All American Boy

What I lack in ambition, I make up for in,,,

Well, sir, I don't make up for it at all. What I see passing for success doesn't seem to hold much for me. 

Over a lifetime searching for truth I have learned that the most valuable resources are kindness and joy. Keep learning. You'll notice that it becomes more obvious how little you know. 

If I were so pompous as to offer any life advice, I suppose it would be to hang on to your innocence. Oh, I'm guessing that you have done wrong and I wouldn't be surprised if you didn't screw up some more. I've made a regular thing of it. I can tell you now that innocence is like a lizard's tail. It will probably come back.

Whatever else you're doing, love.

What Key?

"Ronny, would you be willing to consider that you're just more sentimental than she is?" the kind therapist asked.

That comic book light bulb lit up over my head and, for just a minute, the whole world made sense.

Lady, I'm more sentimental than everybody!

I didn't tell her that, of course. For one thing, I didn't need to. It's nothing to brag about.

I come to it honestly. My mom never got over anything. She grieved for pets that she had as a kid as an old lady. 

It's only a problem, I suppose, if you try to fit the world into your mold. By the time that I understood it, it was too late to change it. My attempts to change the rest of the world had never worked out, either.

Choose Your Weapon

John Lennon. The Kennedys, Bobby and Jack. Gandhi. Dr. King. Lincoln. Jesus.

Carry on about inequality, peace and love, and if you sell enough books or records or tickets, they'll kill you. Their big trick is to provoke your dark side so that there are two sides of bad guys fighting it out for power.

Fuck 'em.

They don't make the rules. We do.

Keep loving and try not to sell many records. That's my advice.

Firecracker Hill

Jet Fuel Romance, Retread Heart

Give your power to a buddha and you create a tyrant. Eventually you will find that what you have been seeking has been right here all along. The search makes your journey your journey. Is it a glorious moment when you discover that there is no secret, or is it a grand letdown of tragic proportions?

You tell me.

Dogs and children just love. There is no secret.

Terms of Engagement

The very idea of Rules of Love seems ridiculous to me. Kinda' like Rules of War, isn't it? The winners re-write what was there, clearing their side, and indicting the new bad guys with whatever means that they declare atrocities. War crimes.

Hey, fellas- it's all evil. Ain't no good wars. There wasn't a god on your side.

Same with romance. You love till you don't. You do the best you can. The Golden Rule is about all you have to cling to. Of course, I learned all I ever knew watching Rock Hudson canoodle with Doris Day.

How'd that work out for you, Ronny?

The loving part- I got that. In my world the science all rhymes and the poetry explains what can be explained. Love is the currency and I hate to brag, but I'm rich.

Manhattan Island and the Family Cow

Yeah, I suppose that I would always have traded Manhattan Island for red cloth and glass beads and I know, for sure, that I would have traded the family cow for some magic beads- as long as they would promise to be good to the cow.

Once I took the band's money and bought yards and yards of fuchsia velvet. Crushed velvet! My pals weren't all that happy with me but, boy, did those suits get good press!

Oh, I know that I have spent most of a long lifetime out of fashion and out of step, but that's okay. I just hope to have shared a little joy.

Forever

"Forever ain't what it used to be," widely attributed to Buddha, me and Yogi Berra.

She said she would love me forever.

Stars and Stripes Forever

Forever Yours. Always my favorite candy bar. One day, forty-some odd years ago, they just disappeared from the shelf in the convenience store. Oh, I understand they're back, but I can't seem to find one.

I was looking for true love, she just wanted to dance.

Good and Evil....

...Right and wrong. Rich and poor. Black and white. Rock'n'roll. The world, as I define it, only exists in my perception of the things around me. If I look through a telescope, it's entirely different than what I see through a microscope.

Mockingbirds sing me a song and it's different than the song that I hear from Elvis when the needle wiggles in the wax. The fact that Elvis died nearly forty three years ago doesn't stop me from hearing him sing.

As I watch suffering around me, I settle on the idea of looking at everything and listening to everything through a filter of love. Oh, I'm working on taste and feel and smell, too, but I'm having trouble with cabbage.

Give us peace on earth and end this dreadful, dreadful war.