When I see them, I often save articles that describe good people doing good things. Here are two of my favorites from 2016.
At rest with honor. Andrew Moore died last year the way he had lived most of his life . . . alone.
When Moore was young, he was placed in an orphanage, a home for children without parents. When he was a teenager, he ran away.
He had no family. He never married. And when he died, he was living alone in a small apartment in an apartment building in Washington, D.C., for people with little money.
Moore might have been alone, but he was not lonely. He made friends easily and knew most of the people who lived and worked in the apartment building. They say he made their lives brighter.
Because Moore had no money, no family, and no will (instructions for after you die), he would have been buried by the city of Washington and forgotten. But two of his friends from the apartment building had a different idea: they wanted him buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
Arlington National Cemetery is a place to honor men and women who have served (worked for) the U.S., especially those who had served in the military. Many veterans (people who have fought in a war) are buried there. So are important leaders, like John F. Kennedy, scientists, astronauts, and important American musicians.
Moore’s friends knew he had served in the U.S. Navy during World War II and was qualified (met the requirements) to be buried at Arlington. They completed all the paperwork that was required and collected money from others who lived in the apartment building to help with the expenses. It was difficult and took a lot of time.
Finally, on a cold, windy Friday morning last spring, Moore was buried in Arlington National Cemetery in a full military ceremony, along with more than 14,000 others who, like him, had served their country.
Her father’s heart. Ten years ago, Jeni Stepien’s father was shot and killed during a robbery. While he lay in the hospital, dying, his family decided to donate (give) his organs (heart and other body parts) to an organization that finds people who need them and makes it possible for the families to stay in touch with each other after the transplant (moving an organ from one person to another).
Stepien’s father’s heart went to another father, Arthur Thomas, who had congestive heart failure (when the heart stops working properly). He would have died in just a few days without the new heart. After the transplant, Stepien’s and Thomas’s families became friends through phone calls, letters, and emails.
When Stepien planned her wedding last year, she wanted to remember her father in a special way. After talking to her family, she invited Thomas to walk her from the back of the church to the front, like her father would have done. Thomas agreed to do it.
At the wedding, Stepien and Thomas walked to the front of the church, then stopped and looked at each other. Thomas took her hand and briefly held it over his – her father’s – heart so she could feel the heartbeat. Her father was there.
Happy New Year!
~ Warren Ediger – ESL tutor/coach and creator of the Successful English website.
This post was adapted from articles in the New York Times and Washington Post.
Photo of Arlington National Cemetery courtesy of Wikipedia Commons.
Yes, sometime stories like these are really necessary.
Thank you Warren and have a Happy New Year.
emiliano
I left VA last summer after my Master’s study, and moved in CA. I have never visited Arlington Cemetery, even if I have been living there for two years. Now I wish I should have.
Hi,
I was moved by this true story, especially by the last
phrase, “Her father was there.”.
As my father passed away many years ago, I still pray
for him asking him the help when I am in need.
Yes, he is still with me, watching me.
Sometimes nobody can help me, but he is there.
Hi,
As I told you I have read the book Tarantula by Bob Dylan.
Bob Dylan was awarded the 2016 Nobel Prize for literature.
Difficult to read and understand it if you are not a native American.
I am proud that I could read Tarantula, a collection of strange
phrases and poems.
I noted many from his funny or interesting phrases,
but I did not found the English text of Tarantula so
I can’t share them with you.
Hi,
The Bob Dylan’s tone, rhythm remember me of the poem
from the One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey.
It is one of my first novels read thanks to Jeff.
The title of the book is a line from a nursery rhyme:
“Vintery, mintery, cutery, corn,
Apple seed and apple thorn,
Wire, briar, limber lock
Three geese in a flock
One flew East,
One flew West
And one flew over the cuckoo’s nest.”
Hi,
May I share with you all some of the most famous lyrics by Bob Dylan?
Knocking On Heaven’s Door
“Mama, put my guns in the ground
I can’t shoot them anymore.
The long black cloud is comin’ down
I feel like I’m knocking on heaven’s door.
Knock, knock, knocking on heaven’s door.”
Hi,
Things Have Changed by Bob Dylan
I hurt easy, I don’t show it
You can hurt someone and not even know it
The next sixty seconds could be like an eternity
Gonna get low down, gonna fly high
All the truth in the world adds up to one big lie.
Hi,
The Times They Are a – Changin’ by Bob Dylan
If your time to you
Is worth savin’
Then you better start swimmin’
Or you’ll sink like a stone
For the times they are a- changin’
………………………………………………
Come mothers and fathers
Throughtout the land
And don’t criticize
What you can’t understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is
Rapidily agin’
Please get out of the new one
If you can’t lend your hand
For the times they are a- changin’.
Hi,
I have read that
“the angry young people poem has the name Bob Dylan”.
I know nothing about the angry young people poem.
Is it a movement in the literature?
Yes, Tania, I know you like lyrics of Dylan.
Here there is some different lyric songs from the time he was a young like I was
too.
“San Francisco” Scott Mackencie was the singer, and it was about Hippies movement.
1. If you’re going to San Francisco
Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair
If you’re going to San Francisco
You’re gonna meet some gentle people there
2. For those who come to San Francisco
Summertime will be a love-in there
In the streets of San Francisco
Gentle people with flowers in their hair
Intro.: All across the nation, such a strange vibration
People in motion
There’s a whole generation with a new explanation
People in motion, people in motion
3. For those who come to San Francisco
Be sure to wear some flowers in their hair
If you come to San Francisco
Summertime will be a love-in there
Extro.: If you come to San Francisco
Summertime will be a loving day
Songwriters
Kahn, Gus / Kaper, Bronislaw / Jurmann, Walter
Another one:
“Monday, Monday” that was singed by
Mamas and the Papas for those years.
Monday, Monday, so good to me
Monday morning, it was all I hoped it would be
Oh, Monday morning, Monday morning couldn’t guarantee
That Monday evening, you would still be here with me
Monday, Monday, can’t trust that day
Monday, Monday, sometimes it just turns out that way
Oh, Monday morning, you gave me no warning of what was to be
Oh, Monday, Monday, how could you leave and not take me?
Every other day, every other day
Every other day of the week is fine, yeah
But whenever Monday comes
But whenever Monday comes
You can find me crying all of the time
Monday, Monday, so good to me
Monday morning, it was all I hoped it would be
But Monday morning, Monday morning couldn’t guarantee
That Monday evening, you would still be here with me
Every other day, every other day
Every other day of the week is fine, yeah
But whenever Monday comes
But whenever Monday comes
You can find me crying all of the time
Monday, Monday, can’t trust that day
Monday, Monday, it just turns out that way
Oh, Monday, Monday, won’t go away
Monday, Monday, it’s here to stay
Oh Monday, Monday
Oh Monday, Monday
Songwriters
Phillips, John Edmund Andrew
++++++++
If you have seen the movie “Forrest Gump” all these songs are like
sound movie track and I think there is also some of the one you
Tania like so much “Bob Dylan”
Yes there are two “Rany Day Women” with Dylan
and Blowing in the Wind” singed by Joan Baez who was I think his girlfriend, yes she was, and also was her who introduced him in the festival concerts.
I liked Joan Baez too much more than him, sorry Tania.
Forrest Gump has one of the best movie tracks for people like me that have
lived all those incredible years when everything changed so much.
Happy New Year.
emiliano
Hello,
Hi Emiliano.
I love Aquarius (let the sunshine in). I think it is in the film Hair, where a character featuring a hippie man sings that song in a park. But I prefer much more the original version by The Fifth Dimension, in vinyl if possible, on 45 rpm.
Best wishes
Hi,
Thank you , dear Emiliano, for helping me to understand
better Bob Dylan’s work.
You have guessed. I almost know nothing about all those
famous songs.
Although I have seen the movie Forrest Gump, I was not able
to note and the sound movie track.
Thank you.
Happy New Year, dear friend Emiliano!
Tania
Hi,
Dear Mari Carmen, please tell us more about Aquarius.
I know nothing about it.
Happy New Year, dear blog friend Mari Carmen!
Best wishes,
Tania
Mari Carmen, yes I love Aquarius song
Wonderful by all means.
Lyrics:
Whwn the moon is in the Seventh House
And Jupiter aligns with Mars
Then peace will guide the planets
And love will steer the stars
This is the dawning of the age of Aquarius
Age of Aquarius
Aquarius!
Aquarius!
Harmony and understanding
Sympathy and trust abounding
No more falsehoods or derisions
Golden living dreams of visions
Mystic crystal revelation
And the mind’s true liberation
Aquarius!
Aquarius!
When the moon is in the Seventh House
And Jupiter aligns with Mars
Then peace will guide the planets
And love will steer the stars
This is the dawning of the age of Aquarius
Age of Aquarius
Aquarius!
Aquarius!
Aquarius!
Aquarius!
Let the sunshine, let the sunshine in, the sunshine in
Let the sunshine, let the sunshine in, the sunshine in
Let the sunshine, let the sunshine in, the sunshine in
Songwriters
MAC DERMOT, GALT/RADO, JAMES/RAGNI, GEROME /
5th Dimension – Aquarius Lyrics
++++
Of course you are right, it is sing in the musical and film “Hair”
but the original is 5th Dimension.
Good, very good taste and memory dear colleague.
emiliano
And what do you think about this song?
“And you hiding”
Joan Baptista Humet
I love you with my love of amateur,
I love you With the urgency of the soldier.
I Love You Because I’m your gardener,
I Love You Because there is time and flower, and hope.
I Love You Because you hide your love,
I love you because i play explorers.
It’s all I know, and you hiding, I consuming me, and time is passing.
I love you without using Stratagems,
I Love You Because you break my schemes.
I want your figure dancer I never know if you fly or walk.
I love what I Knowing not play,
what that í feel for you and what you owe.
It’s all I know, and you hiding, I consuming me, and time is passing.
I love you for the laughter you shed, feels good to the gray of the morning.
I Love You Because You have decided so your poppy flower and my senses.
I Love You Because it is good to open the hands, the world is always so far away
…
It’s all I know, and you hiding, I consuming me, and time is passing.
+++++
It is a translation from the Spanish, but him J.B. Humet is to me one of the
best singers and poets, born in Cataluña, together with J.M. Serrat that I have listened.
But J.B. Humet was forgotten, Why?
Who knows……..
From time to time I will put some of his poems and songs.
Nice good year for all of you friends of the ESL blog.
emiliano
Talking about Joan Batista Humet, the catalan singer and poet, he lost his sister by the heroine that she injected as so many thousand of young on the eighties.
Heroine was so popular that dozens of thousand young and not so young died on those years.
Once his sister Clara was died he wrote this song in her memory.
“Clara” it was his sister name:
Clara, Clara different, Stranger Among His People, look away.
Clara, drifting, no luck in choosing the exit door.
Clara, abandoned in the arms of another solitude.
Hoping to make friends through the snow to coat other lucidity,
Discovering worlds where it never rains, escaping again and again.
Bailing penalties to navigate … black stars saw through His veins and no one wanted to ask.
Clara was caught, left work, came down.
Clara languished lost on a path of anxieties and ragweed.
Clara Said nothing and one day I Disappeared.
They say walking sidewalks saw adjusting the passage to the
other, trying to do anything for money for biting fire again.
That morning Clara sank, the sea had fear in her eyes, clothes
soaked and the ground for a pillow, and slowly dawned.
++++
This was the story of lot of young in the eighteen years when it
seems all was allowed and heroine was a way to escape.
++++++
Another one more famous song was this one touching the same theme:
Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds
The Beatles
Picture yourself in a boat on a river
With tangerine trees and marmalade skies.
Somebody calls you, you answer quite slowly,
A girl with kaleidoscope eyes.
Cellophane flowers of yellow and green
Towering over your head.
Look for the girl with the sun in her eyes
And she’s gone.
Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Lucy in the sky with diamonds, ah, ah
Follow her down to a bridge by the fountain
Where rocking horse people eat marshmallow pies.
Everyone smiles as you drift past the flowers
That grow so incredibly high.
The heronina, and AIDS, left tens of Thousands of young girls and men killed in the street, in the toilets of some bars, at home, in hospitals and then a consumed by AIDS and Hepatitis C.
Years of freedom but with lot of health problems in the moment and in future.
All this is touched also in Forest Gump.
emiliano
Hello everyone.
Emiliano wrote the lyrics of the song Aquarius – thank you so much, dear colleague – so we see it talks about astrology, love and good vibrations.
I really don’t know much about the song Aquarius. I recall it as one of my memories from my childhood. Dear Tania, Happy New Year to you and to all blog friends here.
Thanks, bye
Mari