DANDELION   DANDELION
           YOU'RE A TRUE FRIEND OF MINE
           PEOPLE HURT YOU ALL THE TIME
             IT SEEMS TO BE SUCH A CRIME  
                    GIVE    THEM    WINE

                    REFUGEE    REFUGEE
          WHY WON'T YOU TALK TO ME ?
             WE'LL BOTH LEARN IN TIME
      THAT BEING FRIENDS IS NOT A CRIME
                     GEE    I'M      FREE

                  TEACHER     PREACHER
             WHY CAN'T YOU REACH HER ?
             DANDELION IS IN HER PRIME
              EVERYTHING   TAKES   TIME 
                 PEOPLE   LEARN   CRIME

                HEADLINES    DEADLINES
    HOW ARE WE GOING TO MAKE OUR WINE ?
THE REFUGEES DIDN'T WANT TO TAKE THEIR TIME
      THEY PULLED UP ALL THE DANDELIONS
        NOW YOU CUT DOWN ALL THE TREES
                 HEAR     TREES     PLEA

                              REFUGEE
                     DON'T  BOTHER  ME !
            YOU HAVE DRUNK ALL THE WINE
           YOU CUT DOWN TREES IN NO TIME
         YOU PULLED UP ALL THE DANDELIONS
                YOU DIDN'T TAKE YOUR TIME
          YOU CAME HERE FOR JUST THE WINE
               I ASKED YOU TO HEAR MY PLEA
       AND YOU NEVER LEARNED TO TALK TO ME
     DON'T YOU VALUE DANDELIONS AND TREES ?
       THE'RE LIVING THINGS LIKE YOU AND ME

                    NOW    YOU'RE   SERVING   TIME
                            "IT'S    A     CRIME"
   
                                 By    JAMES  H  PIDGEON

NINE DOLLAR HOT DOG      TEN CENT PRESIDENT
                                "ECONOMY"
POPE IS PACKING 44's      TWISTED SISTERS NO MORE
                                  "PAGEN"  
BILLY BOB NEW VOTE      HEARTLAND HOOKED ON DOPE
                               "FUTURE SHOCK"
PAGEN HEARTLAND WITH TEN CENT ECONOMY HAS
                    FUTURE SHOCK IN WONDERLAND
                                  "HEADLINES"
                        TERRORISTS ON BOTH SIDES
          DON'T YOU KNOW WE'RE THE GOOD GUYS?   
                                   "ALWAYS"



FUTURE SHOCK HEADLINES ABOUT PAGEN POPE
          ON DOPE VISITS HEARTLAND TO SEE
          BILLY BOB NEW VOTE & GOOD GUYS
          WHO DISCOVER TEN CENT PRESIDENT
            WITH TWISTED SISTER TERRORISTS
  FIRING 44's     EATING NINE DOLLAR HOTDOGS
                                    "AND"
      ECONOMY IS ALWAYS IN WONDERLAND    
                           
                        By JAMES H PIDGEON

When Steve was only three, his grandfather died.  His mother couldn't sleep the night of the wake because she worried that her father had not lived as religious a life as he should have.  Because it was a hot night, she went to sit on the porch near the railing.  A turtle dove flew down and landed on the railing close by.  The bird sat there and cooed like a pet.  He didn't fly off and wasn't afraid.  She felt a wonderful sense of presence as though that bird represented an angel or in some way her father.  Then the turtle dove flew away into the night.

When Steve was getting ready to go into the ministry, his mother told this story of the turtle dove to him even though he was a little bit skeptical.  As the years passed, Steve's ministry flourished and he and his wife took a group of people on a Holy Land Tour that ended in the Garden Tomb in Jerusalem.  Steve gave a short sermon to the assembled group and then just before Communion he told the story of his mother's experience with the dove from decades long past.  He noticed some people started weeping during the service and was quite puzzled. 

After the service concluded with the Lord's Prayer, congregants rushed forward.  The entire group seemed emotional and tearful.  One of his close friends said, "While you were preaching, you weren't aware of what was happening behind you?"  Steve said, "No, I wasn't."  "Behind you was a branch sticking out of the tree and two turtle doves landed on the branch and they stayed there all the time you were telling your mother's story.  When we opened our eyes after the final prayer, they were gone."

The group's Orthodox Jewish tour guide had now come forward with tears in his eyes as well.  "Steve, they were turtle doves, but we don't have turtle doves in Israel." 

Two turtle doves.  One for Steve's grandfather and one for his mother?  Who can say? 

Their marriage was good, their dreams focused..Their best friends lived barely a wave away.  I can see them now, Dad in trousers, tee shirt and a hat and Mom in a house dress; lawn mower in his hand, and dish-towel in hers...It was the time for fixing things.  A curtain rod, the kitchen radio, screen door, the oven door, the hem in a dress.  Things we keep.  It was a way of life, and sometimes it made me crazy.  All that re-fixing, eating, renewing, I wanted just once to be wasteful.  Waste meant affluence.  Throwing things away meant you knew there'd always be more.

But then my mother died, and on that clear summer's night, in the warmth of the hospital room, I was struck with the pain of learning that sometimes there isn't any more.  Sometimes, what we care about most gets all used up and goes away...never to return.  So...While we have it...It's best we love it...And care for it...And fix it when it's broken...And heal it when it's sick.

This is true...For marriage...And old cars....And children with bad report cards...Dogs and cats with bad hips...And aging parents...And grandparents, brothers and sisters, aunts, uncles and friends.  We keep them because they are worth it, because we are worth it.  Some things we keep.  Like a best friend who moved away or a classmate we grew up with.  There are just some things that make life important, like people we know who are special...And so, we keep them close in heart and mind and spirit.  

Good friends and family are like stars...You don't always see them, but you know they are always there.          

About a week after the World Trade Center catastrophe, it was said that a trumpeter was playing at Ground Zero.  A well-known photographer went to see for himself.  In the eerie quiet of lower Manhattan, he could hear the notes as he approached a police barricade. 

"The trumpeter stood in this urban canyon, illuminated by shafts of light caused by the smoke and dust."  Who was he?  In a place of such intense security, how could a lone musician be allowed behind police lines?   

Looking through his lens, framing the unlikely stranger amid the rays, the photographer realized that this was the photo of a lifetime.  "But I couldn't depress the shutter," he said.  He lowered the camera in defeat.  Other photographers reported the same phenomenon.  Apparently, no one could snap a picture. 

"Maybe he's an angel," one suggested.  Another said, "I think the trumpeter was the angel, Gabriel.  With his music, he blessed this site of carnage and taught us to accept loss".     

When I am gone, release me, let me go.
I have so many things to see and do,
You mustn't tie yourself to me with too many tears,
But be thankful we had so many years.

I gave you my love, and you can only guess
How much you've given me in happiness.
I thank you for the love that you have shown,
But now it is time I traveled on alone.

So grieve for me a while, if grieve you must,
Then let your grief be comforted by trust.
It is only for a while that we must part,
So treasure the memories within your heart.

I won't be far away for life goes on.
And if you need me, call and I will come.

Though you can't see or touch me, I will be near.
And if you listen with your heart, you'll hear
All my love around you soft and clear.

And then, when you come this way alone, 
I'll greet you with a smile and a "Welcome Home".                                         

One night a man had a dream.
He dreamed he was walking along the beach with the Lord.

Scenes from his life flashed across the sky
And he noticed two sets of footprints in the sand,
One belonging to him and the other to the Lord.

When the last scene of his life had flashed before him,
He recalled that at the lowest and saddest times of his life
There was only one set of footprints.

Dismayed, he asked, "Lord, you said that once I decided to follow you,
You'd walk with me all the way.
I don't understand why, when I needed you most,
You would leave me."

The Lord replied, "My precious child.
I love you and would never leave you.
During your times of trial and suffering,
When you saw only one set of footprints...

That was when I carried you."               
                   

Jim was drafted a couple of years out of high school.  He had his swearing in and showed up the next day to board a bus heading for boot camp.  Before they could get going, the officer in charge got on the bus and said there was word that President Nixon was going to give a speech ending the draft and the Vietnam war.  He said everyone should go home and their classification would be 1 Holding.  There never was any call up by the military so Jim went on with his job search.  After a few months, maybe a year, Jim started getting mailings from places like the VFW and the American Legion about veteran's benefits.  Jim felt uncomfortable because he never was a veteran and he didn't want anyone to think he was.  So one day he decided to go down to the local recruiting station.  He went in and told the person at the desk that there was some mistake in the army's records because he never was a Vietnam veteran.  The officer got up and put his arm around Jim's shoulders and said "we all had a hard time in Vietnam" and walked Jim out the door saying, "you'll be all right".  So to this day no matter where we live, Jim still gets mailings from the American Legion and the VFW and even some other organizations asking Jim to become a member. 

Just a side story: When Jim worked as a pest control salesman, he got to know the men that did the treatments for customers.  One evening, Jim got in to the office late and one of the treatment guys was there looking out the window.  Jim asked him. "Are you going home tonight?" He told Jim the story of how ever since he got discharged from Vietnam, sometimes he gets spooked after dark and thinks the North Vietnam "gooks" are out there waiting for him.  Jim offered to follow him home so he would get there safely.  Jim said to me, "There but for the grace of God go I".  He always was available to that guy whenever he needed help.  Even though Jim demonstrated against the Vietnam war, he always respected the veterans.

 

When tomorrow starts without me,
And I'm not there to see,
If the sun should rise and find your eyes
All filled with tears for me;    
I wish so much you wouldn't cry
The way you did today,
While thinking of the many things,
We didn't get to say.
I know how much you love me,
As much as I love you,
And each time you think of me,
I know you'll miss me too; 
But when tomorrow starts without me,
Please try to understand,
That an angel came and called my name,
And took me by the hand,
And said my place was ready,
In Heaven far above
And that I'd have to leave behind
All those I dearly love.
But as I turned to walk away,
A tear fell from my eye
For all my life, I'd always thought
I didn't want to die.
I had so much to live for,
So much left yet to do,
It seemed almost impossible,
That I was leaving you.                            

I thought of all the yesterdays,  
The good ones and the bad,
The thought of all the love we shared,  
And all the fun we had.
If I could relive yesterday
Just even for awhile,
I'd say good-bye and kiss you
And maybe see you smile.
But then I fully realized
That this could never be,
For emptiness and memories,
Would take the place of me.
And when I thought of worldly things
I might miss tomorrow,
I thought of you, and when I did
My heart was filled with sorrow.
But when I walked through Heaven's gates
I felt so much at home
When God looked down and smiled at me,
From His great golden throne,
He said, "This is eternity,
And all I've promised you.
Today your life on earth is past
But here it starts anew.        
I promise no tomorrow
But today will always last,
And since each day's the same way,
There's no longing for the past.
You have been so faithful,
So trusting and true.
Though there were times
You did some things
You knew you should'nt do.
But you have been forgiven
And now at last you're free.
So won't you come and take my hand  
And share my life with me?"
                                
So when tomorrow starts without me,
Don't think we're far apart,
For every time you think of me,
I'm right here, in your heart.