Bluegrass & Loar Part 2

Last week I posed the question, “Can Lloyd Loar’s memory be rightly honored through a Bluegrass Festival?”  In order to sort through this question, I need to give thought to several things; the first being, “What is the history of Bluegrass?”

As settlers migrated into the Appalachian Mountains around the 1700s, they brought their musical talents and traditions with them.  Some brought instruments from their homeland, such as the fiddle, others engineered “instruments” from whatever they had available.  For years, their songs of life on the farm and in the hills echoed through the remote mountains, but no further.  Big stages, instrument amplification and glitzy clothes weren’t even heard of.  Family and friends simply came together for fellowship anywhere there was space to gather and music was often their common ground.

Mountain music was also greatly influenced by African-American slaves who brought their harmonic blues and the banjo to the region in the 18^th century.  With the emergence of mail order catalogs, instruments such as the “mountain” dulcimer, autoharp, guitar and mandolin soon became popular in Appalachia and set the stage for string bands.

With the invention of the phonograph and radio, in the early 1900s, this “mountain music” filtered into the homes of the rest of the world.  While many refer to what developed as “mountain hillbilly music,” one of its most influential pioneers,

Bill Monroe characterized the genre as: ‘Scottish bagpipes and ole-time fiddlin'.  It's Methodist and Holiness and Baptist.  It's blues and jazz, and it has a high lonesome sound.’”

Bill Monroe, a Kentucky boy with Scottish roots, was born on the farm into a musical family.  By “default,” Monroe grew up playing the “less desirable mandolin” while his two brothers played the fiddle and guitar.  After his mother’s death, when he was 16, Monroe lived with his uncle Pen who played the fiddle.  Love for many of the traditional fiddle tunes was now in Monroe’s blood.

After having played with several bands, at the age of 28, Monroe formed “The Bluegrass Boys” in 1939.  This band is recognized as having “created the definitive sound and instrumental configuration that remains the model to this day for what is known as Bluegrass music.  In Bluegrass, as in some forms of jazz, one or more instruments each takes its turn playing the melody and improvising around it, while the others perform accompaniment; this is especially typified in tunes called breakdowns.  This is in contrast to old-time music, in which all instruments play the melody together or one instrument carries the lead throughout while the others provide accompaniment.  Breakdowns are often characterized by rapid tempos and unusual instrumental dexterity and sometimes by complex chord changes” (http://renoandharrell.com/content/short-history-bluegrass-music).  Monroe became know as “The Father of Bluegrass.”

Mountain music, a “simple” farm boy playing his mandolin and the development of “Bluegrass music; what does all of this have to do, if anything, with the musical genius, Lloyd Loar?

Stay tuned for week three of Bluegrass & Loar.

Whole-Heartedly,

Bonnie

P.S.  Please feel free to contact me with questions, thoughts, topics you’d like to ponder or to read past articles at: http://whole-heartedlife.blogspot.com/.  You may also contact me at:

             Bonnie Jaeckle

             In Search of the Whole-Hearted Life

             Diagonal Progress

             505 Jefferson St.

             Diagonal, IA 50845

Bluegrass & Loar

A few months ago, I was notified that I’d won two weekend tickets to a Bluegrass festival held at a beautiful country resort.  It seemed like a great opportunity to relax, hear some good music and to collect more “behind the scenes” information about the workings of Bluegrass festival venues.  So… we headed out in our motorhome to take advantage of having won the prize!

I’m not unfamiliar with the time and energy that goes into organizing and directing large events and it was obvious that the director had worked her tail off:

• Contacting sponsors for financial support
• Collecting many raffle prizes from local businesses
• Arranging for accommodations at a beautiful resort area, in a multimillion dollar lodge
• Booking internationally and nationally recognized bands
• Hiring “the best sound man out there” to provide the equipment and skill “necessary” for the amplification of the “new” Bluegrass styles
• Etc., etc. etc.

We appreciated the opportunity, enjoyed our stay and met some wonderful people.  In fact, being there helped us in our journey of considering how we can rightly honor Lloyd Loar in his hometown.

Last winter when I began to plan for the first annual Lloyd Loar’s Hometown Bluegrass Festival, other than scheduling a few bands for stage shows, inviting jammers and listeners and getting the word out to the Bluegrass audience, I had little idea of what this festival might look like.  I never felt a need or desire to mimic what is already happening out there in the festival venue.  In fact, it seemed that this was to be different, but I didn’t really know what that meant.  I’m still not totally clear and I’m ok with that because I realize that it will evolve over the years into its own entity, if allowed.

It wasn’t long ago that someone responded to being introduced to my idea of a Bluegrass festival in honor of Loar saying. “I’m not sure that Loar would be honored.”  At first it ticked me off.  “Why wouldn’t he be honored to be remembered in his hometown for what he contributed to music?”  The more I thought about it, however, the more I began to realize that they were probably correct in their statement.  While Loar was known as a very kind man who had country roots, Loar was not a Bluegrass musician and it is not likely that he would have been impressed to have been recognized as a contributor to “hillbilly” music.  Loar was a very polished, highly educated and classically trained musician who was driven to “amount to more than a farmer” (http://interwareralloydloar.blogspot.com/).

The majority of Bluegrass music fans are lower to middle-class country folk, many of whom are farmers.  While they may be aware of Loar’s name and his contribution to the development of the mandolin, most aren’t aware of and likely wouldn’t appreciate his perception of their “status” in this world!

I’d be in error if I didn’t consider, “Would Loar be rightly honored through a Bluegrass festival?”

Stay tuned as I share a series of articles focused on sorting through these important questions:

• What is the history of Bluegrass?
• Who was Lloyd Loar and what did he represent?

• What is the focus of our place, Marigold Meadows?
• How can these things rightly fit together to maintain that?  Or can they?

Whole-Heartedly,

Bonnie

P.S.  Please feel free to contact me with questions, thoughts, topics you’d like to ponder or to read past articles at: http://whole-heartedlife.blogspot.com/.  You may also contact me at:

             Bonnie Jaeckle

             In Search of the Whole-Hearted Life

             Diagonal Progress

             505 Jefferson St.

             Diagonal, IA 50845

The View From Caldania’s Cupboard

Before we built The Martin House, the “famous” pie-baking spot was in our smaller log cabin.  I thought it’d be fun to turn this cabin into a little farm store of sorts.  My desire for opening the store was to establish a prominent spot where I could chat with visitors at our festivals about activities and life at Marigold Meadows and to encourage interested parties in their pursuit of a more self-sustaining lifestyle.  Considering that Caldania, our calico barn cat, likes to head up from the barn to visit festival attendees, we named the store “Caldania’s Cupboard.”  I decorated the store with old garden tools, wooden boxes, seed and feed bags, hung herbs to dry, etc.

During our recent fall festival, I demonstrated how to dry herbs, make herbal tinctures and oil infusions and I offered items that would likely guide conversations in the direction of sustainability:

• Organic heirloom garden seeds from Baker Creek
• Free Baker Creek Seed catalogs
• Country Wisdom Bulletins from Storey Publishing
• Free Storey Publishing catalogs filled with sustainable living resources
• Honey and bee’s wax
• Herbs and spices
• Vinaigrettes, muscle rub, bath salts and hand & lip balm that I make from herbs and oils
• Eggs from Marigold Meadows
• Herbal tea blends that I make

While I have no desire or time to start a business, neither am I in a position to simply give away costly items to hundreds of people; so everything that I made available was offered on a “suggested donation” basis.

During the two weekends of our fall festival, I had the wonderful opportunity to meet literally hundreds of people.  It wasn’t uncommon for some of my visitors to be on a mission for the homemade pie, consequently conversations with them were short before they headed for The Martin House!  There were others, however, who simply needed someone to encourage them in taking their first step toward a lifestyle of self-sufficiency.  What a blessing it was to encourage them to consider what that first step might look like for them.  I also had opportunities to visit with several like-minded people.  If it was as uplifting and encouraging for them as it was for me to visit about our interests in gardening, preserving foods, raising livestock, etc., I accomplished all that I set out for!

The view from Caldania’s Cupboard was simply breathtaking.  I wish you could have seen it!  From the east window, teamsters were demonstrating how to work horses in the fields.  Seemingly with little effort, the horse drawn plows overturned the earth in preparation for next year’s crops.  A bit of smoke wafting into the west window and the rhythmic clanging of metal drew my attention to the other side of the store.  Fanning the flames for their forges, the blacksmiths were busy hammering out horseshoes, harness hooks, etc.  Between customers, I sat on the porch of Caldania’s Cupboard weaving a rug.  Across the meadow a cooper worked painstakingly to shave the top and mold the staves for a barrel that he was crafting.  A “colonial” lady arose from her weaving frame to attend the soap that she was processing over an open fire.  Yet another was gracefully spinning wool from her llama.  Along with the enticing aroma of homemade pie, gentle strains of music drifting from the Martin House porch added to the calm of the meadows.  While soaking all of this in, I spotted a family walking across the pasture after visiting all the barnyard critters.  Two of the children were holding hands with their dad.  The other two were laughing as they skipped alongside their mom.  Tears flooded my eyes as my heart overflowed with a feeling of fulfillment. 

There are two rocking chairs on the porch of Caldania’s Cupboard.  Maybe next year, you can come join me!  I’ll make you some tea and we can take in, together, all that’s going on around us.  I’m sure you’d agree that there are few places in this world with such a view.

Whole-Heartedly,

Bonnie

P.S.  Please feel free to contact me with questions, thoughts, topics you’d like to ponder or to read past articles at: http://whole-heartedlife.blogspot.com/.  You may also contact me at:

             Bonnie Jaeckle

             In Search of the Whole-Hearted Life

             Diagonal Progress

             505 Jefferson St.

             Diagonal, IA 50845

The Douglas Center

Sometimes, in the midst of all the work and whirlwind of activity, we just need to lighten-up and be silly!  That’s what we did this past weekend at Marigold Meadows, during our fall festival.  Our good music friend, Ernie Douglas often has fun teasing and giving us a “hard time,” so we decided to “get even” with him and loving dedicated our outhouse in his honor.  My brother, Art asked me to write a little ditty that could be read publicly and presented to Ernie at our Saturday evening stage show.  I thought you might get a kick out of it!

The Douglas Center

Dedicated to Ernie Douglas

10.12.13

We’re dedicating another building here at Marigold Meadows!  As you may know, we are very thoughtful about naming our buildings after someone who has contributed to that particular building in a significant way.

Last week during the dedication of our new kitchen, our friend, Ernie Douglas expressed his disappointment that we’d not named a building after him.  We got to thinking about his feelings of exclusion and realized that he’s right.  Ernie has always been “Johnnie on the spot” here at Marigold Meadows.  Ernie has a love for the “performing arts” and has “shared his talent” with us year after year.  We’ll never forget the year that he received a standing ovation for performing, “Moon Light Serenade.”  There’s absolutely no one who can “make music” like Ernie!

Ernie is a great inspiration for the rest of us to, “go for the gusto!”  He encourages others to be a part of his “performances” and he’s always willing to “fill-in” whenever there’s a need.  After all these years of sacrificing his precious time and his “straining” efforts for our events, his commitment to “hang in there until the paper work is done” still amazes us!  Rain or shine, we can always count on Ernie to “put on a good show.”

Ernie’s commitment and dedication to Marigold Meadows has encouraged us to dedicate this building, where he has “given of himself the most,” in his honor.  We could think of no one else who better deserves this “high position.”  Ladies and gentlemen, we dedicate this “throne room” to our friend, Ernie Douglas.  From this day forward, it will be known as, “The Douglas Center of Performing Arts,” in his honor.

Thank you, Ernie for your “generous contributions”!  It is our sincerest desire that you’ll always remember this dedication as the ultimate “Royal Flush!”

You’re the greatest!

The Crew at Marigold Meadows

Most of them knowing Ernie, the crowd nearly rolled on the ground laughing and Ernie accepted his “reward” in the manner in which it was intended, with loving fun and silliness.  His response…. “You really shouldn’t have.”  I truly mean, you really shouldn’t have!”

Whole-Heartedly,

Bonnie

P.S.  Please feel free to contact me with questions, thoughts, topics you’d like to ponder or to read past articles at: http://whole-heartedlife.blogspot.com/.  You may also contact me at:

             Bonnie Jaeckle

             In Search of the Whole-Hearted Life

             Diagonal Progress

             505 Jefferson St.

             Diagonal, IA 50845

Are You Wearing the Right Underwear? Part II

For those of you who accepted my challenge last week; why all the discomfort, guilt, embarrassment and feelings of inadequacy?  Where are we instructed under the New Covenant that we must practice such legalism in order to be true worshipers of God?  Worship means to “prostrate oneself” before the one being worshiped.  While the Spirit of God may occasionally throw us to our knees, true worship does not include ritualistic activity at a specific time and designated place whether that is in a basilica or at our devotional spot at home.  Worship is showing reverence to Him in every conversation spoken and every thought considered, no matter the outward circumstance.  Worship is not something performed under specific conditions, but is a move of the Spirit that can not be resisted.

Jesus declared, “…, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem... A time is coming, and has now come, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks” (John 4:21 & 23). 

While there are still a few nagging rituals lingering in my life, the majority of them have been stripped away.  Considering that my spiritual approach is foreign to most in the “Christian” arena, I’m often strongly judged for my lack of compliance to the general expectations.  Sometimes the judgment is verbal, often it is not.  Facial expressions are worth a thousand words!   Luke speaks of Jesus describing such self-righteous indignation;

 

"Also He spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank you that I am not like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess. And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted" (Luke 18:9-14). 

Thinking that we must practice specific rites and perform certain rituals in order to be right with God is what Scripture describes as “setting up idols” in our hearts.  When we live by these kinds of laws, we’ll always feel as though our efforts are never enough!  They are considered “idols” because our focus is on attempting to fulfill them rather than on the One whom we desire to worship. 

This is what the Sovereign Lord says: “When any of the Israelites set up idols in their hearts and put a wicked stumbling block before their faces and then go to a prophet, I the Lord will answer them myself in keeping with their great idolatry” (Ezekiel 14:4).

While our attempts may be genuine, the God who created the sunflower to track the sun is not impressed with our efforts to follow the Law.  Not only has it already been proven that we are not able; He gave His Son to death for this very reason!  When we continue in our efforts, we are ultimately proclaiming that what Jesus did on our behalf was not good enough! 

Those who claim to live by the Law and demand that others do the same, must then realize that they don’t get to pick and choose which Laws they want to follow.  So, while you are out shopping for the right underwear and getting circumcised (Gen 17:13-14), the rest of us will be enjoying the fulfilling spontaneity to worship God with a circumcised heart (Romans 2:29), according to how His Spirit leads us.   

You who are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love (Galatians 5:4 & 6).

Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ (Colossians 2:16-17).

Whole-Heartedly,

Bonnie

P.S.  Please feel free to contact me with questions, thoughts, topics you’d like to ponder or to read past articles at: http://whole-heartedlife.blogspot.com/.  You may also contact me at:

             Bonnie Jaeckle

             In Search of the Whole-Hearted Life

             Diagonal Progress

             505 Jefferson St.

             Diagonal, IA 50845

Are You Wearing the Right Underwear?

While I never examined sunflowers closely, I’ve admired their beauty from a distance and enjoyed eating and feeding their seeds to my feathered friends.  Last spring I planted some.  It was exciting to watch them go through each stage as they developed their huge heads.  While studying about when and how to harvest sunflower seeds, I learned of the flower’s many marvelous traits.  There is one, however, that, to me, is simply astonishing; this sun-seeker literally turns its face toward the sun as it moves across the sky throughout the day and then drops its head at the end of the day as the sun sets!  I continue to be awed by the Creator’s work!

I’ve always considered myself a “son-seeker”.  I worked carefully at following what I believed to be the movement of the One whom I worship and I labored for years to worship according to the acceptable rules.  However, there were often these irritating questions in the back of my mind:  

·        Why do I feel guilty if I don’t do it? 

·        Why do I felt inadequate when the results aren’t what I expect? 

·        Why does it often seem contrived, even in my most sincere efforts? 

·        There’s no doubt of my willingness to surrender my life for the purpose of offering life to others; however what is it about how I go about doing so that just doesn’t seem right?

In time, Father helped me to understand the importance of these questions.  He brought me to a point of realizing that I had been taught to worship as though I was still under the Law.  Under the Law, even the minutest details regarding worship were laid out by God and no variation was tolerated.  Even the kind of underwear that was to be worn during worship was explicitly commanded (Leviticus 16:4).  While the ancient and fearful rites, if performed incorrectly resulted in judgment and death (Leviticus 10:1, 2 Samuel 6:6), the followers of Jesus need not have such fears.

You may not even realize that you are trapped in such constraining legalism; therefore, I challenge you to consider:

1)      Why are you bowing your head, kneeling and singing praises when your “spiritual leader” tells you to?  Try not doing it when everyone else is.

2)      Why do you go to worship in a place where you are surrounded by all the “spiritual” trappings to worship?  Simply stay home this month.

3)      Why do you wear certain clothes when you go to this “place of worship”?  Next week, why don’t you wear your chore clothes?

4)      Why do you read the Bible and “pray” daily?  Set it aside for a week.

I’ll check in next week to see how it went.

Whole-Heartedly,

Bonnie

P.S.  Please feel free to contact me with questions, thoughts, topics you’d like to ponder or to read past articles at: http://whole-heartedlife.blogspot.com/.  You may also contact me at:

             Bonnie Jaeckle

             In Search of the Whole-Hearted Life

             Diagonal Progress

             505 Jefferson St.

             Diagonal, IA 50845

Martin House Pie

My sister-in-law, Marcia bakes the best pie in the Midwest.  People come from all around and stand in line just to buy a slice of her pie.  She doesn’t sell her pie, but has a suggested donation of $1.00 to help recoup some of her expenses.  Needless to say, she’s losing money!  Why, you can’t buy a slice of store-bought, junk-filled pie for less than $3.00!  We’ve tried to encourage her to increase her suggested donation, but so far she hasn’t budged.  Sadly, most people want something for nothing so it never dawns on them that paying only a $1.00 is ultimately taking advantage of Marica’s generous heart.  It is a rare customer who offers her more.  Seeing that her expenses are increasing annually, Marcia conceded to letting me make a little sign to help people understand, in a fun-loving way, how much goes into a slice of pie.  I titled it,

WHAT WOULD YOU SAY IT’S WORTH?

Customer: How much is your pie, ma’am?

Martin House Baker: Well…. Let me see:

·       We hand-picked each piece of fruit in the hot scorching sun.

·       We washed, pitted and peeled each fruit by hand.

·       We hand-mixed all the filling ingredients.

·       We rolled each layer of pie crust until it’s paper thin.

·       We chopped and hauled loads of wood for the oven in the frigid cold.

·       We baked 80+ pies, in the heat of the day, over a wood burning oven.

·       We hand-carried water to wash the baked-on stickiness of pie plates.

·       And… we emptied nearly every ounce of love that is in us into each and every mouth-watering slice of pie!

Why, I don’t know….what would you say it’s worth?

While her customers may still not get the message, Marcia’s greatest reward is the fun that she has baking for others and watching them enjoy her labor of love!  She’ll quietly and humbly serve you a slice of her labor and never think to ask, “What would you say it’s worth?”

Whole-Heartedly,

Bonnie

P.S.  Please feel free to contact me with questions, thoughts, topics you’d like to ponder or to read past articles at: http://whole-heartedlife.blogspot.com/.  You may also contact me at:

             Bonnie Jaeckle

             In Search of the Whole-Hearted Life

             Diagonal Progress

             505 Jefferson St.

             Diagonal, IA 50845