Eddie and the Rolling Stones

Our friend George Dunn joined us for our Free Store conversation on Thursday morning and talked about Psalm 23.  However, before we got started someone asked him what he had been thinking recently and he looked at Rick munching away on a McDonald's breakfast and said, "I wonder if it is a sin to steal that bisquit?" which made us laugh.

George told us that when he was a kid his dad made him memorize some of the Psalms and if he refused he was grounded.  He told us that his dad has passed away this week and it had made him think of Psalm 23.  George went on to say that he used to think that if he followed the Lord that he wouldn't want anything because he would have everything he wanted.  After some decades of life he now realized that simply wasn't true.  He said that when he was a boy he remembered a story called "Gimme the Gummy" about a boy that always said gimme.  So a magic fairy put a spell on the boy so that every time he said gimme whatever he wanted stuck to his body.  We laughed as George described and as we imagined how that story ended.

George told us that he had learned through the years not to want too much.  We talked about how being satisfied and having freedom from wanting too much can be very important life skills.  At this point our friend Eddie started singing the first line of the Rolling Stones song, "You Can't Always Get What You Want."  Eddie's vocal rendition was far from the Mick Jagger wail but he made the point and also made us laugh.  Someone else quoted without singing the rest of the lyric, "And if you try sometime you find you get what you need" which gave us a great deal of pleasure.

George went on to tell us that at one point in his life when he was facing death that suddenly people became "numero uno in my life."  Someone said, "I can still be happy without things."  Another friend said, "Not everybody can be rich but everybody can be happy."  This led us to talk about how our primary relationships are the most valuable things in life and have the potential to bring more happiness than anything else.

At this point George told us about a survey of people in nursing homes in which they were asked two questions: 1.) What is your worst fear?  2.) What is your most important possession?  To the first question a majority responded, "Dying alone" and to the second question, "My photographs."  This led us to talk about how the most important things in life are the memories we create with the people we love.  George said, "I want to make good memories everyday."

As our conversation moved to a conclusion our friend Marney said that this was just what she needed to hear.  She said emphatically, "I want a phone" which made us laugh.  She told us that she had been looking for a cell phone and although Cricket was gonna give her one for free she "had this great drive" to buy one.  She said that as she listened to the conversation she realized that somehow what she needed was the very thing she was gonna get.  Although we weren't exactly sure what that meant it sounded like there was some mysterious Mick Jagger wisdom hidden in it.