I have never met someone who got married and said how much they are looking forward to getting a divorce.

Have yet to hear from a friend about how much they are looking forward to being in a car accident the next day.

When I was in the ninth grade, after an afternoon run on a frozen cross country course in February when the temperature was about 12 degrees, I was not looking forward to getting under a squat rack moments later with a frozen back and not being able to come back up with the weight I went down with.  My back has not been the same since.

Yesterday morning I was so excited.  I was heading into my office at Paoli High School to get some work done.  Working at the workplace is a joy after working from home for so long.

Still in the process of getting my office in order, aesthetically and otherwise, I was collecting some mini college helmets, most of which are of a local variety that I display and make reference to should the need arise.

These helmets were on the top shelf of my bookcase in my home office.  As I have done many many times to simply retrieve them, I took my metal retractable Air Force pointer and extended it to full length.  Reaching up with the pointer to connect with the face-mask of the helmet as a means to lower it.  It works every time.  Only yesterday it did not work.

There was a reaction to an action.  That sounds familiar.

As the Ball State helmet I had leveraged with the pointer was ready to be turned loose, the pointer, in my right hand, sprang back a couple of inches.  It was just enough distance to make contact with something on one of the shelves of the book case.  One of my many mementos on display.  The pointer somehow had to bring down the last thing on that shelf I would want to lose.  It is broken and so am I.

This thing broke because something went wrong.

My Great-Grandmother, Ivy Nowling, she lived in Brownstown on Bridge Street for 53 years, brought this back from Niagra Falls a VERY long time ago.  When my dear wife, Carrie, and I last visited the falls, I brought back some water from there to replace what had evaporated inside the little ceramic barrel over many decades.  Just looking at this picture makes me want to reach for something that is not even there.

My little barrel isn’t the only thing broken.  We have a country that is broken.  Something or some things have gone wrong.  The death of George Floyd in such a senseless, cruel fashion was the last straw for many.  Now, during a continuing Pandemic that has crippled the country, America is burning.

Cities are being shattered by protesters.  I sit on my comfortable couch in the middle of the woods in Southern Indiana and I see cities that Carrie and I have visited.  Many of them, including Minneapolis, have been wonderful to us.

I could go on and on about what is wrong with the protests.  I could also go on and on about what is right with the protests.  That is up to you for you.

Yesterday I saw a post on facebook that personified the US and THEM finger pointing so prevalent in America today.  Divide and conquer seems to be the recipe for politics today and it is backfiring.  Or it may be a case of…you asked for it…what the hell did you expect?

Three things rattle consistently in my head when I see this action being played out in real life and not in the candy land of social media that some seem set to rely on for an alternate reality seeped in fear and indifference:

3.  Billy Joel singing WE DIDN’T START THE FIRE.

2.  In the movie A TIME TO KILL when Matthew McConaughey’s character, lawyer Jake Brigance, was describing to white jurors the torture at the hand of white men that  happened to a young black girl…and in closing he asked the jury to imagine that the little girl was white.

Watching George Floyd die on television brought that back to me in a hurry.  I don’t think a white George Floyd gets a knee to the neck.  Do you?

In classrooms over the years I have talked to students about race issues.  Some hate it when I talk about the root cause of racism: fear and ignorance.

When I discuss race issues with students I tell them I have had my heart broken, been punched, been kicked, been shot at, been made fun of, been called names, and been considered by some as an outcast.  All this and I can’t tell you of one black person responsible for this catalog of ache.

1.  President Jimmy Carter and his Crisis of Confidence speech that included:

…First of all, we must face the truth, and then we can change our course. We simply must have faith in each other, faith in our ability to govern ourselves, and faith in the future of this Nation. Restoring that faith and that confidence to America is now the most important task we face. It is a true challenge of this generation of Americans.

One of the visitors to Camp David last week put it this way: “We’ve got to stop crying and start sweating, stop talking and start walking, stop cursing and start praying. The strength we need will not come from the White House, but from every house in America.”

Are you prepared to help to change the course?  I hope so.  We can do better.

Speaking the rights…

Danny Johnson

Had a good day when I took this photo at Topsail Island a couple years ago.

With no disrespect to those who lost their lives fighting for the freedom of this country, this Memorial Day Weekend feels a little different, doesn’t it?  At this writing nearly 100,000 American have died at the hands of an enemy we could not foresee.

Still there is time to take pause to remember and be thankful for those whose shoulders lifted the rest of us up to help us stay standing.  Thank you.  God Bless You.

In Boston, there is this moving place.

They gave it all they had.

New York where the towers fell.

So this year there will be no I – 5 this weekend.  I call the Indianapolis 500 the I – 5.  Don’t ask me why.  I just do.

I mentioned to a cousin in Mississippi yesterday that even though I live 45 minutes from Churchill Downs, not having a Kentucky Derby during the first Saturday in May 2020 did not really phase me much.  I watch the race and have some specific memories about it.  Most of those memories have little to do with the horse race.

The Indy 500 is different.  To know that the Indianapolis Motor Speedway won’t be roaring today makes me sad.

The First Winner 1911 with Ray Harroun behind the wheel.

I always tell my Mother the rain has to start and stop somewhere.

Yesterday I was caught up in proof of it as I walked.  Mostly sunny skies behind me and ominous skies in front of me.

When it started to lightning, I did an about face.  I did get more than 5 miles in yesterday and that was nice.

The Topsail Beach flag is flapping on the porch.  

Take care of each other!

Speaking the rights…

Danny Johnson

I will gladly import a photo from the Paoli Jr-Sr High School facebook page. Hope I don’t get chewed!

This is Emmett Dunn, Class of 2020, Paoli High School.  With him are Mr. Greg Walker, superintendent of Paoli schools and Dr. Sherry Wise, PHS principal.  This photo was taken earlier today at the Washington County Courthouse in Salem, Indiana.  This was a graduation ceremony for area graduates that have enlisted in the Armed Forces.  When their schools finally get around to a graduation ceremony they won’t be here.  They will be serving all of us.  I wish I had been there today.

Not long after this ceremony, I exchanged emails with Emmett.  I told him to make sure I have his mailing address when he gets to where he is going, Ft. Benning, Georgia.

Thank you to Mr. Walker and Dr. Wise for being there.  And thank you to Emmett’s parents.  I know a thing or two about these circumstances.  Our son, Jarrett, an Army vet, is working at the US Embassy in Iraq as I type these words.  He was due home April 17th.  I know he will get back home eventually.

I will never be able to thank Emmett and his family enough.

To be a school counselor for a graduating class I have yet to introduce myself to, my first day at Paoli was to be March 30th, is the most surreal professional challenge of a long career in education.  The students and parents I have met via phone or email or video conference have all been most gracious.  I can’t thank them enough.  Y’all have made an ocean of lemonade from this place and time we are in.

With that said, I would be remiss if I did not give a HUGE thank you to the folks at Paoli I have worked with from afar.  Dr. Wise, Rachel Robinson, and Sara Parks…I so appreciate your effort and your patience and your passion for helping kids.  Thanks also to the teachers I have spent time with in meetings, be they general faculty or specific conferences.  You are pros!  All of you.  And don’t get me started on the football coaching staff!  We could be here for a while.

Oh what a difference two months can make.

In March I wrote a post about the walking path I have been using for, well, two months.

The time has gone by quickly at times.  Most of the time it has not.  These are tough times.

I walked six miles today.  With the help of an American Top 40 rebroadcast from July of 1988 and Justin Hayward’s Spirits Live album, I kept pushing.  I did not come in for a drink of water.  When I got to the kitchen after my walk, I was like a water buffalo refilling.

During my walk I reflected on so many things.  I thought about the school business, of course.  I am so glad I made the move to Paoli.  Even though I have yet to spend a day in the building, I know I am where I belong.  When we eventually get there like we are used to, it will be a true celebration.

I thought about my Uncle Roger in Georgia.  Earlier in the day I emailed him quite a few words.  I was ashamed when I looked back at my email at how long it had been since he and I had been back and forth.  He had been the last one back…in March.  During my walk I checked my email on my phone.  I was delighted to see that he had responded.

Earlier in the week my brother Darrell put together a video of a song I wrote a long time ago.  I gave him pictures and Darrell did what he does and made magic.  It has been well received via facebook.  I was singing along to the song last week and it just struck me.  This is a song for the times we are living in.

The video is here…. I hope it works for you.  I am not a techno wizard.

https://www.facebook.com/100013659552726/videos/914461705685806/?id=100013659552726

And so it goes.

Take care of each other.

Speaking the rights…

Danny Johnson

So my friend and FM radio king Robert Becker from WJAA 96.3 in Seymour was playing Bob Seger tunes three mornings ago.  It was to celebrate Bob Seger’s 75th birthday.

Yes, that is what I said, Bob Seger is 75.  In 2006, when we were needed a concert more than any one I can recall as we were caring for her grandparents, my dear wife Carrie and I saw Bob Seger and The Silver Bullet Band at Freedom Hall in Louisville.  It was a hot show on a cold cold December night.

This photo was taken at the last Seger show we saw at the new YUM Center; could there be a more goofier name for an arena?  This show was in December of 2018.

Bob Seger was always a staple in the football locker room when I was kid growing up in Brownstown.  The mono 8 track player on the training table in front of the showers in the bowels of the now demolished original James T. Blevins Stadium at Brownstown Central was a place where I got a music education.  LIVE BULLET was played a great deal.

That night in 2006 at the first Bob Seger concert Carrie and I attended, I took this picture and I thought this was so interesting in contrast to the old album cover.

In 2013 Carrie and I went to The Palace in Auburn Hills, Michigan to see a concert by their native son, Bob Seger.

This poster is in our living room.  We went to the April 13th show.  The Palace at Auburn Hills was more a dump than a palace.  It is no longer there.  But this was sure a good time.  Joe Walsh opened the show with seven songs that, along with Bob Seger, represented a great part of the soundtrack of my life.

Bob Seger 75?  I can believe that.  I am 52 and I walked six and half miles today and my right hip hurts.  Oh well.  We are not here to have a bad time!

Two days ago I took this picture while I was walking.

It was lovely walk.  Humidity low.  Temperature was great.  I did not want to stop walking.  I got in six miles on this day too.

This weekend nine years ago Carrie and I went to see The Moody Blues play a concert at Red Rocks Amphitheater outside of Denver, Colorado.

I don’t think The Moodies will play another concert.  In 2014 they were scheduled to play at Red Rocks in May again.  Well, it is Denver.  There was a snowstorm and the show was moved to an indoor venue in Denver. I am certain Carrie and I can say we saw The Moody Blues play their last concert at Red Rocks where they made the Live at Red Rocks album and video when they played with an orchestra for the first time in September of 1992.

That spawned Orchestra shows all over the globe for the next eight years.  I was fortunate enough to catch thirteen of those orchestra shows.

Liner Notes.

It is no secret that I enjoy writing a word or two.

Recently I took a handful of CDs off my shelf at random and inspected them.  I didn’t listen to them.  I read them.  Being interested in words, I read what we call liner notes.  That is what refers to the words the music artist puts on the cd packaging to acknowledge “something”.

It made me think about the liner notes I have written on the three CDs I have produced.

Words I wrote for my friend and musical partner Jeff Carpenter resonate.  How could they not?  Without Jefferson I don’t record a song.  He is the man.

On my 2006 CD The Best Thing You Did Yesterday, I wrapped up the liner notes with this… “I still miss the Corner King.  And I am quite certain that Josey is still on a vacation far away.”

I hope you all are doing well.  This is a tough time.  I told Carrie today that speaking the rights is tough these days.

Speaking the rights…

Danny Johnson