Johnny Cash was a drunk, drug-addicted, violent, radiant, horribly flawed, diabetic, humble, a terrible singer, frenzied, tempestuous, insightful, calm, a horrible father, a loving father, a mass and jumble of contradictions. He was profane, he adored the Lord. He paid his price and saw his coming death:
He was brilliant and he was a child of God who came to meet his maker.
Sooner or later God will cut us down.
BZ
P.S.
I’m not quite sure where this post came from. Johnny Cash passed away nine years ago, in 2003, after his wife June. He joined his wife four months after her passing. For whatever reason — I can’t explain it — this just resonates right now.
Roseanne Cash and her father.
Well, Let’s hope it’s not a prophetic moment. I think if we all had a better awareness of how fleeting life really is we would make huge adjustments. Perhaps you are experiencing an angst of that nature, which isn’t a bad thing at all.
My problem is figuring out a way to make better decisions. Four years ago I was convinced that I should put all of my retirement into gold. Somehow I didn’t listen to myself. I pick the wrong jobs, I burn bridges…
Some people say that the measure of a man is how he treats people who can’t do anything for him. I must be effing huge, but I still can’t see over that horizon.
More important is how you treat the ones you love. I’m harder on them than anyone.. and that’s a shame.
So for me, well, I’ll take this post to mean that I need to work on that.
Death is around the corner for all of us, and in the fleeting moments before, life is a struggle to be relevant. Rest assured we are, even if only in failure.
Johnny Cash was, some good, some bad, he illustrated the difference. Two quotes:
“How well I have learned that there is no fence to sit on between heaven and hell. There is a deep, wide gulf, a chasm, and in that chasm is no place for any man.”
A fair refutation of existentialism.
“Sometimes I am two people. Johnny is the nice one. Cash causes all the trouble. They fight.”
Indeed, they clearly are not the same 😉
In other words, he was quintessentially human. All of us are flawed. We may not have the SAME flaws as Johnny Cash, but we all have multiple flaws. In other words, “all of us have gone astray.”
I was not a fan of his music, but of the man himself. He wasn’t ashamed to share his past or his faith and that’s good enough for me.
What an awesome testimony.
+1 on AOW’s comment… Johnny Cash had NO problem showing his flaws, and admitted to them all.
∞ ≠ ø:
Life is INCREDIBLY fleeting. It just came to me and mandated that I made it.
AOW:
We are ALL flawed. Myself much more than many others. I’ll be the first to admit that.
Leticia:
I would beg: give his music a second chance. His RECENT music. His last five albums produced by Rick Rubin. E-mail me and I’ll give you the best albums to consult. He came to God. He realized how fragile and insignificant he truly was.
NFO:
And for that, I submit, confirmed his brilliance.
BZ