#392: Characters Resting

This is mark Joseph “young” blog entry #392, on the subject of Characters Resting.

With permission of Valdron Inc I have previously completed publishing my first six novels, Verse Three, Chapter One:  The First Multiverser Novel, Old Verses New, For Better or Verse, Spy Verses, Garden of Versers, and Versers Versus Versers, in serialized form on the web (those links will take you to the table of contents for each book).  Along with each book there was also a series of web log posts looking at the writing process, the decisions and choices that delivered the final product; those posts are indexed with the chapters in the tables of contents pages.  Now as I am posting the seventh, Re Verse All,  I am again offering a set of “behind the writings” insights.  This “behind the writings” look may contain spoilers because it sometimes talks about my expectations for the futures of the characters and stories–although it sometimes raises ideas that were never pursued, as being written partially concurrently with the story it sometimes discusses where I thought it was headed.  You might want to read the referenced chapters before reading this look at them.  Links below (the section headings) will take you to the specific individual chapters being discussed, and there are (or will soon be) links on those pages to bring you back hopefully to the same point here.

There is also a section of the site, Multiverser Novel Support Pages, in which I have begun to place materials related to the novels beginning with character papers for the major characters, giving them at different stages as they move through the books.

This is the eighteenth mark Joseph “young” web log post covering this book, covering chapters 103 through 108.  It was suggested that more shorter posts were a better choice than fewer longer ones, so there will be posts every six chapters, that is, every other week, for this book.  Previous entries were:

  1. #354:  Versers Reorienting, covering chapters 1 through 6;
  2. #355:  Versers Resettling, for chapters 7 through 12.
  3. #357:  Characters Connect, for chapters 13 through 18.
  4. #359:  Characters Engage, for chapters 19 through 24.
  5. #361:  Characters Explore, for chapters 25 through 30.
  6. #364:  Characters Learn, for chapters 31 through 36.
  7. #365:  Characters Travel, for chapters 37 through 42.
  8. #367:  Versers Encounter, for chapters 43 through 48.
  9. #370:  Characters Confront, for chapters 49 through 54.
  10. #373:  Nervous Characters, for chapters 55 through 60.
  11. #376:  Characters Arrive, for chapters 61 through 66.
  12. #379:  Character Conundrums, for chapters 67 through 72.
  13. #381:  World Complications, for chapters 73 through 78.
  14. #383:  Character Departures, for chapters 79 through 84.
  15. #385:  Characters Ascend, for chapters 85 through 90.
  16. #388:  Versers Climb, for chapters 91 through 96.
  17. #390:  World Facilities, for chapters 97 through 102.

History of the series, including the reason it started, the origins of character names and details, and many of the ideas, are in earlier posts, and won’t be repeated here.

Chapter 103, Hastings 218

I realized that I had only so many kinds of encounters and couldn’t run too many of them, but I had to keep some kind of tension in the story.  Lauren might fight my capybaras (or whatever they are) at some point, but I just had the truck accident (and have not ruled out another) and I don’t know how many chapters it’s going to take for me to bring these two groups together–and there will still be travels after that–so I have to go slowly on the encounters.

I was thinking I needed something besides apartments and retail outlets, and since no one had to work there would be no offices, and since everything was shipped directly from the surface to the distribution points there would be no warehouses.  I thought that if you got far enough away from the built up areas you might come to a more rural setting, country houses of a sort, but I struggled to figure out how they would be different.  Ultimately I decided they would be more like single apartments, and decided to make them multi-story more like houses.  I modeled the entry after my mother’s house.

I debated for quite a while whether someone lived here, and in my debates had envisioned what the initial encounter would look like.  I was so settled on that that I decided to go with it.


Chapter 104, Beam 94

I ran into trouble on the snacks, because I wanted something consistent with what John, on whom Beam is based, might eat.  I was trying to avoid cheesecake, which several of my characters have eaten, and I actually typed baklava before I remembered that John doesn’t eat nuts.  I remembered that he often posts photos of his meals on his Facebook page so I spent half an hour rummaging through and finding dozens of breakfasts (apparently he is in friendly competition with a friend or two who also post photos and descriptions of their breakfasts) until I found myself seriously considering frying a couple eggs.  I came upon a picture of the first time he ever made fudge, but I think it was also the last, and fudge didn’t seem to be the kind of thing he would order.  Then he mentioned cookies, and I remembered that he made a lot of cookies.  Of course, cookies that you buy never measure up to cookies that you make, but I wasn’t likely to find anything else, so I went with those.


Chapter 105, Takano 45

This was a tense situation, but a fight would have been so one-sided as to be ridiculous.  Indeed, the tension really was how Lauren could get out of this without a fight.


Chapter 106, Beam 95

I really was stymied by the breakfast question.  I settled on something which I hope I remember long enough to write.


Chapter 107, Hastings 219

This entire section was unexpected, springing from the encounter with the homeowner.


Chapter 108, Beam 96

In my puzzling over breakfast, I remembered that McDonald’s did a breakfast with pancakes, sausage, eggs, and maybe a hashbrown or a biscuit or something, and I decided I could configure something like that which would be to his liking.  I also decided he would order coffee, but enough of the orange juice and milk that no one had to drink it.

Having ordered the coffee and needing something to do, I came up with a reason why Bron and Sophie would have the coffee, and played with their reactions.

The chapter didn’t get me anywhere, which was a problem I seemed to be having, but then repeated chapters of climbing to another level weren’t going to be more interesting than experimenting with cream and sugar in coffee.


This has been the eighteenth behind the writings look at Re Verse All.  If there is interest and continued support from readers we will endeavor to continue with another novel and more behind the writings posts for it.

#391: Pat Terry

This is mark Joseph “young” blog entry #391, on the subject of Pat Terry.

When I was compiling this list, I remembered Pat Terry–well, sort of.  I remembered that there was an artist of that name, that he was significant in the 70s, and that we received an album from him as The Pat Terry Group sometime in my early 80s stay at the radio station.

I also remembered that he was a friend of Mark Heard, who is next on the list, and that Heard influenced him in significant ways.

What I don’t remember is why he mattered or any of his music.  I recognize the LP The Pat Terry Group, from 1975, Songs of the South a year later, and 1980’s Final Vinyl.  These apparently interrupted his solo career, which began with a self-titled private release in 1974 and resumed with Humanity Gangsters in 1982.  He followed that with two more albums in the ’80s, then was silent until releasing disks in 2008 and 2018.

The connection to Mark Heard was interesting because Heard was opposed to the segregation of Christian music to its own genre, and this reportedly had an impact on Terry’s thinking.  The argument is that when Christian musicians compete with each other, they aren’t reaching the world at large, and are instead creating their own ghetto in which they permit themselves to be inferior to what the rest of the world is producing.  We should be good enough, the argument goes, that we are played on radio stations and sold in record stores without reference to our faith, such that people without faith are compelled to listen to our music because it is that good.  Terry aspired to that, at a time when many Christian artists were content to succeed within the realm of contemporary Christian music, playing on CCM stations instead of Pop 40 ones, receiving Dove Awards instead of Grammies.

Unfortunately, he did not achieve that level of success–but he clearly continued working on it for many years.

*****

The series to this point has included:

  1. #232:  Larry Norman, Visitor;
  2. #234:  Flip Sides of Ralph Carmichael;
  3. #236:  Reign of the Imperials;
  4. #238:  Love Song by Love Song.
  5. #240:  Should Have Been a Friend of Paul Clark.
  6. #242:  Disciple Andraé Crouch.
  7. #244: Missed The Archers.
  8. #246: The Secular Radio Hits.
  9. #248:  The Hawkins Family.
  10. #250:  Original Worship Leader Ted Sandquist.
  11. #252:  Petra Means Rock.
  12. #254:  Miscellaneous Early Christian Bands.
  13. #256:  Harry Thomas’ Creations Come Alive.
  14. #258:  British Invaders Malcolm and Alwyn.
  15. #260:  Lamb and Jews for Jesus.
  16. #262:  First Lady Honeytree of Jesus Music.
  17. #264:  How About Danny Taylor.
  18. #266:  Minstrel Barry McGuire.
  19. #268:  Voice of the Second Chapter of Acts.
  20. #272:  To the Bride Live.
  21. #276:  Best Guitarist Phil Keaggy.
  22. #281:  Keith Green Launching.
  23. #283:  Keith Green Crashing.
  24. #286:  Blind Seer Ken Medema.
  25. #288:  Prophets Daniel Amos.
  26. #290:  James the Other Ward.
  27. #292:  Rising Resurrection Band.
  28. #294:  Servant’s Waters.
  29. #296:  Found Free Lost.
  30. #299:  Praise for Dallas Holm.
  31. #302:  Might Be Truth and the Cleverly-named Re’Generation.
  32. #304:  Accidental Amy Grant.
  33. #312:  Produced by Christian and Bannister.
  34. #315:  Don Francisco Alive.
  35. #324:  CCM Ladies of the Eighties.
  36. #329:  CCM Guys at the Beginning.
  37. #332:  The Wish of Scott Wesley Brown.
  38. #335:  Bob Bennett’s First Matters.
  39. #342:  Fireworks Times Five.
  40. #345:  Be Ye Glad.
  41. #358:  DeGarmo and Key, Not a Country Band.
  42. #389:  Brother John Michael Talbot.

#390: World Facilities

This is mark Joseph “young” blog entry #390, on the subject of World Facilities.

With permission of Valdron Inc I have previously completed publishing my first six novels, Verse Three, Chapter One:  The First Multiverser Novel, Old Verses New, For Better or Verse, Spy Verses, Garden of Versers, and Versers Versus Versers, in serialized form on the web (those links will take you to the table of contents for each book).  Along with each book there was also a series of web log posts looking at the writing process, the decisions and choices that delivered the final product; those posts are indexed with the chapters in the tables of contents pages.  Now as I am posting the seventh, Re Verse All,  I am again offering a set of “behind the writings” insights.  This “behind the writings” look may contain spoilers because it sometimes talks about my expectations for the futures of the characters and stories–although it sometimes raises ideas that were never pursued, as being written partially concurrently with the story it sometimes discusses where I thought it was headed.  You might want to read the referenced chapters before reading this look at them.  Links below (the section headings) will take you to the specific individual chapters being discussed, and there are (or will soon be) links on those pages to bring you back hopefully to the same point here.

There is also a section of the site, Multiverser Novel Support Pages, in which I have begun to place materials related to the novels beginning with character papers for the major characters, giving them at different stages as they move through the books.

This is the seventeenth mark Joseph “young” web log post covering this book, covering chapters 97 through 102.  It was suggested that more shorter posts were a better choice than fewer longer ones, so there will be posts every six chapters, that is, every other week, for this book.  Previous entries were:

  1. #354:  Versers Reorienting, covering chapters 1 through 6;
  2. #355:  Versers Resettling, for chapters 7 through 12.
  3. #357:  Characters Connect, for chapters 13 through 18.
  4. #359:  Characters Engage, for chapters 19 through 24.
  5. #361:  Characters Explore, for chapters 25 through 30.
  6. #364:  Characters Learn, for chapters 31 through 36.
  7. #365:  Characters Travel, for chapters 37 through 42.
  8. #367:  Versers Encounter, for chapters 43 through 48.
  9. #370:  Characters Confront, for chapters 49 through 54.
  10. #373:  Nervous Characters, for chapters 55 through 60.
  11. #376:  Characters Arrive, for chapters 61 through 66.
  12. #379:  Character Conundrums, for chapters 67 through 72.
  13. #381:  World Complications, for chapters 73 through 78.
  14. #383:  Character Departures, for chapters 79 through 84.
  15. #385:  Characters Ascend, for chapters 85 through 90.
  16. #388:  Versers Climb, for chapters 91 through 96.

History of the series, including the reason it started, the origins of character names and details, and many of the ideas, are in earlier posts, and won’t be repeated here.

Chapter 97, Takano 43

The recognition that the girls were going to need a bathroom was the starting point, and the recollection that Tommy was pretty dirty from crawling through the woods suggested showers and laundry, and that turned this into a day in the apartments instead of continued travel.


Chapter 98, Beam 91

I had been teasing the accident for maybe too long, and knew it had to happen despite the fact that I had a long climb ahead and should have more vehicle encounters the closer I got to the top.  I was not certain how to run it, but decided that something Beam couldn’t observe was best.

I realized that this interrupted the ascent, and particularly that Beam was going to have to decide whether to try to climb this link twice or put it off until tomorrow.  I already knew that he was going to have to go all the way back to the lower level to call for medical help, so the decision was going to face him in the next chapter.


Chapter 99, Hastings 217

Grits with strawberries and cream was something I had probably last January (2020) at a Christian Musicians Network breakfast meeting.  I’m also fond of fried eggs on pancakes, and syrup goes well with that, and sausage with syrup.  The notion that she had to pick what kind of sausage made sense in the context.

The conversation arose somewhat naturally.

I’d had the notion of ordering bag lunches, but Tommy is right, it’s easier to stop along the way.  The idea of tipping the driver was abrupt.


Chapter 100, Beam 92

The notion that the medbots would recognize Beam as being in respiratory distress came to me somewhat abruptly, although it may have been inspired in part because I was wondering how soon I could take a respiratory treatment myself, as I was wanting not to take it too soon but recognizing that I needed to do so before I left for a doctor appointment.


Chapter 101, Takano 44

This conversation just sort of happened.  I knew they had to eat, and they were doing big breakfasts and should sit a bit before they exerted themselves.  I remembered that they had camped the night and would have things to pack, so I did that and then settled them in the living room.  They weren’t going to talk about anything immediately, but soon enough I got things started, and then moved them on their journey.


Chapter 102, Beam 93

It struck me that Beam kept finding restaurants that would seat over a hundred people, which was a very improbable capacity.  I thought of seafood restaurants because I had just published something that mentioned The Lobster House and I remembered taking John, on whom Beam is modeled, there once and having him order chicken.  I started the idea of moving everyone in, and realized that this might be smaller, so I set the pizza place down the hall and split the group.

I felt that a memorial service was needed, and I also felt that Beam had no talent for this, so that’s what I got.  I’ve written several articles on the notion that I rarely ever see funerals in role playing games, and that might have impacted my decision to include one here.


This has been the seventeenth behind the writings look at Re Verse All.  If there is interest and continued support from readers we will endeavor to continue with another novel and more behind the writings posts for it.

#389: Brother John Michael Talbot

This is mark Joseph “young” blog entry #389, on the subject of Brother John Michael Talbot.

Some time before I got to the radio station there were The Talbot Brothers, Terry and John Michael.  I never heard anything they did together, but I did eventually hear a cassette recording from Terry, of which I remember nothing but that his picture was on the case.  It was his brother John Michael who caught everyone’s attention in the contemporary Christian music world.

It might help to understand that the Jesus Movement was not only heavily Evangelical and Charismatic, it was strongly influenced by that branch of Evangelicalism that was at least suspicious of Roman Catholicism, and many of those who came to faith in Jesus had previously abandoned a familial connection to that church.  It was thus shocking to many (I think including Terry) when John Michael Talbot joined a monastery.  (At some point he founded his own, but I only recently learned that and don’t know whether he started that way.)

In an interview somewhere he made the comment that the Roman Catholic Church was doctrinally sound–perhaps a rather shocking statement for many in the Jesus movement.

Unfortunately I do not recall the title of the one album I know we had, and do not recognize the cover among those released when I was at the station, nor any of the song titles.  The opening song Sunrise of his 1982 album Troubadour Of The Great King captures something of the essence of his quiet meditative style, a significant contrast against the rock sound he and his brother had produced earlier.

*****

The series to this point has included:

  1. #232:  Larry Norman, Visitor;
  2. #234:  Flip Sides of Ralph Carmichael;
  3. #236:  Reign of the Imperials;
  4. #238:  Love Song by Love Song.
  5. #240:  Should Have Been a Friend of Paul Clark.
  6. #242:  Disciple Andraé Crouch.
  7. #244: Missed The Archers.
  8. #246: The Secular Radio Hits.
  9. #248:  The Hawkins Family.
  10. #250:  Original Worship Leader Ted Sandquist.
  11. #252:  Petra Means Rock.
  12. #254:  Miscellaneous Early Christian Bands.
  13. #256:  Harry Thomas’ Creations Come Alive.
  14. #258:  British Invaders Malcolm and Alwyn.
  15. #260:  Lamb and Jews for Jesus.
  16. #262:  First Lady Honeytree of Jesus Music.
  17. #264:  How About Danny Taylor.
  18. #266:  Minstrel Barry McGuire.
  19. #268:  Voice of the Second Chapter of Acts.
  20. #272:  To the Bride Live.
  21. #276:  Best Guitarist Phil Keaggy.
  22. #281:  Keith Green Launching.
  23. #283:  Keith Green Crashing.
  24. #286:  Blind Seer Ken Medema.
  25. #288:  Prophets Daniel Amos.
  26. #290:  James the Other Ward.
  27. #292:  Rising Resurrection Band.
  28. #294:  Servant’s Waters.
  29. #296:  Found Free Lost.
  30. #299:  Praise for Dallas Holm.
  31. #302:  Might Be Truth and the Cleverly-named Re’Generation.
  32. #304:  Accidental Amy Grant.
  33. #312:  Produced by Christian and Bannister.
  34. #315:  Don Francisco Alive.
  35. #324:  CCM Ladies of the Eighties.
  36. #329:  CCM Guys at the Beginning.
  37. #332:  The Wish of Scott Wesley Brown.
  38. #335:  Bob Bennett’s First Matters.
  39. #342:  Fireworks Times Five.
  40. #345:  Be Ye Glad.
  41. #358:  DeGarmo and Key, Not a Country Band.

#388: Versers Climb

This is mark Joseph “young” blog entry #388, on the subject of Versers Climb.

With permission of Valdron Inc I have previously completed publishing my first six novels, Verse Three, Chapter One:  The First Multiverser Novel, Old Verses New, For Better or Verse, Spy Verses, Garden of Versers, and Versers Versus Versers, in serialized form on the web (those links will take you to the table of contents for each book).  Along with each book there was also a series of web log posts looking at the writing process, the decisions and choices that delivered the final product; those posts are indexed with the chapters in the tables of contents pages.  Now as I am posting the seventh, Re Verse All,  I am again offering a set of “behind the writings” insights.  This “behind the writings” look may contain spoilers because it sometimes talks about my expectations for the futures of the characters and stories–although it sometimes raises ideas that were never pursued, as being written partially concurrently with the story it sometimes discusses where I thought it was headed.  You might want to read the referenced chapters before reading this look at them.  Links below (the section headings) will take you to the specific individual chapters being discussed, and there are (or will soon be) links on those pages to bring you back hopefully to the same point here.

There is also a section of the site, Multiverser Novel Support Pages, in which I have begun to place materials related to the novels beginning with character papers for the major characters, giving them at different stages as they move through the books.

This is the sixteenth mark Joseph “young” web log post covering this book, covering chapters 91 through 96.  It was suggested that more shorter posts were a better choice than fewer longer ones, so there will be posts every six chapters, that is, every other week, for this book.  Previous entries were:

  1. #354:  Versers Reorienting, covering chapters 1 through 6;
  2. #355:  Versers Resettling, for chapters 7 through 12.
  3. #357:  Characters Connect, for chapters 13 through 18.
  4. #359:  Characters Engage, for chapters 19 through 24.
  5. #361:  Characters Explore, for chapters 25 through 30.
  6. #364:  Characters Learn, for chapters 31 through 36.
  7. #365:  Characters Travel, for chapters 37 through 42.
  8. #367:  Versers Encounter, for chapters 43 through 48.
  9. #370:  Characters Confront, for chapters 49 through 54.
  10. #373:  Nervous Characters, for chapters 55 through 60.
  11. #376:  Characters Arrive, for chapters 61 through 66.
  12. #379:  Character Conundrums, for chapters 67 through 72.
  13. #381:  World Complications, for chapters 73 through 78.
  14. #383:  Character Departures, for chapters 79 through 84.
  15. #385:  Characters Ascend, for chapters 85 through 90.

History of the series, including the reason it started, the origins of character names and details, and many of the ideas, are in earlier posts, and won’t be repeated here.

Chapter 91, Hastings 215

I had gotten as far in my head as the name thing, and was winging it from there.  Perhaps due in part to my recent hospitalization, I had a hard time reconstructing how Lauren got here, and almost completely forgot that she had been with Tiras for that extended time; I had to make a repair to suggest that Tommy assumed Lauren had just come from being hit by the truck but Lauren knew otherwise.


Chapter 92, Beam 88

The truck problem was nagging at me.  It was something that would ultimately have to happen, while at the same time it was obvious enough that Beam should anticipate it and prepare for it.  Yet preparing for it wouldn’t be simple.  So this chapter came to be.

This was the point at which my brain skipped a track and the roughly hundred became a hundred fifty.  I started rewriting as “a hundred some”.


Chapter 93, Takano 42

I needed to figure out, and create, the relationship between Tommy and Lauren; Lauren’s expectation that God was going to show her why she was in each world suggested the teacher-student relationship.


Chapter 94, Beam 89

The notion that the trucks used the middle of the road when there was no traffic occurred to me as a minor setback for Beam’s progress.

The mixed Asian buffet is modeled on one I have been to in Glassboro (New Jersey), and I used it simply because I wanted to have things different on each level.  It also was again something different from anything the people had done before, and so provided a new challenge for Beam.

I made the count for the buffet one hundred twenty because I needed a specific number and I figured Beam would make it more than he guessed he needed so as not to run short.


Chapter 95, Hastings 216

I had to think back to the basics in the martial arts training, which wasn’t simple because although Lauren started there it wasn’t in the books.  I pretty much had to remember where I started, back in ’93 when I first began playing the game, and what my kids learned in their various classes.

Maybe I was hungry when I wrote Lauren’s dinner order, but it sounded good to me.


Chapter 96, Beam 90

I hope I’m building some tension.  I expect to have a disaster of some sort soon, but I have a long way to go to reach the surface.


This has been the sixteenth behind the writings look at Re Verse All.  If there is interest and continued support from readers we will endeavor to continue with another novel and more behind the writings posts for it.

#387: The Song “Our God Is Good”

This is mark Joseph “young” blog entry #387, on the subject of The Song “Our God Is Good”.

I think I must have started writing this in the summer of 1986.  I remember being out in the yard at our Carney’s Point Manor Avenue home singing the two choruses and figuring out how they fit together.  I feel like I had this partial song, including the background music, for months without any progress.

Then we started into the 1988 Presidential Election race, and, wow, did that give me ideas.

1987 Democratic Presidential Primary Candidates, left to right:
Senator (later Vice President) Al Gore,
Representative Richard Gephardt,
Governor Michael Dukakis,
Senator (later Vice President and now President) Joe Biden,
Reverend Jesse Jackson,
Governor Bruce Babbitt,
and Senator Paul Simon.

For those who do not remember the race, there were more candidates vying for the office than you can easily remember.  Ronald Reagan was ending his second term, and it was not entirely clear that the party was going to support his Vice President George (Herbert Walker) Bush to replace him.  Meanwhile, on the Democratic side, Senator Gary Hart seemed to be the frontrunner.

Then Hart perhaps stupidly challenged the media to prove their allegations that he was having an affair–and they did.  Hart dropped out of the race before our accompanying photo was taken.

Joe Biden was knocked out of the race for being a chronic plagiarist and liar.  On the Republican side, it was uncovered that Christian Broadcasting Network president and 700 Club host Reverend Pat Robertson’s wife was pregnant before they were married.  Candidates were dropping like flies.

Former President Richard Milhouse Nixon once said that it was the job of the media to examine all politicians with a microscope, but in his case they used a proctoscope.

As I reflected on all this, it struck me that people expected our government leaders to be above reproach, but that we as people were not.  From that I constructed the verses, recalling those three specific cases, and challenging that if we want moral leaders we need to be moral people.

This recording features four vocals over midi instruments.  I had envisioned a fifth voice, a bass vocal beneath the second chorus, but was concerned that it would interfere with the bass guitar part so I didn’t attempt it.  I wrote it for piano, and then figured out how to play it on guitar, but the bass part was always part of the music.  I ranked the song twenty-third for quality of words and music, fifteenth for performance and recording, as it was well done; it just made Tristan’s list, tied for fifteenth, and so tied for twenty-second with last month’s song.  (The rating system is explained in connection with the first song, linked below.)

Our God Is Good.

So here are the words:

Our God is good.
Our God is good.
Our God is good.
Our God is good.

What does it matter, telling little lies?
Who’s ever hurt by words we plagiarize?
Hypocrites do these things ‘most ev’ry day,
But make our leaders care for what they say.

Our God is good.
Our God is good.
Our God is good.
Our God is good.

Ev’ryone wants to have a little fling.
Brief infidelities don’t mean a thing.
But when a leader does it, it’s a crime.
We crucify our leaders ev’ry time.

Only the Lord alone is good.
Only the Lord alone is good.
Only the Lord alone is good.
Only the Lord alone is good.

Past indiscretions all should be forgot’–
Put them behind you.  But the world will not,
For ev’ry leader’s life’s an open book.
Open the pages; come and take a look.

Our God is good.
Only the Lord alone is good.
Our God is good.
Only the Lord alone is good.
Our God is good.
Only the Lord alone is good.
Our God is good.
Only the Lord alone is good.

We are the people–people, “they” are we.
All that we are is what our leaders be.
How can a leader be a moral man?
He can be only what the people can.

Our God is good.
Our God is good.
Our God is good.
Our God is good.

I can only hope you benefit from the song in some way.  I will continue with additional songs in the future.

*****

Previous web log song posts:

#301:  The Song “Holocaust” | #307:  The Song “Time Bomb” | #311:  The Song “Passing Through the Portal” | #314:  The Song “Walkin’ In the Woods” | #317:  The Song “That’s When I’ll Believe” | #320:  The Song “Free” | #322:  The Song “Voices” | #326:  The Song “Mountain, Mountain” | #328:  The Song “Still Small Voice” | #334:  The Song “Convinced” | #337:  The Song “Selfish Love” | #340:  The Song “A Man Like Paul” | #341:  The Song “Joined Together” | #346:  The Song “If We Don’t Tell Them” | #349: The Song “I Can’t Resist You’re Love” | #353:  The Song “I Use to Think” | #356:  The Song “God Said It Is Good” | #362:  My Life to You | #366:  The Song “Sometimes” | #372:  The Song “Heavenly Kingdom” | #378:  The Song “A Song of Joy” | #382:  The Song “Not Going to Notice”

Next Song:  Why