dual personalities

Tag: bob dylan

November 10, 2025

So I’ll make my stand and remain as I am

by chuckofish

The other day I mentioned the story of Billy Graham going to see the dying Steve McQueen and that truly is a great story. But the even better part of all that was how the flight instructor over time converted the questioning Steve into a “born again” Christian. I know quite a few people like that flight instructor now–“ordinary” men who take Mark 16:15 very seriously in their daily lives. One such guy is Bill who was an executive at some big engineering firm. He is a piano-tuner now (in retirement) and he evangelizes quietly everywhere he goes, just talking to people. He is not ashamed of the Gospel. No sir. He sees it as his duty to spread the Word.

The Billy Grahams of this world are wonderful, but it is the Bills among us who do the real work where the rubber meets the actual road.

This is a wonderful message from John Piper on Eight Ways to Live Out Your Assurance.

And here’s a song for Monday–the great Mark Knopfler singing the great Bob Dylan:

Oh, a false clock tries to tick out my time
To disgrace, distract and bother me
And the dirt of gossip blows into my face
And the dust of rumors covers me

[Chorus]
But if the arrow is straight and the point is slick
It can pierce through dust no matter how thick
So I’ll make my stand and remain as I am
And bid farewell and not give a damn

(Meanwhile we made it to the prairie–where it has turned cold and even snowy!–and we went to church where daughter #2 and the girls became members along with a dozen others.)

We are surrounded by God’s benefits. The best use of these benefits is an unceasing expression of gratitude.
–John Calvin

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October 7, 2025

Don’t fence me in

by chuckofish

Today marks the 75th anniversary of my parents’ wedding at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Savannah, Georgia in 1950.

Time like an ever-rolling stream and all that.

In other news, The Church of England announced Friday that the Right Reverend and Right Honorable Dame Sarah Mullally has been named the 106th Archbishop of Canterbury–as Albert Mohler says, “A liberal nurse to lead a dying church?” Ugh. As Mohler says, “My own life has been so enriched by the Anglican tradition, and my soul has been fed by towering figures such as John Owen and Bishop Charles Ryle. I hold dear the memory and examples set by towering Reformation martyrs such as Archbishop Thomas Cranmer, Bishop Nicholas Ridley, and Bishop Hugh Latimer. I learned much from J. I. Packer and John Stott and a host of others, living and dead. I am thankful for such good work done by so many for so long. I pray for them. I cherish Anglican music, though I hear it far more commonly in my library than in my church. I grieve for my Anglican friends.”

Well, as Anne says, “Yes, for sure, go to church, but be awfully careful which one. It’s kind of a jungle out there. But for sure, only by being incorporated as a living stone into the same building with the stone that the builders rejected, which is the chief cornerstone, can you be really happy and have the life you really need and desire.”

On a happier note…

And here’s a treat: Bob Dylan sings one of my favorite Cole Porter songs.

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May 23, 2025

Lotta water under the bridge, lotta other stuff too

by chuckofish

As we have previously noted many times, May is an amazing month for birthdays what with Henry Fonda, James Stewart, John Wayne, Bob Dylan, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Walt Whitman–just to name a few. One could have a party every day!

Tomorrow is Bob Dylan’s 84th birthday. He is still touring and still recording–what a guy. We will be sure to toast him and listen to all our favorites.

And it is already the Memorial Day weekend! We have had to change a lot of plans this spring and this weekend we will be laying low, celebrating and honoring the men and women who gave their lives while serving in the US military in our own way by watching movies, including our favorite war movie, They Were Expendable (1945).

Don’t you love stories about Americans like this:

Why had I never heard of Jerry Coleman?

Enjoy your long weekend. God bless America!

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May 24, 2024

“Ain’t gonna go to hell for anybody”*

by chuckofish

Happy birthday, Bob Dylan! He turns 83 today. We love you and God loves you.

It is time to plan a visit to the Bob Dylan Center in Tulsa, OK…however, I guess I’ll wait until the Thomas Gilcrease Institute of American History and Art, which is still closed for construction, reopens. Then it will be Tulsa Time!

In case you need reminding, Sunday is John Wayne’s birthday. He would be 117. If you are in Fort Worth, be sure to sign up for…

I will be home streaming my own John Wayne film festival.

Nobody slams a door like John Wayne.

How will you be celebrating?

P.S. Saturday is the birthday of Ralph Waldo Emerson. I disagree with him about quite a few things, but I agree with this:

Write it on your heart
that every day is the best day in the year.
He is rich who owns the day, and no one owns the day
who allows it to be invaded with fret and anxiety.

Finish every day and be done with it.
You have done what you could.
Some blunders and absurdities, no doubt crept in.
Forget them as soon as you can, tomorrow is a new day;
begin it well and serenely, with too high a spirit
to be cumbered with your old nonsense.

This new day is too dear,
with its hopes and invitations,
to waste a moment on the yesterdays.

–RWE, Collected Poems

Now there’s three aces!

*Bob Dylan

But I ain’t gonna go to hell for anybody
I ain’t gonna go to hell for anybody
I ain’t gonna go to hell for anybody
Not today, not tonight, not tomorrow, no never, no way!

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May 14, 2024

I see the turning of the page

by chuckofish

Welcome to flyover land: cicadas on gone-by Iris. Yuck-o. When you walk outside the cicada din is like something out of a SciFi movie. And we haven’t even reached our peek. I was going to take a picture of our front porch, but it is too gross. Use your imagination. (Here’s a photo from Fox2.)

The Iris were insane this year, but I have to say, I like the plainer ones. Some of them verge on the vulgar:

They are the dancehall girls of flowers.

I am not ungrateful–for weeks we have all been enjoying a really beautiful spring where the grass is green and lush and the flowering trees lovely and fragrant. But there are downsides to May. Cicadas, flash flooding and tornadoes to name a few. But we count it all joy when we meet trials of various kinds.

Indeed, we soldier on and enjoy the the upsides of May. It is a great month for birthdays! No one in my family has a May birthday, but lots of my favorite people do, including the Big Four: Bob Dylan (May 24), Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25), John Wayne (May 26), and Walt Whitman (May 31).

There are also these guys: Gary Cooper (May 7), Henry Fonda (May 16), James Stewart (May 20), Laurence Olivier (May 22), and Clint Eastwood (May 22).

So many reasons to throw a party! So plan accordingly.

After you’ve deadheaded all those iris blooms, take a break and watch an old movie, listen to an old song or read an old poem…

I love apocalyptic Bob.

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April 24, 2024

And like Goliath they’ll be conquered

by chuckofish

In my daily Bible reading I have been working through 1 and 2 Samuel and the story of David who I don’t have to tell you is pretty great. Everyone knows the story of David, the shepherd boy who fought the giant Philistine, Goliath, who had been ridiculing the Israelites for forty days, daring one of them to fight him. Everyone thinks David is crazy when he says he’ll fight Goliath. But do you remember what David said to Saul?

But David said to Saul, “Your servant has been keeping his father’s sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, 35 I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. 36 Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. 37 The Lord who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine.”

–I Samuel 17: 34-37

This is David’s attitude throughout his life and it is a good attitude. Later in II Samuel 22 he spoke to the Lord the words of a song he wrote when the Lord delivered him from the hand of his enemies. He also wrote a Psalm about it: Psalm 18.

The Lord lives, and blessed be my rock, and exalted be my God, the rock of my salvation. (II Samuel 22:47)

I’m not sure where I was going with this except to say that daily Bible reading is quite an encouragement to me and I highly recommend it.

Along these same lines, this is a good article about Jesus as our shepherd and why he carries a rod. “Numbered by Jesus, we’re led by Jesus; led by Jesus, we’re protected by Jesus; and protected by Jesus, we’re comforted by Jesus.”

And God love him, here’s Bob:

And they’ll raise their hands
Sayin’, “We’ll meet all your demands”
But we’ll shout from the bow, “Your days are numbered”
And like Pharoah’s tribe
They’ll be drowned in the tide
And like Goliath, they’ll be conquered

P.S. I always liked the Bernini David best (see above).

2 Comments
January 15, 2024

The weekend jumble

by chuckofish

Our weekend in flyover country was very cold–indeed, frigid. I wore my (vintage) fur coat to church, it was so cold. We did have a few diversions.

The boy came over with the twins on Friday in between a birthday party at the Mini Fig store and a date at the Cat Cafe (no school that day)…

Kirkwood is such a happening place. A Mini Fig store and a cat cafe.

Continuing the ‘In Memoriam Glynis Johns’ theme, we watched Mary Poppins (1964) and were reminded what a great movie it is.

Disney really peaked with that one. It had a message for all the parents in the audience, especially the fathers.

Thankfully, Mr. Banks is redeemed.

Sunday morning as we drove to church in the negative-five-degree cold, I said to the OM, “I bet [our old church] is closed this morning.” But we had an (almost) full house at our new one–everyone who stayed home missed a good class on Unconditional Election. Oh well. We hunkered down in the afternoon and attempted to stay warm watching the PGA in Hawaii.

Meanwhile daughter #2 et al are busily packing up their stuff and getting ready for the big move to flyover country at the end of the month…

…as well as Ida’s first birthday this week.

And I received this text:

Of course she did.

And this is interesting. Here’s the song that started Bobby Zimmerman on the road.

You’re drifting too far from the shore
You’re drifting too far from the shore
Come to Jesus today
Let Him show you the way
You’re drifting too far from the shore

–Hank Williams
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December 20, 2023

This and that, here and there

by chuckofish

There were even bigger trucks and excavators by our house yesterday.

They are making good progress and hopefully will be movin’ on down the road by Christmas.

Today we toast Charles Ellsworth Grapewin (December 20, 1869 – February 2, 1956)–American supporting actor, best known for portraying Uncle Henry in The Wizard of Oz (1939). Charley also played Grandpa Joad in The Grapes of Wrath (1940), Jeeter Lester in Tobacco Road (1941) and my personal favorite, Gramp Maple in The Petrified Forest (1936) with Leslie Howard.

Born in Xenia, Ohio, he ran away from home to be a circus acrobat which led to work as an aerialist and trapeze artist in a traveling circus before turning to acting. He traveled all over the world with the P.T. Barnum circus. Grapewin also appeared in the original 1903 Broadway production of The Wizard of Oz, 36 years before he was featured in the famous MGM film version. From the stage he moved to silent movies at the turn of the 20th century.

He was great–always recognizable, but true to his character.

The Bible, as you know, is full of angels. They are God’s servants. They are not pretty androgynous beings with blond hair, but mighty warriors who will protect you when needed. Here is a helpful primer about angels and how Christians should view them.

I am winding up my Bible-reading plan for 2023 with the book of Revelation. Wonderful. I was just reading about the grapes of wrath. Again I say, make the Bible part of your daily routine. John Piper agrees.

And here’s a shot of Bob Dylan for your Wednesday:

You can laugh at salvation, you can play Olympic games
You think that when you rest at last you’ll go back from where you came
But you’ve picked up quite a story and you’ve changed since the womb
What happened to the real you, you’ve been captured but by whom?

He’s the property of Jesus
Resent him to the bone
You got something better
You’ve got a heart of stone

“Property of Jesus”, Bob Dylan
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July 25, 2023

How does it feel?

by chuckofish

Well, it’s the last week of July and the summer continues to rush by in a blur.

If you want to feel really old, I’ll remind you that today is the 58th anniversary of the day Bob Dylan went electric at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965. He was 24 years old. Dylan was said to have “electrified one half of his audience, and electrocuted the other”. He didn’t return to the festival for 37 years.

Dylan took exception with the people who called him a traitor. He later said: “These are the same people that tried to pin the name Judas on me. Judas, the most hated name in human history! If you think you’ve been called a bad name, try to work your way out from under that. Yeah, and for what? For playing an electric guitar? As if that is in some kind of way equatable to betraying our Lord and delivering him up to be crucified. All those evil m-f-ckers can rot in hell.”

Today is also the birthday of the artist Maxfield Parrish (1870-1966) who lived a long, productive and successful life. He was married once and had four children. He was a Quaker. During his career, he produced almost 900 pieces of art. 

He lived in New Hampshire where he belonged to the Cornish Art Colony…

His painting Daybreak became the most popular art print of the 20th century. Supposedly one in four U.S. households owned a print of the neoclassical landscape with two nymphs in the foreground.

We also toast Walter Brennan (1894-1974) on his birthday. Brennan played more than 230 film and television roles during a career that spanned nearly five decades. He won three Academy Awards for best supporting actor and deserved several more for movies like To Have and Have Not (1944), Red River 1948)…

and My Darling Clementine (1946) which I recently watched again. He is the definitive Old Man Clanton, playing against type, menacing and scary.

So join me in toasting these three great American artists. Put down your phone. Listen to some Bob. Look at some art. Watch an old movie. You’ll be glad you did.

5 Comments
May 24, 2023

Watching the river flow

by chuckofish

Today we toast Bob Dylan on his 82nd birthday! Huzzah!

Recently, when I awaken in the middle of the night and can’t go back to sleep, I have been re-reading Chronicles, Volume I by BD. He is one of the best-read guys you could know. He never wasted his free time in his youth, but read whatever was available on the bookshelves of whoever’s apartment he was crashing in. And he remembered what he read.

I read the biography of Thaddeus Stevens, the radical Republican. He lived in the early part of the 1800s and was quite a character. He’s from Gettysburg and he’s got a clubfoot like Byron. He grew up poor, made a fortune and from then on championed the weak and any other group who wasn’t able to fight equally. Stevens had a grim sense of humor, a sharp tongue and a white-hot hatred for the bloated aristocrats of his day. He wanted to confiscate the land of the slaveholding elite, once referred to a colleague on the floor of the chamber as “slinking in his own slime.” …He got right in there, called his enemies a “feeble band of lowly reptiles who shun the light and who lurked in their own dens.” Stevens was hard to forget. He made a big impression on me, was inspiring. Him and Teddy Roosevelt, maybe the strongest U.S. president ever. I read about Teddy, too. He was a cattle rancher and a crime buster, had to be restrained from declaring war on California–had a big run in with J.P. Morgan, a deity figure who owned most of the United States at the time. Roosevelt backed him down and threatened to throw him in jail.

Good stuff. So read some history, some poetry, and listen to some BD today: pick a good one.

Then she opened up a book of poems
And handed it to me
Written by an Italian poet 
From the thirteenth century
And every one of them words rang true
And glowed like burnin' coal
Pourin' off of every page
Like it was written in my soul
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