Thoughts on Life and Culture
If you think you know me, you don’t.
If you try to change me, you won’t.
Hardwired I am, to love me, not you,
My altruistic proclivities are nameless and few.
Only efficacious grace can to me impart,
A change to my changeless, self and selfish heart.
In Memoriam:
Willie Smith
Feb 21, 1953 – Feb 26, 2011
My friend Willie lived a hard and tortured life,
for forty years an addict, acquainted well with strife.
Homeless and feigned, to the world of little account,
wandering and alone, to what could his life amount?
But one day he met a family, who loved him just as he was,
and showed him that when no one cares, Jesus always does.
Willie came to know Jesus, and gave up prostitutes and drugs,
he became a part of our family, and shared our tears and hugs.
I knew only a small part of the blessing that was Willie,
God had clothed and cared for him, just as he does the lillys.
I saw heart level change, in a man plagued by his past,
he lived in community, found a home; no longer an outcast.
But by and by Willie began to relapse, and return to his former ways,
Eventually he was murdered, by an acquaintance from older days.
What can we say of this life that is now gone?
Was Willie’s life meaningless? To his darkness was there ever a dawn?
For the two years Willie was a part of our family, he had love and true friends,
he received the grace of Jesus, and with his Maker made amends.
And though his life was cut short by bread of bitter leaven,
we know where Willie is, with Jesus, in heaven.
Slow down my friend,
Lest you miss it all.
Consider your life,
Lest clutter forestall.
Meaning and rest,
Serve to enthrall,
And pure love is precious,
Above all.
True happiness is true and deep, though often elusive and rare.
Good things can cause unrest, and stress befriends despair.
When life becomes too busy, exhaustion can prevail,
A paucity of peace and rest, will contentment assail.
In my case it happened slowly, for busyness is its own distraction,
from the need to stop and wonder, at beauty’s serene satisfaction.
And this is now my journey, to slow down and to renew,
to love and be and wonder, and find the happiness I once knew.
Kurt,
I will never forget the first time I heard your music. It immediately resonated with something deep inside me – I can’t quite describe the feeling. It was like hearing something I was made to hear, something that I had never heard before. That was 15 years ago, and your music still inspires and challenges me like no other art I have ever encountered. Your passion, sadness, authenticity, and honestly stand out as something real, true, and deep against the backdrop of a fake, branded, and sold-out world. There are few things that strike a chord in my soul as deep as your music, especially your scream. I have never really gotten over your death. It’s all so sad and so tragic. Thank you for what you gave to me; thank you for what you gave to the world. I feel so sorry for you. I wish so badly that you could have found happiness. I pray for you sometimes. With peace, love and empathy,
– Philosophy Muse, written on the anniversary of Kurt’s death
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