Knockin' on Heaven's Door

Photo credit: Google Images

;-)

So, yeah... Bob Dylan turned 70 today. I heard about it a lot during my drive-time home, while listening (like I do) to KPFK ~ 90.7 on the FM dial here in the City of Angels and surrounding areas (and, yes, this is a shameless plea to program it into your radios, or listen on-line via the handy link provided in the Root Cellar of this blog, or even better become a subscriber to this fiercely independent, jewel of a publicly funded radio station) ~ but still... I hadn't planned to write about Mr. Dylan's natal observation. (Full disclosure, I haven't planned much of anything I'm doing on Pollyanna Grounding so far, it just kind of... happens I suppose, and is happening right now, obviously.) Anyway....

I was just now dialoguing with some girlfriends about the latest rash of tornadoes pummeling parts of America ~ really nasty ones these, like the kind that come around every, 50, or 100, or 357 (etc.) years, irregardless of humanity's obvious influence on the all-important carbon parts per million ~ and praying for those whose lives have been torn asunder, hoping they find shelter, comfort, hope, a safe a caring place to grieve...

And then, in my head, I heard Mr. Dylan singing "Knock knock knockin' on Heaven's Door" and something (someone?) told me to post the song (Note: I found a really super rendition for this post, too, where he was joined by Roger McGuinn and Joan Baez... but the video was was blocked by the "Web Police" within a day of posting *sheesh!* ~ apparently pulled from the interwebs even [Happy Bob's Birthday to his fans?] ~ and I've substituted the above photo of Mr. Zimmerman's original 45 ;-)  And then another voice in my head said, "What? You just wrote about Harvey Milk. Why write back-to-back about personal heroes, even if for different reasons and experiences related to them? Not."

But then a sweet feeling came over me ~ and it's macabre that it felt sweet because, I mean, c'mon... death and destruction from tornadoes are not sweet ~ but the sweetness, the sweetness of souls passed and ascending to heaven must be, certainly, preferable to the infliction of fierce winds ripping their very bodies from their spirits.

What's to learn from this? Why do I feel compelled to ponder the relationship, as prompted by a song, between a rockstar's birthday and mass deaths by a tragic weather event? I'm not sure I know, yet. And that tornadoes pummeled Joplin on Bob's birthday, especially in the context of a song that struck my heart hard tonight, just seems... I don't know. Wickedly poignant? Or was it, maybe perhaps, blessedly poignant...?

I mean, if it was, as the proverbial "they" says, "their time" to go, then perhaps those 130+ brothers and sisters of 3rd Rock who transcended our plane today from just that one city ~ as part of one catastrophical event ~ well, is it feasibly less of a jolt to the collective, localized energetic system that, under the circumstance, at least they got to make the approach to knock on Heaven's Door with a group? Would that idea bring comfort, maybe even in some small way, to those left behind? Does that make it any easier for anyone to die, say, than drowned in too much booze and heroine, alone in a hotel room far from a place that used to be home (Janis...)?

Which all but begs the question: Is it the notion of what they believe to be a Divinely-coordinated group-passing that appeals to those (who are also our brothers and sisters) of the eschatalogical Camping camp? Are they rendered by their pastor to be so afraid of living ~ living as they do in their own mass-manipulated fear of God's wrath in whatever ways ~ that they choose by their Free Will to not share God's Love here, unless it's with other members of the gene-pool who entertain and nurture themselves in spiritual practices of identical dogma, with shared charitable causes? (Note to self: Check into Camping's charitable causes ;-)  Is it possible that their souls are silently screaming out to be taken Home in one big group (rescheduling it, and rescheduling it, and rescheduling it) ~ while shouting "DOOM!"through bullhorns  to pedestrians and motorists at busy intersections spotted throughout the land ~ the better perhaps to cope, at a group soul level, during what must be one heckuva mutlidimensional transition into what I believe is Pure, Essential, Eternal Love?

My questions just seem to keep leading to more questions.  This path's course could wander quite awhile, I expect, so I'll ease back on it because I'm tired. Bone tired in a really good way actually. Tired from living so much and so well on good balance today. And thankful. Thankful for it all. For my family, my friends, for the 1,000+ reads of this blog in over two dozen countries in less than three weeks (oh my goodness, THANK YOU!), for a job that affords a cozy enough life to share with others, for the deliciously comfortable bed that awaits me when I'm ready to fall into it and let its warm yumminess envelope me...

And ~ perhaps of course ~ it now occurs to me, a massive earthquake could strike the San Andreas at any minute, and in this moment that's okay. If that should happen, and it's so bad that it takes out me, my family, my dog and cats... I find in this moment that, yeah. I would. I would, macabre as it may sound (perhaps even to myself after sleeping on the idea), find some comfort in sticking with my group. (Or maybe that's just the tired talking...?)
          Aside to the Creator: Not that I should tempt Fate.  My main plan, as we have discussed, is that I live in the reflection of your Grace to be a very old lady, then pass as pleasantly and happily as I can with dear ones near. I'm very happy to stick with that, should it please You to do the same... Namaste.

So, yeah... that kind of brings it back to Bob, because I do hope for him a similar plan ~ to live to be a still much older man, should that please him. And so (I can hardly believe I'm stringing these thoughts into the same paragraph, but here goes): Happy 70th Birthday, Bob. Thanks for the music, for the Attitude, for the courage to be weird and profound... May the next round of your life here extend to you as many good times and freedom of mind as you've given all of us put together. And Godspeed to the Joplinites who travelled today to Heaven's Door... May it open wide for them, with a host of angels to welcome them Home.

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"TORNADOS LEAD US... The convection worsens, the sky spinning where passenger pigeons & buffalo & teeming life are replaced by cars tossed over the tops of houses. The Earth leads us now. What would a human leader say in a speech? She/he might sound like a surreal poet, trying to find a way back to life." ~ Rev. Billy, The Church of Earthlajuah