Johnny Cash

While in my favorite music store, I discovered Johnny Cash had released another last cd, American V: A Hundred Highways. Quite a feat considering he has been dead for several years. I say another last cd, because I thought American IV was his last. Then Unearthed, a box set, came out. I wasted no time in buying American V. Johnny Cash is food for the soul.

My granddad wrote a note in a bible he gave me when I graduated from high school. It said: Upon reaching the mantle of life, one�s effectiveness does not diminish, but grows and grows, while loving God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost with faith, hope, and charity. Then the world is yours. My Granddad was old and nearing death when he wrote those words.

I took the bible and assumed I was close to reaching that mantle he described. But as years went by, the mantle proved an ever-illusive place. I have come to believe the mantle was territory my granddad occupied at the time, not me, a place where his body was weak and little more than a source of pain and suffering, a hollow shell hardly resembling the strong house it had once been.

But in weakness of the flesh, strength of spirit can be found. Little did I know, but my granddad left a blessing upon me that survived in spite of my reckless ways, a spiritual seed of sorts.

Johnny Cash completed American V just hours and days before his death. He stood squarely upon the mantle of life and his words carry the weight of centuries of collective wisdom. In places his voice sounds weak, in other places it�s strong, but everywhere it testifies to the strength of the spirit that lived in Johnny. A few are songs he wrote, others were written by others, but when Johnny sings them, I hear songs I�ve never before heard.

John R. Cash withstood a trial by fire and was not consumed, but instead was perfected by the flames. While wild and reckless as a young man, he redefined dignity and honor in his later days and saved his best and most effective work for last. John stands among the great that walked this earth.

He left a piece of his spirit in this cd. Buy the cd. Open your heart. Open your ears. Find your blessing.