"If you could read my mind Girl!" This Gordon Lightfoot song is forever stashed in my record stack of my mental juke box among others that I have grown up with. The song "Pussy Willows Cattails and Roses," is still one of my favorite song to play on the guitar and sing to. "The Legend of Edmund Fitzgerald, " is another of Gordon Lightfoot's song that i have tried to memorize but its too long although it held a memory for me having lived in Wisconsin for eight years. When I first heard the song I knew it is one of those songs I have to be able to sing to myself every now and then when I miss the life in Green Bay, Wisconsin that sits on Lake Michigan.
I learned to play the guitar by learning to play the song, "House of the Rising Sun." a song by the Animals a British Group.
"The House of the Rising Sun" is a traditional folk song, sometimes called "Rising Sun Blues". It tells of a person's life gone wrong in the city of New Orleans. Many versions also urge a sibling or parents and children to avoid the same fate. The most successful commercial version, recorded in 1964 by the British rock band the Animals, was a number one hit on the UK Singles Chart and in the US and Canada.[1] As a traditional folk song recorded by an electric rock band, it has been described as the "first folk rock hit".[2][3]
The song was first collected in Appalachia in the 1930s, but probably has its roots in traditional English folk song. It is listed as number 6393 in the Roud Folk Song Index."
The song was taught to by an English Aircraft Engineer by the name of John Rankine. We were employed by the Bristow Helicopters that was in service for the ESSO - Continental Oil Exploration off the coast of Terengganu. I was a radio operator. This was my second job after i had fished with my school life, the first job was working as an assistant to a Medical Research Institute {IMR} doctor who was an American. I was fortunate to have had the opportunity to work with the Westerners where i had a firsthand lesson in racism and bigotry, how the west viewed the east. I also had the opportunity to meet a few westerners who pointed me the direction to take with my attitude, some good others I accept as life's rough and rocky roads I needed to tread to get to where i needed to go. By this tie my dream of a higher scholarship education was laid to rest and my twin brother occupied that space for me. My twin brother did allot better than me in school and deserves to take the high road, he got to go to college while started out on the road to find out. On looking back now I am beginning to realize more and more to the fact Allah was and had always been watching over me even though I had challenged Him when I was thirteen, out of sheer anger and frustrations i had raised my fist at Him in the dead of the night while sitting on the steps of my home crying in pain and shame and no one to turn to. I was young then but now i can see where life had led me and how many times in my life that i should have been, could and would have suffered a whole lot serious problem had I no guardian angel that often catches me or give a nudge on my shoulder to shift me a fraction of an inch from creating a disaster to myself and those around me. Perhaps it is just another story I keep telling myself again and again over time I start to believe in it. I had transgressed in the worst of ways that dark night of my soul and I full am willing to face the retribution from Him who I have surrendered to my heart and soul to and that I have never doubt that sooner or later i will i will return to Him. I felt this every time I heard the Azan on the radio when I was a child, it touches my heart and i felt that God is near and he is Great. It was not an easy life growing up in Terengganu either especially when you extra load of religious and racial issues to deal with being born and raised a Buddhist?! With a name like Nanda Sena?
When was the last you listened to Fleetwood Mac? or The Animals, or War? It is in listening to music that and the reading of Novels and comic books that had brought me here that and the thirst for life, the pride and passion of living to the fullest knowing that God is on your side and you are His prodigal child. This I have faith in that Allah Aza wa jalla, is One and only Lord of Creation and there is none but He. Call Him by what name you are most familiar with according to your faith. I keep justifying this again and again so as to remove all doubts and questions and then again my ego still pretty much run the show where life is concern. The Jihad that The Prophet of Allah had warned about takes place within each and every one of us; our nafs or ego is our adversary that needs to be made fully understood and brought into submission by the soul, You. How do you loose your shadow while you are still alive? For so long as you are in the light or the light shines upon you, you have a shadow. There is no light without its accompanying darkness, to be aware of this fact about one is to have a better understanding of human nature, yours and mine. The Cosmic Symbol of the Yin and Yang in Taoist myth and magic is like two tadpoles black and white encircling one another in a perfect hug and in the center of each form is a dot, white on black and vice-versa. This is the seed of potentialities that is inherent within both opposites that within good itself is contained the seed of evil and within evil is the seed for good. Man is given 'free will' to make the choices he makes and bear the consequences or rewards of every action he chose at every moment in his life and this is roughly what karma is all about in Buddhism. The Lord also graced us with wisdom and intelligence that we make the right choices unless we chose not to heed the warning of all the Prophets and Saints, Rishis, life itself is a college and I am but a student dancing with my ego.
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