“WATER IS LIFE,” THE WOMEN SING.

At 4:30 a.m., it is pitch black in the village of Mzira in Malawi. In the early morning sky, the Southern Cross and the Big Dipper look bright enough to walk on. Dogs howl and scurrying animals rustle through the maize fields.

Most men and children are asleep but the women are stirring. African women gather under the shadows of trees, buckets swinging, ready to embark on the first of many journeys they will make during the day to fetch water for their families.

As they gather, they chat, laugh and count heads. Making their way through maize fields, creek and riverbeds, over slick rocks and through other rough terrain, the women sing to encourage each other and to scare away anything or anyone that might be lurking in the dark — including “bad men who may be rapists.”

“Water is life, let us go and draw water, water is life, our children should go to school,” the women sing.

Please follow the complete United Methodist News Service photo essay by Mike DuBose and Kathy L. Gilbert HERE

By Stephen Thompson, NPR

This week’s Saturday Night Live musical guest was supposed to be Morgan Wallen, before the country singer got himself disinvited. On Friday morning, SNL creator Lorne Michaels announced that Jack White — whose best-known band, The White Stripes, releases a greatest-hits album in December — would show up to perform in Wallen’s place.

Though we’re only two episodes into Season 46, it’s hard to imagine that White’s turn won’t come out near the top when it’s time to rank SNL‘s 2020-21 musical guests. Unencumbered by new material to promote, White cranked out a few scorching career highlights, including 2014’s solo hit “Lazaretto” — which he performed with a guitar designed for him by the late Eddie Van Halen — and uncorked a fantastic medley.

That medley fused unexpected pieces in remarkable ways, kicking off with “Don’t Hurt Yourself” — the song he co-wrote and performed on Beyoncé‘s Lemonade — before shifting into a version of The White Stripes’ “Ball and Biscuit” that incorporated lyrics from Blind Willie Johnson’s “Jesus Is Coming Soon.” So, on two days’ notice, we got an Eddie Van Halen tribute, Beyoncé, The White Stripes, a Jack White solo song and Blind Willie Johnson. Not bad!

To watch the performances, click HERE

Jack White’s Instagram reflections on the SNL performance: “I thought it could be a nice gesture for me to use this blue Eddie Van Halen model guitar for one of the songs tonight on SNL. The guitar was designed by Eddie (with a few customizations I had added). Eddie was very kind to me and saw to it that this guitar was made for me to my specs. I wont even insult the man’s talent by trying to play one of his songs tonight. Thanks again, Eddie, for this guitar and rest in peace, sir.”

By Jon Pareles

Eddie Van Halen played not just fast but hyperfast. He played loud. He was flashy, assertive and explosive, often interrupting one virtuosic display with an even showier screech or run or glissando. As the lead guitarist in Van Halen, he plucked, tapped, strummed, bent, flicked, pinged and scraped his strings, simultaneously supporting his band’s lead singers and goading them with manic counterpoint.

And on the countless arena stages he played with Van Halen, as well as on camera for music videos, he did it all with an unforced smile — not the oh-so-melodramatic facial contortions of so many lead guitarists, but a grin of boyish delight at how he could blend propulsion, filigree and outright havoc, and at how much noisy fun he was getting away with. His signature red Frankenstrat guitar, decorated with black and white stripes, wasn’t a phallic weapon; it was an endlessly malleable toy.

Read the rest of Jon Pareles’s New York Times piece HERE.

Michael pointed out the front windshield at the blue sky and said: “Pastor, there’s a lot of pain in this world, a lot of people suffering right now, but no one suffers from bearing the weight of it all like God.” Photo: Pexels.

By Steve Beard

There are good reasons to avoid watching the evening news these days. It is a rough slog, even for those with sunny dispositions.

The pandemic has severally thrown us off the normal rhythm of life. Piped-in crowd cheers at baseball games, shuttered businesses on Main Street, empty classrooms, drive-up eucharist at church, Zoom meetings for work.

Once only thought to be the essential accessory of surgeons, fumigators, and bank robbers, face masks are now used to stoke our political divide. No more hugs, nor kisses on the cheeks. Forget the handshake. The entire elbow bump looks ridiculous and feels even more absurd.

Sadly, we cannot even have proper funerals for our dearly departed — and there are so many of them. We have much to mourn and now we must do it in isolation. Continue reading →

September 2, 1838 – November 11, 1917

By Steve Beard

Queen Liliʻuokalani was the first queen regnant of the Kingdom of Hawaii and its last sovereign monarch (1838-1917). She ruled from January 29, 1891, until her overthrow in January 17, 1893, by unscrupulous sugar barons. While Queen Lili’uokalani had her own armed soldiers at her command, she chose a peaceful resolution in hopes that the situation would be resolved without violence.

She appealed to the U.S. government about the toppling of her reign and found a sympathetic ear with President Grover Cleveland. Though he lobbied for her rightful return to power, annexation of Hawaii was enacted in 1898 by the U.S. Senate and Queen Lili’uokalani was placed under house arrest while non-Hawaiians ruled the islands. It is a painful story to read if you believe in self-rule, liberty, and justice (highly recommended is “Lost Kingdom: Hawaii’s Last Queen, the Sugar Kings, and America’s First Imperial Adventure” by Julia Flynn Siler). Continue reading →