Ida Kerski, Welcome Home

I haven't sat down to blog in a couple of weeks.  The main reason is because for a large portion of that time, I was in Arizona to attend my Grandmother Kerski's funeral.  I think my mind has been too preoccupied with weighty thoughts that I'm ill-prepaired to write about at this point in my publishing journey.  So I stayed silent.  

Luckily, music always give you the right path forward.  The path it gave me was to want to share to the world a lovely little album by The Welcome Wagon.  This minister and wife team had the good fortune to become friends with Sufian Stevens, and his fingers are all over this record.  Basically, he uses Vito and Monique as instruments themselves, and adds their voices to his already well-developed sound.  If you have missed hearing new music from Sufian as much as I have in the last couple of years, this will keep you occupied.

Also important to understand is that this is not a secular record.  It is full of child-like gospel.  And that is why this record is important to me now.  My grandmother was a devout Catholic.  She believed with all her heart and soul that Jesus is the answer to all life's ills.  When I was a youth, this perplexed me.  How could you give yourself up to such an abstract thought?  This was an internal battle between heart and mind I took many years to fight.  And, like almost all of us, it still wages on.  But what I've come to understand is that we all believe in the abstract.  That's what makes life wonderful.  Art, Music, Religion, Love - none are science.  And all are wonderful to ponder.  

I miss my grandma, but I know her spirit lives on.  Her heart was as big as the world, and she gave each of us as much as she could of it before resting one last time.  I hope to give my piece in full to my family and friends.  And now, because of timing, The Welcome Wagon will always be a tangible object I will use to think of the intangible nature of a great woman.