An Answer to a Struggle.

Hello Everyone, and Hello to you, Scottie!

A bit ago, Scottie – you put out a post titled “I have struggled all day”. In that post, you included two songs, and for those who have been on this blog for a while we do recognize Terry Jacks.
Music is a huge part of my life. I sing like a water buffalo with laryngitis, but I love music. It works to lift me up when I’m down, it reminds me of special people and special times in my life, it brings me peace, and sometimes it allows me to be angry. Music can sing to a person’t soul, lighten one’s load. It allows me to cry when I need to cry, to hope when hope seems gone. It reminds me that I’m not alone.
So, I have three songs here. Two are just a bit tongue-in-cheek, but the last is very special to me. I sent you this song, Scottie, a long time ago. It is my favorite cover of that song.
My challenge and my ask to everyone is to please add in the comments the songs that you love, that feed your heart and soul. Songs that make you smile, make you cry, make you dance or sing in a crowded grocery store because you just can’t not sing or dance when you hear it. Because like the last song says so clearly: we are all in this together, whether we want to be or not. 🙂

I love you, my brother!
Randy

Careful. That one gets in your ear and you can’t get it out.

That one for my big brother, who I do my best to irritate – as all brothers should.

And finally, this one, to remind to remind my very wonderful brother and all of us that no matter how much we may feel alone, we are not. We are loved – first we need to remember that we have to love ourselves no matter how we are feeling (easier said, I know). But, we also have to remember that there are people who rely on us, who hope in us, who see our mangled spirit and troubled mind as a life-line in cold dark seas and really think we are something grand even when we don’t.

So, Again Everyone… please let me know the songs that are special to you, and perhaps even why they are special. Music is the magic. Randy

This Is Nice:

I have sturggled all day.

It has not been an easy day for me. I did not sleep much last night getting up and doing things every few hours due to pain and the thoughts in my head. This afternoon the intrusive thoughts got horrible. While doing the dishes with The Majority Report on the kitchen TV I realized the thoughts in my head had taken over, I was standing there crying, and had no idea what the people on the screen were talking about.

I struggled to get myself under control. I did stuff all day. When Ron called me from Texas I failed to tell him about my issues. Instead I told him it was OK and to take all the time they both needed before coming home.

Scared of going to bed I stayed up and started making a red sauce and got it pretty well along. I let it cool and then put it on a trivet and put it in the refrigerator. Then as I was getting ready to shut the computer down the YouTube app sent me this link to this the first video. It is one when I first got to see it decades ago that I realized I had to own it. I bought the disk even before I even had something to play it on. I learned the song perfectly note by note. At that time in my life hiding my past, and being in the Army I felt in some ways I was the hero of the movie. I also felt I was in the part of the movie where the Indian boy tells the girl why he won’t make love to her. You are anyone’s; it is how you were taught to accept love. I want you to be special or some words to that effect. That also I felt was me, I was anyone’s, not because I wanted it but because I had no choice, and yes sometimes it saved me or made me feel special. Weird how that works with an abused child.

So YouTube being what it is, seeing I played the first song, sent me a second one. One I love, one I have on my phone, one I use as a warning to myself and others. If I start playing that song I am in trouble. I am crying now and very tired. I will put both songs below, and the movie is much better than the one I am posting; the other I don’t even understand why I am posting, except I am tired, worn, and a bit scared and just want my thoughts to stop. Have no fear I will go to the bedroom and snuggle the cat and get some rest if possible. If not I will get up and keep plugging away. It is what I do, what I have always done. I just backed out a lot of what I wrote after this. I realized while it was just me musing out loud trying to figure out how to move forward, that it could scare some of you. So no need to do that. My seasons are not over, not yet. Hugs

Hugs

Reblogging Whatever

Protest Music From Bruce Springsteen and Billy Bragg

Hate-Filled, Brainless White Guys

Chumbawamba – The day the nazi died (live)

I want to thank Ten Bears for the link to the song. https://homelessonthehighdesert.com/2026/01/16/freys-day-four-twenty-forget-me-not/ But I did not repost his post of it as I should have because I struggle to understand the words despite repeated listening to it. So this morning I looked up the lyrics. I like the song and the lyrics ring true to me. I will post both. Lyrics first. Hugs

[Verse 1]
We’re told that after the war the Nazis vanished without a trace
But battalions of fascists still dream of a master race
The history books, they tell of their defeat in ’45[Chorus]
But they all came out of the woodwork on the day the Nazi died

[Verse 2]
They say the prisoner at Spandau was a symbol of defeat
Whilst Hess remained imprisoned and the fascists, they were beat
So the promise of an Aryan world would never materialize

[Chorus]
So why did they all come out of the woodwork on the day the Nazi died?

[Verse 3]
The world is riddled with maggots; the maggots are getting fat
They’re making a tasty meal of all the bosses and bureaucrats
They’re taking over the boardrooms, and they’re fat and full of pride

[Chorus]
And they all came out of the woodwork on the day the Nazi died

[Verse 4]
So if you meet with these historians, I’ll tell you what to say
Tell them that the Nazis never really went away
They’re out there burning houses down and peddling racist lies

[Chorus]
And we’ll never rest again until every Nazi dies

Disturbed – The Sound Of Silence (Official Music Video) [4K UPGRADE] And an update on Suzy Sunshine

Suzy Sunshine and I met today and we mutually agreed that she couldn’t help me. She started off the session on grounding technics, and when she told me what they were I led her through each sense and how I try to stop the vortex from taking me and the steps involved, I described every step involved she stopped and looked sad. I asked her what was wrong and she said you knew all this before I could tell you. I said I have been dealing with these memories, emotions, and the cascading tornado of the vortex along with the emotional roller coaster of what happens for most of my life. I have learned to image and use the positive things in my life as handles to keep the tornado black vortex from drawing me in to it. In the last decade or more I have had to seriously draw on them to stay sane. No one taught me these things, I found them on my own because I was in such distress. At that point she told me I had passed the point where anything she could offer me would help. We left it I would work on it more myself and if I started to get in a bad place like I was in November and December I would call her and she would get me in with a trauma therapist. We parted on good terms with her saying as I put my heavy over shirt on because it is really cold here in Florida, “I am sorry I wanted to help, but what you are dealing with is way beyond anything I was trained for or ready for”. I thanked her and explained what I am dealing with most people can’t understand … but all I need is their caring support and honest concern for my wellbeing, something I never got as a child. I think what broke her was when she asked about smells could I think of a positive smell that might pull me from a trigger. I explained to her that all smells are relative and for example Ron might be cooking hamburgers and french fries and it might make me happy. Or it could remind me of when as a child the rest got to sit at the table eating hamburgers and French fries while I was made to stand across the room and watch. I saw her start to close down and she stuttered as she said yes I can see how that may be triggering. Anyway a song for the attempt at therapy. Oh if no one noticed I updated the Kamyk post, please read the new part at the end. Hugs

A Lament

These past months have been difficult. I was so very shocked to see the death of Renee Good, how chaos and hate seem to be the republican drug of choice, and how horrible it is to consider that we have but begun this 4-year trip through hell. Recently somehow this song found its way into my youtube playlist. All I could think as these young voices invaded my troubled thoughts was what are we leaving for them?

America the Beautiful followed, a song we all know if not by memory then certainly we recognize it when we hear it sung before the football game on Friday Night. “O Beautiful, for Spacious Skies, For Amber Waves of Grain…” proudly sung by the proud and mighty citizens, the mothers and fathers, grandfathers with war wounds and grandmothers who know loss and pain yet hope. It is a calm and flowing song, one that somehow has always given me a peaceful heart for in that long ago poem is a promise of home.

President Kennedy, long ago, asked Americans to consider what they could do for their country. I think many think that is defined as joining the military, and that is certainly one great thing a person can do but there are far more. And, I think it is primarily why tRumpf has sought to destroy the legacy of the Kennedy Presidency by paving over the Rose Garden and defacing the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts.

See, I don’t think Kennedy asked us to serve in the military. I think President Kennedy asked us to Love Our Country! Like the song America the Beautiful, he asked us to recognize the beauty of our home, he asked us to treasure it, he asked us to see it not as a resource to be stripped bare but the precious refuge of our grandparents and where our children rest their heads as they dream of their future. I think Kennedy voiced a challenge, a warning and a condemnation that there will come those who seek to strip our precious home like a thief in the night – a conman who lied his way past the door and is filling his pockets.

It is a sadness that so many in this beautiful home we share have determined that they can only hate the others who would hope to enjoy living here. To look upon another’s misery with spite, blaming the wounded for their wounds and glorying in the overflowing pockets of the thieves who seek to steal the silverware is a sickness that I don’t understand. I don’t understand those who say they have love in their heart yet show contempt in their words and actions for others. Especially I can not find understanding for those who claim to love Jesus yet fail in every definition of love that he gives us. Perhaps it is no wonder they are cruel, because surely their hearts are convicted and defensive in their misery as they have given away their love for their country and their Christianity for a red hat.

randy

A New Dance Craze Sweeps Across The Americas

Have A Good New Year’s Day-Be Kind To Yourselves! It Will Radiate.

Enjoy some stuff I saved up to bring here today. Look/listen to whatever you care to, whenever you want. A few are shorts; 1 is a comic. The longer ones are worthy when you have a few minutes or can listen while you’re doing another thing. Relax and laugh! Open comments thread.

Note on 1/3: My apologies-this video has been taken down. Here is the link to Josh Johnson’s YouTube page; look around there. You’ll enjoy anything you choose! Again, I’m so sorry. It was there yesterday! 💐 Ali

https://www.youtube.com/@JoshJohnsonComedy

https://www.gocomics.com/lards-world-peace-tips/2026/01/01