Between Others and Near

I played piano Saturday evening, Memorial Day weekend, in The Seasons at Sandpoint for a private party among good people. I love this kind of setting. My job is to provide atmosphere by maintaining soft melodic background music in support of the numerous conversations that happen when people get together. Having the gentle melodies of a single-voiced piano floating through the room and out onto the deck helps people relax and open up.

Hosts, Chris and Kathy Chambers, who have the heart to understand why people socialize, know exceedingly well how to provide the amenities of a great gathering. Wonderful gourmet food was prepared professionally by the team of Joy Tharp and Michelle Pecukonis, dba Skeyes The Limit Catering. The Seasons' full-time Concierge, Tom Parks, served an incredible line-up of fine wines with knowledge to support the tastes and preferences of everyone present. The stage was set overlooking Pend d'Oreille Bay and the Cabinet Mountain Range in the distance where the sun rises and full moons lift off mountain peaks on summer nights to dance romantically across the water of this pure natural lake.

To play piano in this precious setting is to fill my soul with song. I found it very easy to report my deepest feelings musically. Consequently, this was one of the more enjoyable piano gigs I've had in awhile. I played for 4 hours using my Kawaii's single-track recording capability to take short breaks when needed. Following a good set, I'd press the play-back and take time off the bench to talk briefly with The Seasons' guests. The electric piano filled the air for me.

I gained both strength and energy as I allowed the music to flow through my fingers. The last hour was the best. By then I had reached the zone, that place of fluidity, where one's musical knowledge and experience combine into a flawless combination of rhythm and melodies that come off without any thought about it, no effort at all. The music just is and perfectly so.

Performing musicians know this place, particularly jazz players. In the zone, I feel I'm actually talking through the keyboard. A note is not just a note in the zone; it's part of a dazzling chain of individual sounds strung dreamily together to carry the air. In the zone, I'm singing through the key board, supporting the friendships and intellects of fifty people, in this case, who are out there getting to know each other. The zone is somewhere between others and near, just beyond self.

That's the way it should be. I'm there to provide atmosphere. I know I'm successful when people linger and laugh and enjoy each other as they did last night.

### Dwayne K. Parsons

Heaven's Gate

Continued from The Hardest Thing From Here, April 30th archive.

The great army drew near rapidly. We were hopeless before it. We had neither weapons nor way to oppose it. Singing praises seemed such a futile and useless thing, but what else did we have?

I felt the blood rush out of my skin. My voice surely quivered and the sound of others singing with me drowned out in the din. Nonetheless, I held my stance. If my words did anything, they became a prayer...and then the enemy was upon us.

I felt them go through me. They were warriors great and strong and fierce in appearance. At the very moment I felt sure to die they passed through and around me as if I wasn't there. I felt their ugly presence and I saw them wound and slay many of the others with whom I had marched, but they went by and through me as if I were not there.

I looked at Daniel. He too was invisible to them. He stood braced for battle, greeting the enemy straight on, his dagger drawn; but they ran right through him. He was as surprised and as shocked as I, to say the least. I looked about and saw that a few others, women included, were untouched by this fiercesome force.

"Keep singing," I called out in a loud voice. "We must keep singing!" Our voices grew again in strength and then we saw collectively a most unbelievable scene. Out of the sky in a burst of light came an army of chariots with fearless horses and warriors strong, charging forth into this ghastly mix with such speed and power that this whole army of the enemy panicked. Many of its warriors were killed right there, almost immediately. Others of them were dismembered or crippled by the swords and spears of this angelic host. They turned and ran back across the plain in hordes. And just as they had passed through us on the come, so they ran through us on the return. We who sang were left untouched. Not a single hair on our heads, nor a shred of our clothing was touched in the battle.

The enemy that had set so quickly upon us had been disippated and slain in a cloud of dust and light that receded to the east as fast as it had come.

I looked about at the fallen and lifeless forms. They were as beastly and horrible in death as they had been in the onslaught, but they were dead. They lay lifeless all about the fields. Sadly, among them were many people who had marched with us.

As the cloud of war moved off in the distance, Daniel asked, "Why is it that some of ours were slain? I saw some of these demons throw balls of light, electric light, and when they hit someone, the person fell."

How I knew the answer, I don't know. I simply said, "Fear. They threw fear and those who took it in accepted death."

"Weren't you afraid?"

"I was...and you?"

"Yes, but I sang anyway."

"And these women and those over there, I think they sang too. However it happened, we have just seen and been part of an angelic battle...and we have victims among us. Yet we have moved through it. Did you feel it, Daniel? Did you feel them pass through you?"

Daniel nodded and swallowed. His eyes were wide with excitement. "I did."

###Dwayne K. Parsons

Another Kind of Joy

My wife, Claudia, and I sat at a dinner table as guests with four others for a fine dinner. The discussion went through normal patterns of the social network until it weaved its way naturally into examples of people who have lots of money, and what happens to them because of it. Two examples stood out in contrast.

One was a very wealthy friend of one of the couples, a man unnamed in another state who had amassed such a great fortune that he no longer had a way to spend it all. He had become eccentric in the latter part of his life, lived on an estate with a view marvelous view but kept his curtains drawn all the time and had no partner, no one he trusted. He had grown fearful of people, sure that all wanted friendship or relationship with him for his money so he lived alone.

The other was a man who had also made considerable wealth in his lifetime. But unlike the first, he'd spent his life on building relationships including one with God. By the age of 75, he had become a genuine philanthropist, traveling much. He seemed happy everywhere he went and gave a lot of money to causes or people he deemed worthy or useful.

Both men had seemingly boundless wealth. One was lonely, distrusting and withdrawn; the other, outreaching, loving and happy. One had learned to horde; the other to give.

We concluded that joy was found in giving.

But I think another kind of joy is potential in the lack of money. Difficult financial straights can lead to the same contrast as those of our two wealthy men.

People have a choice when they are poor as much as they do when they are rich. They can either be happy or they can turn bitter. The latter develops a complaining heart while the former builds a loving heart. It's not the money that ruins a person, rich or poor; it's the choice they make in the habits of their heart.

The joy of dependency is the joy found in trusting God for everything.

With little or no resource spawned from self, one still has a choice. You can complain and grow bitter or you can praise God and find joy in your situation. Choosing the praise leads to the joy.

There is a great joy found in giving, yes. But another kind of joy is found in dependence on God because there you see His hand working. Whether you are rich or poor, makes no difference.

###Dwayne K. Parsons