UNACCOMPANIED PEOPLE
UNACCOMPANIED PEOPLE
Bach
Bach wrote God’s music. He was born the same year as Handel. He found coins
inside of two fish. Someone threw them because he looked poor. Bach wrote God’s
music. He found work in Leipzig. He played organ, but he had to teach school. Bach
wrote hundreds of cantatas. Some of those manuscripts were used to wrap fish in.
Bach wrote God’s music. When he grew old, he became blind, the same way as
Handel. One month before he died, his eyesight returned. He wrote a prelude. Bach
wrote God’s music.
Ed
Ed keeps on a-movin’. Ed likes to encourage other people and talk to them about
what the Lord has done in his life. Ed keeps on a-movin’.
It wasn’t always that way. Ed came down with Multiple Sclerosis when he was
about 25, and his wife cared for him and raised their two small children. Ed’s condition
became progressively worse, and he became harder and harder to live with. He slept in
the unfinished attic away from his family. Every night he felt like he was going down a
long tunnel. He’d put out his hands to stop falling but there wasn’t anything to grab on
to. This would happen every night again and again and again. He says that he was
a-scared. He says that he was a-scared to fall asleep. he says he was a-scared of
dying.
Ed remembered learning the 23rd Psalm in school. He’d say: “He leadeth me
beside the still waters.” He’d say again: “He leadeth me beside the still waters.” and
again “He leadeth me beside the still waters.” and still again: “He leadeth me beside
the still waters.” and again and again “He leadeth me beside the still waters.” and
again “He leadeth me beside the still waters.” One night Ed was saying this, and in the
attic he had a vision of still waters, and he saw Jesus sitting under a tree, and Jesus
said to Ed: “Come and rest a while.” and Ed put his head on Jesus’ lap, and Jesus
said: “Everything will be all right.” That was 30 years ago.
Since that time Ed keeps on a-movin’. He visits the sick in the hospital, and
because he walks slowly with a cane, sometimes the nurses try to keep him from
getting on the elevator. They don’t realize he’s a visitor. He always quotes the same
Bible verses to everybody. Some people get annoyed with him. Others love him. And
Ed’s still alive. And he keeps on a-movin’. “It’s all right to be helpless but not to be
hopeless.” he likes to say.
And Ed keeps on a-movin’. Ed likes to encourage other people to keep on a-movin’.
Keep on a-movin.
Stella
Stella was born in Alexandria. She was Greek and her father was rich. When she
was five she had a dream that her father climbed a mountain, and she tried to chase
after her father, but he kept on climbing higher. That same night her father was
murdered by some robbers.
Years passed. Stella became a beautiful woman. She was married to a pilot in the
British Air Force who was stationed in Egypt during the war. They had five children.
The first one died. The other one’s names were Frank & Brian & Philip & Caliope.
They lived everywhere in the world, wherever they were assigned. Finally they moved
to America. He husband found a job with a British manufacturer of cars. Her husband
swore on his daughter’s head that he was not having an affair with another woman,
but he was! (Stella)
Stella was married again to a retired widower named Charley. Charley and Stella
went to Greece every summer, and they bought a house in Dallas. Stella got a job at
Neiman-Marcus. After 12 years Charley died. Stella sold the house and bought a
condominium. Stella will be 81 years-old in October.
Me
This song is about me. My name is _______________, and as you may have
noticed I’m a _______________. But that is not who I really am! When I was a
child I liked ____________-ing, but now I really like ___________-ing. However,
I feel I should tell you that I hate _______________. There is a whole lot more
about me that this song is not about. For example: _________________________,
and the manuscript of this song does not even mention that.
But there is something in me that I cannot put into words, but only music
(music). Mmm mmm mmm mmm mmm mmm mmm mmm mmm. That is also
me. I like to sing. Thank you very much for listening.
performed by
Linda Fulton Ferreira, soprano
words & music by
William Vollinger ©1992