Mercy, mercy. (mercy!)

Now  for something totally different   Greetings from Merry Land University, home of my sister,Professor Catherine Schuler, who got me into the performing arts library where I viewed an exhibit on Roy Orbison, who played with the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, and Tom Petty.  Most of them looked to Roy as the real pioneer.  They were delighted to have him join them in a joint effort called  The Traveling Wilburys.   ( willbury comes from Harrison's name for a studio technique of "burying" mistakes in the recording by making them sound intentional and contextual.)  Rolling Stone did a tribute in which each artist gave an impression of who they thought Roy was..  I thought that the most interesting statement came from a manager or studio head who remarked that when most musicians would make a mistake they would say mostly unprintable (herein) remarks but Roy would just say, "Mercy, mercy......."

"Grace, grace, unto this mountain......."

Mercy is not much discussed or much understood; but I understand that its core meaning would be  not receiving what we deserve; grace would be receiving what we do not deserve, i.e. an unearned and unexpected gift.  

Coming to a place so unfamiliar to me--urban, sophisticated, and fast-moving--has been an intensely humbling experience for me   (thanks Dennis for your comments on true wisdom!)  But wherever I go, I am overwhelmed by the Grace and Mercy  (and long-suffering of those who put up with me and put me up as well) I receive from virtually every corner, and intense reminders of my utter dependency and weaknesses, so that I am amazed and thrilled at every moment. Thanksgiving can't be over........

I think that Orbison's influence on at least Dylan and Petty, was more profound than musical technique and styling.. I wish that I might have heard him when he was alive but, like missing out on Johnny Cash, I totally opted ignorantly out on the older influences appreciated by genius level musicians but not their fan base.  This is all the more poignant now that I also am older.  In my present context I/we may be observed to be a mistake--evolutionarily speaking perhaps, although I don't personally know anyone who would say so.....but  it would seem to me that each one of us is either a kind of mistake or a kind of "grace observed," as well as "A Grief Observed".  As Walker Percy observed, this life is entirely too much trouble and too beautiful and too complex to be a long string of expensive mistakes--see Percy's Interviews with Myself--Questions No One Asked Me So I Asked Them  Myself" 

Mercy.