This is Major Tom To Ground Control...

David Bowie

I don't always listen to music when I run.  However, when I do, I listen to the same old playlists over and over.  I know there are other songs I would like just as well as the old ones I listen to, but I don't have a need to find them... the old ones are working very well thank you... and for that matter, so am I.

It's my habit to check my email every morning before I journal and begin looking for what's next.  I had

Ralph Miller

three messages that have worked themselves together in my mind over the past two hours.  The first was a link from my friend Ralph Miller that took me to a 2002 interview with David Bowie.  The title of the lead in was "Life is a finite thing."  As I neared the end of the interview another link on the page caught my attention.  It said DAVID BOWIE DEAD AT 69.  

Without guidance, my next thought was, David Bowie can't be dead.  He was with me last night.  And he was.  As I ran through a sleeping Huntsville, Alabama, David and I moved easily through the twenty-eight degree chill.  I listened as he journeyed across space, in Space Oddity, then gave me a history lesson in Young Americans and finally as told me about stages of life in Changes...

Major Tom and I have crossed over 100,000 mile and we are feeling very still...

That's not my line.  It's his... David Bowie's.  The exact line, from Space Oddity is, "Though I'm past one hundred thousand miles I'm feeling very still."

my 2nd favorite Jackie photo

David and I ended our run last night, and as we thawed, I glanced at my Sunday evening email and saw one from my great high-school-to-today friend, Jackie Penn-Carey.  I opened it and saw that it was link to a video and I read Jackie's line... "Hard to watch..." and decided to save it until this morning.  It was the second email I opened this morning and yes, it was hard to watch.  It was a link to various videos of the 2004 Tsunami that took more than 250,000 lives.

Two Hundred and fifty thousand lives that I did not touch first hand while they played on this playground.  As I watched the wall of water lift them and take them away I realized the I might have missed them here, but I haven't missed them.  Not if we're all connected, and I know that we are.

In fact, I know we are more than just connected, we are related.  We have the same father.  The One Creator, who longer ago than we can remember, sent us all out to play.  All of us includes, David Bowie, Ralph Miller, Jackie Penn-Carey, me, you, and everyone else who has ever or will ever play here.

Caleb Pirtle

It even includes my good buddy, Caleb Pirtle who was the author of the third email that I received this morning.  Caleb, alluding to the fact that I was blogging again after a long absence, said simply, as is his fashion...

Welcome back to the world of illusions... followed by a link to my recent blog post which I called "Without A Home But Not Without A Star" which he had just re-posted on his web site.

So, Major Tom, may not be on this playground today, but he is on a playground, and we all know where it is... even though we've forgotten the way to it.  A day will come when we'll all meet there again.

Thanks for the messages yall, and Lavella, though I didn't get yours until I was poised over the publish button, it too was much appreciated.

See you all later.  Have a magnificent voyage Major Tom... we know you will.

Bert Carson