Ep18 In The Shadow Of The Mountain C.L.Knox stories

The speaker recalls memories of Christmases from their childhood and young adulthood. They remember receiving special gifts like a no-tear shampoo and a handmade wooden box filled with favorite foods. They also mention buying colorful socks for their sister and receiving unusual albums as gifts, including ones by Ravi Shankar and Frank Zappa. They also reminisce about receiving a drum kit and taking drum lessons. However, they stopped playing the drums after breaking their arm while playing tackle football. So, we're right before Christmas, and I'm going to share a couple of memories from Christmas, childhood Christmas, I might share some from adult Christmas, or young adult Christmas, who knows. This week I asked my oldest daughter and youngest son, until I saw them, while my daughter was staying with us for a bit, before Christmas here, so we can help her with her son. So I asked her if she had any specific memories of Christmas that really stood out to her, and she did. And they were interesting, they weren't, I mean I remembered the stuff, and it was funny to me that that was, you know. But then when I asked my son, he was even, his response was, or his memories were even more funny. He was the youngest, so I'm going to share what his memory was. His memory, Noah, this is Noah, one of Noah's memories, the first one he talked about was the time Emily gave him, Emily's my daughter, the one I was talking to too, Emily gave him no-tear shampoo, so he would have been what, six or seven or whatever, and you know, still crying when he had to have his hair washed, because it was going to get in his eyes. Emily gave him this shampoo, that he wouldn't cry, and he was so jazzed, it was like, that's the best Christmas present I could ever have. I thought, man, that's interesting, because then I started thinking of some of the Christmases we had, which I've been thinking about them anyway, and the most, the first Christmas that comes to mind, there's two in particular, but the first one that comes to mind almost always is the second year we were in Canada, and we had no money, so it would have been, I would have been a Christian by then, so probably 13, I would have been 13 or 14, second or third year of being in Canada, we didn't have a lot of money, and we basically lived on beans and rice, and squash, we grew squash and cabbages, we had cabbage, beans, squash, we had apple trees, so we had apples, and applesauce, and we had goats, and we milked, we had our own goat's milk, and my mom made a kind of a cheese that was kind of like, what do they call it, creme fraiche, or whatever they call it, out of goat's milk, it was pretty good, you get, you know, you grow up eating it, it was good, but this one Christmas, since we had no money, we didn't have a lot of fancy foods or anything, Bryce, who's very creative and crafty, and I think I've touched on that before, that's one of the memories I want to share too, is all the craft, the craft fairs, we used to go to craft fairs and sell craft, and art, anyway, he made a wooden box out of weathered wood, so this would have been 70, I'm gonna say Christmas 71 or 72, he made these, each one of us, a box, so, and it was about, I don't know, 18 to 20 inches wide, and a foot deep, and you know, about a foot high as well, and they're weathered barn wood, the same as what was in the house, and pieces of leather, he used leather on mine, he used leather for hinges, and leather as a latch to latch it down, oh, it was an old belt, like he cut up, it was real funky, really funky, I still have the box, like, it's one of my, I would say, prized possessions, you know, it's like, I've had it for, you know, 50 some odd years, and it's weird to even think of that, 50 some odd years, but, and in the box, anyway, that Christmas day, in the box was food, so foods that we liked, so in my box there was, and I think all of our, all my siblings got olives, we all love olives, or we did, so we all got these jars of olives, and grapefruit juice, I loved, I still do, pink grapefruit juice, or red grapefruit juice, like the real juice, not the, not the ruby red cocktail, but real grapefruit juice, it's tart, it's, it's, there's something like, every morning when I have a glass of that, it's like, oh my god, I love this, thank you so much for making this, this fruit, you know, so I, my kids all, I think, like it too, but anyway, so I had that, and then pineapple juice, and at this time, there was no tetrapaks, tetrapaks were a few years later, when they started selling stuff in tetrapaks, this was cans, so I had these like one, one and a half, or I don't know, they're probably two liters, two liter cans, 1.96 liters of pink grapefruit juice, and of pineapple juice, another thing that I just, I just really like it, the pineapple juice, like now you get pineapple juice, it's mixed with apple juice, and pear juice, and grape juice, and to make it sweeter, and less gritty, because real pineapple juice has, not gritty, but pulpy, or whatever, so I still buy that pineapple juice, when it's, when I can find it on sale, you can't find the canned grapefruit juice anymore, but now, right now, there seems to be a fairly regular supply of fresh, squeezed, not frozen, pink grapefruit juice, that comes on for a reasonable price, especially in today's world, so I do do that, so you know, olives, certain kinds of crackers, cheese, some like, as an early age, we all like cheese, and probably chips, potato chips, and stuff, I remember the juice, and the olives, that's what I remember, so that, that Christmas, or the one shortly thereafter, right around that same time, I remember my sister, Vicki, she was into socks, like colorful socks, this must have been a little bit later on, I think she was a little older, but who knows, so she liked, like interesting socks, with different colors, and stuff, and that, this one Christmas, everybody in the house got her socks, that's all she got, was socks for Christmas, and I remember the pair that I bought her, they were like a heavy knit, multi-colored, like not, not fluorescent colors, but bright colors, orange, red, yellow, green, blue, like that, so it, you know, those colors were intermeshed all the way along, and then each toe was individually knitted, and they came up to her knee, I remember those socks, I've seen those socks since, I think I bought a pair of those socks years later, for one, or both of my daughters, but Emma, or Vicki, was, she was a bit devastated that that's all she got, was socks, because she was young, and I think of some of the other gifts that I got, and gave, and the meanings, the reasons behind them, and some of them I don't really want to share, so, but mostly good. Another Christmas that I remember quite well, was, I don't remember exactly what year it was, either I was nine or ten, and I could find that out by looking at the, the albums, I got two albums that Christmas, and this is one of the bizarre things, so I'm nine or ten years old, and my parents give me two albums, which wouldn't be unusual, but the two albums that I get from my parents, my mom, and and stepfather, are Ravi Shankar, which most of you probably don't even know who he is, he's a sitar player, and I think he either played, I think he taught George Harrison how to play sitar for the, for the, probably Sgt. Pepper's band, Sgt. Pepper's Art Club Band, for that album, so 67, 68, something like that, so Ravi Shankar became quite famous for his sitar playing, and, and another interesting thing about it is Nora Jones, I don't know if you know who Nora Jones is, but Ravi Shankar is Nora Jones's father, apparently, so like, just interesting sitar music, you wouldn't expect a ten-year-old now or then to be enthralled by, and I didn't even know who he was until I got the, the album, and the other album was even more bizarre, if you could believe it, but it was Frank Zappa, so, and Mothers of Invention, so these are the albums I got, now my brother Jonathan, he got Rolling Stones, Let It Bleed, and The Doors, I think it was just called The Doors, picture of Jim Morrison's face on the, on the album, so he got, he got Jim Morrison, and The Doors, and Mick Jagger, and The Rolling Stones, and I got Ravi Shankar, and Frank Zappa, so that was pretty interesting, I believe it was that same Christmas that I got a drum kit, like a serious kit, it was, it was a Ludwig drum kit, it was, it was a good kit, it was used, so I got that, and I got, my parents had set up for me to take drum lessons, so that's how I started, I was already taking trumpet in, in band at school, not by choice, trumpet, it was, I was taking trumpet because we had a trumpet, and so I played, trumpet was the first instrument that I played, and I know virtually nothing about trumpet now, I was a youngster at that time, and I wish I had been more studious with the trumpet, because I really like the trumpet now, but the drums, oh, I love the drums, I think, you know, I wanted to be Ringo, um, you know, that would have been probably a more appropriate album, whatever Beatles album was out at that, out at that time, so, Sergeant Peppers, but I think we probably already had it, so I played the drums for a while, and then, uh, one weekend when we went to, so it would have been spring in my memory, we were at my dad's house for our weekend with my dad, and we would often play football, and we played tackle football with no, no equipment on, we'd go up to, there was a, a church, and it had a great big lawn, and we would play, play football there, and we would play tackle football. I think we initially started playing touch, and it was just like, yeah, it's boring, let's tackle, so anyway, I broke my arm playing tackle football, and, um, didn't play the drums for quite a while, and not at all, in fact, in Birmingham, I left when I was 11, so, um, after my arm was healed, I don't remember ever playing drums again, and then when we got to Canada, I set the drums up in the barn, and I started to, uh, to, to get back in there and remember what I was taught, and get so I could, uh, you know, do my hands differently than my feet, that, that's the trick, and there's a point where you come, where it kicks over, where it makes sense, you know, you're playing the drums, some rhythm with your hands, actually, you can play three different rhythms, uh, one with this hand, one with this hand, and your foot doing something different, or four if you count your, your hi-hat, which is, I always used it as a hi-hat, so, uh, it was, um, it was fun getting back into that, and we had music happening almost every night, and, uh, I went and picked some apples off of, uh, Stan Chong's tree, uh, Stan Chong, Stan Chong is, uh, Tommy Chong's brother, and he owned a restaurant here in town. We were picking apples in his tree, um, he said we could have the apples, and, uh, I climbed out too far on a branch and fell. The stupid thing is, is I got back up, climbed back up into the tree, climbed out on another branch and fell, but the second time I broke my arm, so that was the end of my drum kit drumming experience. When I did get the cast off, uh, I did play drums, but not kit drums. I played, uh, conga, bongo, uh, you know, homemade drums with my hands, no sticks, and I still do. My rhythm is, it just, sometimes I try to do something a little fancy or whatever, and I lose, I lose the, the timing, and so I got to do that more, and then, then I asked, I asked Emily if, uh, because she used to hang out in school, she hung out with some guys that were jammers, I said, did you ever play drums at any of the jams? She said, oh yeah, all the time. It's fun, okay, and, uh, for all of you Christians who think that might be pagan, no, drumming is fun, drumming is good. The reason I say that is I know, I don't know who's listening to me, listening to these podcasts. I wish I did. I wish more people would respond. There's, there's three people or four people that I know are listening. I can see that there's 17 subscribers to, uh, to the YouTube account. I don't know if those people are listening every time, and I can get a count on how many people watch the video, and only one of the, um, I only know how to access the data for only one of the, the, um, podcast providers. So, and I don't have any, there's probably a way to access the data, but I don't know how. So, hey, if you're interested in, just throw me a note and say, yeah, I listen, it's cool, um, or I listen and you need to work on something. Part of my critical think, my way of looking at critical thinking is if you have to be willing to examine anything, so that includes my faith, you need to listen to people's criticisms and be able to, without bias, look at them. Now, that's extremely difficult, extremely difficult, especially when you commit to something. So, like me, I've committed to this Christian life, and I've committed publicly, so I suspect it would take a lot now to, uh, to derail me, uh, in my belief system. Um, and then there's all these different types of Christianity, so even to change within the framework of what you believe, like to, for me to go from being a, um, you know, not a charismatic, charismatic is, uh, if you know what the word is in the, in the world, in, in Christian, in Christianese, it talks about, we're talking about the, the gift of the Holy Spirit manifesting in your life, so that's called charismatic. So, but, um, it also means personal, you know, charismatic, having something that people want, that people desire. Um, so that, I mean, that, that goes to, to the gospel, so, you know, in Christianity, we believe in the gospel, and the gospel is the good news. That's what gospel means. Gospel means, uh, news, so gospel would be as, as whenever there was a victory in war in Roman times, the, they would march through the city and announce the good news that, uh, Rome had won, or that was an example, right? So, it's, it's, it's gospel. I think gospel is a Greek word. So, Greek was sort of how, what, um, English is today in, in the globe. It's the most universal, universally used language. So, for those that lived in, in, uh, Israel, they would speak, uh, Greek, and they would speak Hebrew, um, possibly Aramaic. Um, so, that's three languages, and possibly Latin, which was Rome. So, even as we look at the things that we believe, philosophical, or, uh, spiritual, or religious, or historic, as we are talking about Christmas here now, um, this, there's people that, uh, debate, first of all, whether or not there was such a person as Jesus, um, but whether he was born of a virgin, whether he was born in a manger, you know, you can debate all those things. People look for reasons to not believe something that they believe will change the way that they're living their lives if they don't want the way that they're living their lives to change. That's, that's the bias, again. So, we have this inbuilt bias. So, one's committed to expressing a point of view, there is no God, uh, etc., or Jesus can't, can't be God, Jesus wasn't real, whatever. It's hard to get a person to flip on that, that view, that worldview. I think if you're intellectually honest, you, you have to examine evidence. It's not about feelings, though. I think feelings play a part in a person's belief. I know they do. Emotions and feelings, we get carried off by emotions and feelings. It's something to be aware of, because if that's, if, if you're basing your belief system on emotional experiences or feelings, then, and like I said, I don't want to discredit that completely, but it's, it's good to look at all aspects of something, of what you believe, and be willing to change as much as you can. Back to that bias thing again. People are comfortable living where they are, even though there's, in the back of their head, or in the depth of their heart, or in the depth of their soul, there's a longing, um, for something. We put it aside and, and, or immerse ourselves in the things of this life, in this world, you know, your, your pet, your work, your job, your kids, your family. And it's not that those things are bad. It's just that those things are temporal, even though there are people that will say that they don't believe there is such thing as a higher power, a higher form of being. Truth is, I'm going to pull a number out of the air, but throughout history, 95%, 98% of every human that's ever lived has believed in a higher power, in a God, some kind, some form. So then you look at embracing a being of your own creation, and lifting him up, and, and making him or her or it or that piece of art, that Buddha, that, that, that idol, you make that your God, or you look for the real God. And, again, like, I really do believe at some point, everybody comes to that question, why am I here? And is there a God? Those kinds of questions. So I think, you know, I want to encourage people to dig deeper. I mean, and again, I'm, I want to dialogue if you have questions regarding Christianity, or even other religions, because I have done quite a bit of research into some other religions. But I believe that given myself, my intellect, my spirit, my, my heart to, to this Jesus, and understanding him, you know, I believe that I am saved, quote, unquote, but because, because of the acceptance, but then the whole process of working out my salvation, being being sanctified, they call it a more Christianese or religious talk. And that sanctification is God working in me and creating in me or in all the believers, every individual believer, that being that he desires for us to be, as we move into a realization that we are adopted as sons to the King of everything, the Creator. Pretty lofty stuff, but it's also, if, if this is the creator of the Bible, the God of the Bible, it's also very humbling, and should produce an attitude of Christians, believers will recognize that they are sinners, they are not meeting the mark, not hitting that level that God requires for his children to be at. So this is all the process of learning to be a child of God. I find it intriguing, it, it touches every part of my life, and I spend a great part of every day in prayer and meditation upon him and his word, not empty meditation, not meditation for a sound, it's light, it's God, it's truth, it's, you know, and so we meditate on his word, they call his word, the living word, the Bible that changes with every circumstance and fits into my life. That's it. How's that? So this was 18, and next one will be 19. And I'm going to probably play a song that I've already played before, because I'm still, as soon as I start to sing, I cough. Anyway, have a very merry Christmas, and drop me a line on YouTube, or, or Facebook, or Messenger, or whatever, and have a good Christmas. Peace. So many times, I let the things in this old world bring me down, and then I start thinking, oh, on the wrong road again, I'm on shaky ground, not to be my eyes at night. But on to my purpose of love, and I see what I really need. And there's something about that peace, something about that peace, there's something about that peace, something about that peace. It's like the morning sun, and the new moon, it's like the birds that sing, the song they sing draws me to you, and you can ask me how, and I'll do my very best to explain, and you can ask me why I'll never be the same, because there's something about that peace, something about that peace, yeah, there's something about that peace, something about that peace. And from the time I was born to my making of this, nothing can compare with that love. Through all the path I've taken, I never was alone, never was alone. Everybody's sleeping in their own bed, walking in their own shoes, walking in their own bed, sleeping in the bed the one they choose, yeah. Everybody's walking in their own shoes, everybody is, sleeping in their own bed, it's the bed the one they choose, yeah. Everybody's walking in their own bed, everybody's walking in their own shoes, everybody's sleeping in their own bed, it's the one they choose, yeah. Everybody's sleeping in their own bed, it's the bed the one they choose, yeah. And there's something about that peace, something about that peace, listen, there's something about that peace, something about that peace, and I know that there's something, something about that peace, and I know there's something, something about that peace. Thank you for watching!