in the northeast somewhere, still
performing.
*Wes Brasse is now on the
Florida West Coast, still playing occasionally. Like me, he is
a recent widower, with a bad heart.
*Skip Haynes left us to form
Alliotta Haynes Jeremiah. He recently contacted me from
California, where he is a harmonica player and Pet Store
Impresario. I think he appears occasionally on Prairie Home
Companion.
*Mike Daniel is a producer in
Nashville.
Mike Daniel died in
January, 2006, in Nashville TN
*Judy Hauff, after she left
us to join Rotary Connection over at Chess/Cadet, disappeared
from my life. Rotary Connection, after one very good album, had
a meltdown. Judy was married, I think to a Chicago Cop, and had
a little boy. That's all I know.
=======
That was an important time
for me; our lifestyle and our causes imprinted "Radical" and
"Skeptic" upon me strongly and forever. When I chose to leave
that musical commune because of internal conflicts, it broke my
heart.
The years from then to now
have led me down many different paths, some wonderful, some
merely interesting, some terrifying. I became a vegetarian, but
I gave it up. I became a drug addict, and I gave that up,
also...too late to save my marriage. I went back to college. I
drove a cab. I sold men's clothing at a store on Miracle Mile
in Coral Gables, where my best customers were several of the
unforgetable 1974 Miami Dolphins.
At the age of 32 I joined a
rock band of 19-year-olds, "Break of Day" (they were great
musicians, but they couldn't sing). I took a job as
Entertainment Editor of Alive! magazine, a gay-oriented
Miami copycat of New York's After Dark. I got busted for
drugs and went to jail for three months. My nephew and his wife
rescued me from a path leading certainly to death, and I went
to Texas to work for the Houston Symphony Orchestra.
I went to Nashville, ran a
Public Relations company (The Rose Feldman Company) and three
other small music-business companies. I got married again, then
made my final exit from the world of music and music
business.
"Back home" again in Florida,
I worked for the City of Miami Beach, in the department that
revitalized South Beach. I was the best receptionist and
factotum Economic & Community Development had ever had (so
say I), and secretly I helped write speeches for the Mayor, the
City Manager, and various department heads.
In 1990, I came back to
Mississippi for my mother's dying, and I stayed. Thinking
myself lucky to find such a job, I "ran" a county Chamber of
Commerce, where I was disrespected by the ones who really ran
things.
Baptist Mississippi voted for
Casinos to come in (who'd have thought it). After five years
working at three different casinos, I fled that business,
screaming. That was a very interesting time of my life also, as
none of my casino cohort knew or cared about any of my
past.
During all this time, RRCANNA was at my back door, knocking. I was busy working,
however...keeping the wolves away from the FRONT door; so
RRCANNA took a back seat, behind the groceries.
Now in late middle-age,
unemployed and mellow, I am writing, which is the only
occupation I have ever truly loved.
With OpinionSoup, I want to
bridge the gap between rabid Health Food Fundamentalists and
Cheeseburger Eaters. To those who are uninformed and
disinterested in either herbs or health care, I am a Prissybutt
Intellectual, but I speak their language. To the over-educated
Herb Fanatics and Trendy Granolas, I am a self-taught
dilettante, but I have done my homework.
To Liberal Democrats I might
seem to be reactionary, guilty of classism, maybe a touch
racist. Conservative Republicans might believe I am still a
radical, attacking the pillars of society without offering an
acceptable alternative; maybe a touch anarchist. Fact is, I am
an ordinary fellow, an Unknown Moderate following the Middle
Way...following the paths with Heart.
OK, that's a lie; I have to
admit it. I'm still a hippy radical at heart, but I guess now
we're Liberals. Or whatever. With the internet, and another
war, and another extreme asshole in the White House, and the
death of my wife, and the birth of my grandson, and so on -
well, ...
Ram Dass said, "Be here,
now."
Thich Nhat Hanh said, "The
present moment is where life can be found."
To certain fanatic
fundamentalists calling themselves Christians, I am a False
Prophet, hell-bent and leading others astray. To liberal
American Catholics, I am interesting. To most Buddhists and
Bahai's, I am a brother. To most of the people of the world, I
am "Who? Never heard of him."
Partnered with you, we are
the Rock & Roll Church of All Nations.
If you would like to be a
"member" of RRCANNA, all you have to do is say that you are.
You don't even have to tell
me about it, but I
hope that you will. We don't have any furniture, a building to
put it in, or even an office, and we are not asking you to help
us acquire those things. We don't have a list of members. We
haven't had any meetings. I have no ulterior motives. I'm not
going to get a bad haircut, go on TV, cry, and plead for your
money.
God (whatever you perceive
that to be) loves you, and I love you. Help me teach a new
way!
My VERY BEST REGARDS to you
ALL,
Don Harthcock, President
OpinionSoup® (webmaster, OpinionSoup.com)
Rock & Roll Church of All Nations®, Rock & Roll
Church of All Nations, North America®, RRCANNA®
Church of My Opinion®, COMO®
Please disabuse yourself of
the notion that I am religious, as I am quintessentially
non-religious. For at least the past 35 years I have found more
in common with witches than with adherents of Abrahamic
religions, but I can't say that I "believe" their stuff,
either. If I had to choose a label, I would choose "atheist."
If that offends you, change it to "secular humanist" or
"freethinker."
"Religion is the opiate of
The People." ~ Dr Karl Marx, a bleeding Red Commie Pinko (but
he didn't know it)
"Follow the path with heart."
~ Don Juan Matús, a putative creation of Cárlos
Castañeda (either one of whom may never have
existed)
"Every soul got to rock and
roll." ~ Don Coyote (not his real name)
Notice: The ULC Forum <
http://forum.ulc.net
> is an entrepreneurial extension of < http://www.ulc.net
>. This is a typical internet message board, not necessarily
representing the general membership of ULC. While the Universal
Life Church is a legitimate organization, the forum is
populated with typical internet forum addicts. I was recently
banned from this forum, for being real...which, on the
internet, is generally not allowed.
