One of my drum-heroes is none other than Neil Peart of Rush (all the prog-rockers in d'house say "YEAH!"). And strangely it's not for the most obvious reason, his drumming. Sure he's up there as far as one of the best in his field, however that's not why I chose him... In August of 1997, his nineteen-year-old daughter, Selena, was killed in an auto accident. Then within 10 months time, his wife Jackie died of cancer. One year later, crushed but not abandoned, he climbed upon his BMW R1100GS motorcycle and proceeded on a journey of over 55,000 miles from Quebec to Alaska, along the coast to Mexico and Belize then eventually back home over a period of 14 months. Along the way he journaled his setbacks and progress in healing. He said in an interview in Modern Drummer (Sept.'02)...
"The only thing I was motivated to do was travel, to just go down the road every day to see what was over the next hill or around the next corner. Hope was the only muscle at work then, the hope that maybe something would come up. I kept saying to myself, 'something will come up, something will come up'. It's probably the only thing that kept me alive."
He went on to say that after alot of time had passed, life became beautiful and precious again.
Hope... sometimes it's the only muscle at work.
I don't know what's over that next hill Lord, but I 'll go and see... maybe something will come up?...
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I was on Darla's blog and she was posting about waiting...I went searching for an article she was looking for and found a cool post on another blog (see her blog). In an interesting twist...the last few sections of what I found was this:
v2: I wait for the LORD, my soul waits,
and in his word I put my hope.
My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning…(ps130)
v1: … But Zechariah, Elizabeth, and Mary were not filled with [their] wishes. They were filled with hope. Hope is something very different. Hope is trusting that something will be fulfilled, but fulfilled according to the promises and not just according to our wishes. Therefore, hope is always open-ended. (Nouwen)
Waiting is hard and keeping our hope strong can be difficult. We all just need to hang in there and see what is around the next bend. One thing that makes it easier is knowing we are in this together. Thanks Rich.
Sometimes what might come up scares me just a bit...
This journey of what comes next sure is nicer with my friends along with me.
'...I learned to lay my fingers across the wires, and to turn the keys to make them sound
differently. As I struck the wires with my other hand, I produced my first harmonious sounds
and soon my own music! How different it could be from the music of the Temples! I can't wait
to tell the priests about it!...'
Significant? Probably not. But man, it's one heck of a song with even more memories! Nice post, bro.
Hope
Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune--without the words,
And never stops at all,
And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.
I've heard it in the chillest land,
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.
-- Emily Dickinson
I love that poem .. when we talked about this, I thought of this poem and thought it would work here ..
Faith breeds hope!
Dale
Hey bro, good words. I too am a big Neal Pert fan. I never knew about his losses, thanks for the info.
I have always thought of myself as fairly hopeful. I couldn't imagine what hopelessness feels like.
I think back to the story of Job and how he lost it all, I mean everything. If ever a guy had a reason to give up on everything and everyone he did. He had some bad times but and wrestled with God but never really gave up on him. How does a guy keep faith after all the stuff Job went through? Amazing
I look around me and see all of the blessings that God has bestowed upon me and KNOW that God loves me. I don't know why but he does. As long as I don't try to figure out why God does things I'm fine.
thanks to everyone who responded... such a tragic situation and a quest for more love, more TRUTH. i will be praying for mr. peart to find that hope and peace in Jesus.
Here's my "yeah", too. Thanks for sharing the story, the perspective. Since I'm making my music comment mark on Blogspot today, I thought I'd insert here, too. (Darla's Coldplay post)
I saw Pert drum in 1992 with Roll the Bones. I was on the 4th row, Sixteen, and nestled right in there with all the dope, wheelchairs (Vets) and gray hairs. Man, it was awesome! :)
ps)I like your blog...liked the dog post, too.
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