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.
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.
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//UPDATES//:-> WHERE ARE THEY NOW?
*John's daughter Joanna (aka JoJo) has built a website in memory of him - visit http://www.johnvandiver.com
*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.
*Tom Harris (aka Thom Harris), is still a hippy folk-singer, still playing, in Montana. I am currently editing his book The Tail of the Devil©.
*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.
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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,
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)
