40 years ago today. Wow. The Beatles landed in America. I was not quite 5 years old. They had a profound effect on my life. I'm not sure it was a positive effect, but effect it they did. Allow me to tell the story briefly.
I didn't pay much attention to the Beatles until well after they had stopped recording as a group. I was awash with sixties bubble-gum thanks to my older sister Becky. The Monkees topped the list. So, in 1977 I was a college freshman at the University of Missouri Columbia. I discovered a long lost childhood friend, Chris, who also attended so we got together one night to go see "Let It Be" the movie. I was totally blown away. I simply said to myself, "I want to do that."
I was a young and stupid guitar player. I had no concept of real life. I certainly didn't catch the not so subtle fact that by the time the Beatles filmed Let It Be, they were already filthy rich and could afford to buy time at a world class studio, turn the cameras and the microphones on and see what happens. They didn't actually rehearse in the normal sense of the word.
So, I quit school of course! Hitchhiked home to tell my dad the good news. He wasn't impressed. Before you know it, I was out of the house living with friends and out of money. Depression set in. I got a job as a side cook at a local pub making about $100.00 a week. I figured I be there about a year or so, just long enough to save for the rock n roll equipment that I needed. I was there 10 years.
At the end of that 10 years though, I was married with a two year old daughter named Emily, and had given up on Rock N Roll. I learned some classical guitar (that's when my dad started talking to me again). And, today I'm saving my pennies to buy an Ivory Stratocaster and a small amp. Why? To have some fun. To play some rock n roll. I've finally grown up.
Religion vs. Anti-Religion
Make no mistake, folks who want to see the Ten Commandments taken out of every civil building in the country are not non-religious ; they are anti-religious . And, there's a big difference between the two. Non-religious people do not believe in God. God doesn't exist, He/She/It didn't create the world, nor do they, or have they, ever interceded in history. Obviously not, if they don't exist. But, if people really believe this, then they can be said to have a belief system. We call these belief systems Religion. So, really, they are religious, just not in the way that I am. That's great. Then there are the anti-religious people. These are folks who think that religion is bad and should be destroyed; wiped away from history once and for all. These people, I believe, are, in fact, very religious. We might call them fundamentalist. They believe so strongly in their system that all other systems need to be done away with. Like a Crusade or a Jihad you might say. Well I...