Spotlighting "the other side of life"

"A Picture from Life's Other Side"
by Hank Williams
1923-1953

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Hank Williams can be an "acquired taste."

He can also be an "inspiration."

Songs of loneliness, tears and compassion -- laced with that honky tonk zest for life.

Part songster, part preacher, part observer of "the other side of life."

"Hank, you were my inspiration"
(Waylon Jennings, 1937-2002, R.I.P.)

Lyrics | Waylon Jennings Lyrics | Hank Williams Syndrome Lyrics

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When there is no choice but "who am I?"

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Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Great singer song writers, such as Hank Williams, may have little time for "ethics. Still some, like Williams and Johnny Cash become preachers for our time.

They would probably be the first to admit that moral actions most often come not from preaching but from those special times when there is "no choice" but to act -- regardless of the price to be paid.

Doing the "right thing" may cost you -- in the end it may bring you peace.

But don't count on it.

The greatest miracle, a "satisfied mind" may not be easy to win.

Doing the "right thing" may carry no reward.

The nature of moral choice may be that there is no choice. The choice is dictated by the answer to the question "who am I?"

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Lean back, think of those you have touched, those you have reached out to.

But remember that suffering in itself is no virtue. It must be chosen -- sometimes even when there is "no choice" -- as the sometimes high price for doing the right thing.

Doing the right thing may cost you -- in the end it may bring you peace.

But don't count on it.

Ask Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who wrestled to the time of his hanging with the question "Who am I?"

Yet his choice was almost automatic -- for there was no other path given "who he was."

Full steam ahead; babe, they're ain't no back in time

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Back Babe, Back in Time:
Wasted on the Wayside
by Gillian Welch


Standing on the corner with a nickel or a dime
There use to be a rail car to take you down the line
Too much beer and whiskey to ever be employed

And when I got to Nashville, it was too much soldiers joy
Wasted on the wayside, wasted on the way
If I don’t go tomorrow, you know I’m gone today

Back babe, back in time
I wanna go back when you were mine
Back babe, back in time
I wanna go back when you were mine

Black highway all night ride
Watching the times fall away to the side
Clear channel way down low
Is comin’ in loud and my mind let go

Peaches in the summertime, apples in the fall
If I can’t have you all the time, I won’t have none at all
Oh, I wish I was in Frisco in a brand new pair of shoes
I’m sittin’ here in Nashville with Norman’s Nashville blues
So come all you good time rounders listenin’ to my sound
And then drink a round to Nashville before they tear it down

Back babe, back in time
I wanna go back when you were mine
Back babe, back in time
I wanna go back when you were mine


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First the tears


Now full steam ahead