Featuring NOT A CLOUD IN THE SKY
Wednesday, September 17, 2014
Going Forward with WILD FLOWERS By Francis William Bessler 9/17/2014 Hello, Everyone, All is well here in Laramie, Wyoming in these last days of Summer as I write this. The last days of Summer happen to coincide with my finishing my book - WILD FLOWERS. Time will tell what will happen with that, but I am thinking now of "Have Book - Will Travel." That is to say that I will try to travel to wherever I can to "introduce" WILD FLOWERS to a prospective audience. I do not know if any of that will happen, but I figure that I should be willing to travel to promote my book - and particularly the ideas of my book. This is just speculation now, though. In the end, I might choose to go nowhere and let WILD FLOWERS travel on its own - so to speak. For those unaware of the book, WILD FLOWERS (about 300 pages) is really a mix of essay and song (28 songs and about equal that of essays) about my view of life. What is that? That all life is Divine because all life is of and in an Infinite God - no exceptions. We make our own hell by thinking we can divest ourselves and/or others of that Blessed Presence that so many of us choose to call "God." As one of the 28 songs says, "Heaven is Every Place" because God is Everyplace. If I do travel, though, to share my ideas and my book, I am sure that my companion friend, Nancy Shaw, will be going with me; and I will go only upon invitation. In a way, I hope no one invites me because I am such a home body and would prefer to stay at home, but should anyone want to invite me and a "destiny folk" aid me to compensate for road or air expenses and perhaps room and board, if necessary, I guess I will go - or I guess Nancy and I will. Just keep in mind that such a way of doing things will apply to everyone - friends, family, and strangers. HAVE BOOK, WILL TRAVEL will depend upon being invited - and that includes any of you. What will I do? I don't know, but I suspect it will be very low key. I will just talk "my book" by paging through it and offering a slice of it every now and then. It will be strictly an "ad lib" presentation - probably with no musical accompaniment. I have no desire to "arm myself" with anything but ideas. So that is probably what will be offered in any presentation I might give. More than likely, any program will simply feature a recitation or singing of some of my songs or poems in the book. Given that half of the entries of WILD FLOWERS are poems or songs, that might be the best way to go - just comment a bit about an idea and offer a song as confirmation. Why not? At any time during or after a presentation, too, I will allow for anyone in an audience to comment and share their opinion. After all, WILD FLOWERS is nothing more than personal opinion; and any program I might do must respect that. Opinion is what it is all about for me - mine and yours. Of course, I could not offer all of my songs because some of them might be too controversial, but some of them will be ok too. My guess is that any program I might do will last for less than an hour - and maybe even less than a half hour. Since WILD FLOWERS includes 28 songs, I am sure that I can find a few of those that can appeal to everyone - or almost everyone. There will always be a sad sack who will refuse to enjoy any presentation; but by and large, I think most can handle a half hour. Right? As I see it now, I will only be "talking my book" in any program I will do. I will not be selling anything and will be leaving it to anyone who wants WILD FLOWERS to order it via its source - AMAZON.COM. I will simply hand out a little business type card referencing the Amazon site for ordering - and leave it at that. I do hope I can get away with such a simple approach, but I might have to provide a few copies upon a presentation too. I hope I can bypass having to offer hard copies, though, because I like simple - and you will have to agree that the simpler I can make things - the easier it will be. Call me "lazy," perhaps, but I do like making it easy on myself. Don't you? About Amazon having WILD FLOWERS in the first place, this Spring I passed along an email to my email list asking for suggestions on how I might print a book. One friend here in Laramie, Wayne Karberg, another fellow senior, suggested I look into Amazon.com because Amazon would print copies only upon request. That prospect really excited - and excites - me. Not having to deal with an "inventory" is almost too good to be true, but by having Amazon help me prepare my book (for a price, of course) and then making it available on their world wide site is almost too wonderful to ponder. How lucky can anyone be? Agree? What can I say? LUCKY ME! And perhaps LUCKY WORLD in time too. Ideas are the building blocks of societies. Maybe - just maybe - I can help a few to see things in a different way than they have in the past - and "maybe" form a different society that does not depend upon war for survival. If so, LUCKY WORLD too! This morning, companion friend Nancy was thumping through WILD FLOWERS and picked out a song called NOT A CLOUD IN THE SKIES. I will close this letter with that song. I will probably include that song in at least some of my presentations - if that is the way things go. If the world is ever to "get lucky," it better start seeing things through some different glasses. Perhaps a song like NOT A CLOUD IN THE SKIES can lend some aid to that process. Time will tell how any of this will go, however. Again, I might get lucky and be able to stay home and do nothing, but on the other hand, I think I should be willing to go where invited too. If I leave it at that, perhaps that is the best way to go. Don't you agree? Be in touch as you wish! Keep in mind that if my doing a simple program about WILD FLOWERS, my book, interests you, just say so. Nancy & I will come if we can - or at least, I will. Gently, "Wild Flowers": Will Bessler & Nancy Shaw Not A Cloud In The Sky By Francis William Bessler Laramie, Wyoming 3/31/2013 (Easter) Not a cloud in the sky, but I’m wondering why mankind is still so full of fear? Why does it insist that it’s so full of sin and why does it love all its tears? Not a cloud in the sky, but northern warriors say nigh - there’s enemies on the flank in the south. We’ve got to go where they are and commit ourselves to war; and we’ve got to wipe those devils out. Not a cloud in the sky, but southern warriors can’t abide all their enemies up there in the north. Never mind they’re all the same; they have to find another to blame in order to know some better worth. Not a cloud in the sky, but mankind doesn’t like to see things all peaceful and still. There’s no joy in rest, but there’s joy in wiping out a pest. So, making war becomes our will. Not a cloud in the sky, but if mankind is to survive, it has to invent a reason to go on. So, it predicts storms on the way; and we must ignore our sunny days to give us a reason to belong. Not a cloud in the sky, but if rain is in our sight, then we must look out for a flood. Never mind we could go nude; but nude doesn’t quite suit our mood; we’d rather deny each other’s good. Not a cloud in the sky and I believe Jesus tried to tell us that long, long ago. There’s nothing wrong with life, except if we choose strife and create our own storms to know. Not a cloud in the sky, but I’m still wondering why so many choose the way of storm. It makes no sense to me, but then maybe that’s why I am free and that’s why I’ll always love my form. Not a cloud in the sky, but I’m still wondering why mankind chooses the way of fear? Why does it insist on loving what is risk
and why does it love all its tears?