record store

Another Franklin Adventure

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I think my new motto should be “pet all the cats.” That seems to be whatever I find myself doing whenever I’m anywhere near felines.

I found one lounging outside a small record shop I’ve been meaning to check out in the downtown Franklin area. Unfortunately, the store itself was closed (even though it was still 10 till 6 and the sign said they were open until 6), but the cat was friendly.

From there, I made my way over to McCreary’s Irish Pub, my favorite place to eat in the entire world. I had a most excellent meal of corned beef and cabbage, replete with sweet iced tea (this being the South and all).

I put in a fair amount of walking (and profuse sweating and possibly a touch of wheezing) up and down the sidewalk in the July humidity for which I rewarded myself with some most excellent double peanut butter pie ice cream from Kilwin’s.

I took my usual stroll down my favorite street, fantasizing about what it would be like to win the lottery and to be able to live in one of the houses on this street. Every single house is like something out of Anne of Green Gables combined with a George MacDonald fairy tale.

I ended up with over 17,000 steps. My feet hurt a little, but I’m the good kind of tired. I’m thankful that I’m able to walk that far (and hopefully burn off some of the delicious calories I consumed).

I’m thankful for yet another day that I lived to see and to tell the tale. Never again will I take for granted that privilege that is denied to many. I’ve known way too many who died way too young to still buy the illusion that I’m guaranteed anything beyond today.

Thank you, God, for this life, and forgive me if I don’t love it enough and live it with unending gratitude.

Amen.

A Moment of Nostalgia

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Recently, I went to Memphis for the funeral of a friend’s father. On the way, I stopped off with my mom at the Wolfchase Galleria and walked around while she looked for a wedding gift for a friend of the family.

I was pleasantly surprised to find a FYE Music and Movies store. I thought those were all but extinct. Needless to say, it made my heart happy.

Best Buy and Barnes and Noble are all good and well, but I miss record stores, especially those in the mall. I can’t tell you how many Saturdays I spent looking through the cutout bins for a great deal. I got my first taste of bluegrass music in a record store.

I’m old school. I like for my books and music to be tangible. Nothing beats the musty smell of a book that’s been well used and well loved. Nothing beats the feel of a compact disc or a vinyl record in your hand.

Don’t get me wrong. I have my fair share of digital music that I listen to on my iPhone. But sometimes at night when I can’t sleep, I’ll hunt down the perfect CD for my mood, find my headphones and portable CD player, and drift off to music that was created by real people playing real instruments.

The Bible is replete with music. It’s a way of remembering your heritage. Just look at the Psalms and see how King David marked every kind of occasion, happy or sad, with a song.

Even now, a song on the radio can conjure up an old memory like nothing else can. It’s like a time machine to a defining moment in my past.

I hope that music store in Memphis can survive. Maybe one day soon I can go back when I have more time to kill.

 

 

Quests

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When I was in high school, I went on a quest to find music by a band called The MC5 (which is short for The Music City Five). If you haven’t heard of them, don’t worry. Most people haven’t. I remember whenever I asked record store employees about them, they’d look at me like I had an extra eye growing smack dab in the middle of my forehead.

I remember when I found a cassette of their music. It was like finding my own holy grail. I treasured that thing and listened to it repeatedly.

Jesus talks about the Kingdom of God like that. It’s like a man finding a priceless pearl in a field. He goes and sells everything just so he can buy that field and possess that pearl.

The Kingdom of God is worth everything you have and more. What is the Kingdom of God? It is wherever God is working in His people. It’s whenever people choose life over death, hope over despair, righteousness over sin. It’s the rule and reign of God in the people of God breaking through.

Nothing is quite the way it should be. But the Kingdom of God means that one day all will be put right. As I heard it put once, Jesus will take this upside-down world and turn it right-side up again.

Recently, I found a CD of that same rock group. The sound quality is a thousand times better, but I didn’t quite have that thrill of discovery of finding that cassette. Oh well.

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