"I know from experience how much beauty Satan carried with him when he fell. Nobody ever said fallen angels were the ugly ones."
Graham Greene, The Power and the Glory
My family is filled with an all-but-endless cast of fascinating characters. Most of the folks on Momma’s side – the McDonnell and Ferrel clans – teeter between brilliant and crazy; but they are all talented and entertaining. Daddy’s people – the Cordle and Martin clans – are bright but under-educated people, people strange in that peculiar mountain way that is too often a consequence of poverty, religion, moonshine and inbreeding.
Uncle Gaylord was Grampa Cordle’s half-brother. He had "received the call", as they say, and was a lay preacher of some ability. He could bring an entire congregation to tears or to conversion depending on his particular mood.
Such power must have been a heavy burden, for Gaylord was as good a drinker as he was a preacher, and he alternated his preaching with week-long or longer drinking spells. As Graham Greene eloquently made the case in The Power and the Glory, that’s too often the case with preachers and priests.
But then that’s to be expected given a religion so bent on pointing out people’s shortcomings to them, a religion that tells them they never had a chance, since they were “born in sin” and can do nothing to deserve salvation, but can be saved only thanks to God’s grace.
What may be worse is that people are taught that suffering here results in greater reward in the hereafter. That's always struck me as a poor way to teach people the joy of doing right for it's own sake. Far better, it seems to me, to teach that virtue is it's own reward.
But given that confusing, condemning message, is it any wonder a preacher – set up as an exemplar, but all too aware of his shortcomings – should be so wracked with guilt that he tries to drown his overwhelming and oppressing sorrow? Sad to say, an ocean of whiskey wouldn’t be enough to drown such guilt. But that doesn’t keep a man from trying.
So it was that Gaylord would preach his heart out against the evils of this world and the pleasures of the flesh. Then he’d assuage his own tormented soul with liquor, proving to himself yet again how unworthy he was of God’s grace.
To add to his problems, women were irresistibly drawn to him, aroused by his soulful countenance and the passions he stirred with his words from the pulpit. And so it was that Gaylord fell victim to other sins of the flesh, to the seductive enticement of the waltz, the endless dance between the sacred and the profane … between good and evil … between God and mammon … between agape love and that other kind of love that burned in the nether regions.
Gaylord fought and fought and fought; but in the end, he lost to sin – as we all do. His demons drove him to drink himself to death, and his last wish was for a cowboy buryin’.
Now for those who are unaware, a cowboy buryin’ is in a plain pine coffin without being embalmed. Why didn’t he want to be embalmed? Did he suppose that Heaven did not wait for those whose blood had been removed? Did he imagine the bloodless could not walk streets paved with gold? Whatever his reasons, that was his last wish, and he extracted a promise from his two sons that it would be carried out.
But there was a problem; burial without embalming was illegal in the state of Kentucky. One son was not about to run afoul of the law, and he went against his father’s wishes and had him embalmed as the law required. The other son was outraged, and the two never spoke another word for the rest of their lives.
So it was – and in some places still is – with preachin’ and drinkin’ and buryin’.
A Cowboy Buryin’
A cowboy died with a few requests
“Would you feed my dog when I’m laid to rest?
Would you walk my horse when I’m laid away?
Would you bury me in the cowboy way?
In a plain, pine box … on a slow, slow train
Headin’ for the hills … goin’ home again
Let the whistle cry … while a sad harp moans
You can have my boots … but let me keep my bones
Now, I’ve never been a cowboy, Son
I have no horse, and my dog’s long gone
But when I come to my dyin’ day
Would you bury me in the cowboy way?
In a plain, pine box … on a slow, slow train
Headin’ for the hills … goin’ home again
Let the whistle cry … while a sad harp moans
You can have my boots … but let me keep my bones
©2012 Tom Cordle
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Comments
"god" didn't want us to have sex, he wouldn't have made it feel so good.
Yeah quite the opposite really... it's in our very DNA for a very real purpose being survival of our sinful species, so I feel no guilt whatsoever. Do unto others etc.. is what it comes down to, and that I do certainly TRY to practice.
Would love to hear your rendition of the song... and yes, I received a package from you a couple days ago... Have listened to "Willie and Me" several times through, so as to truly absorb it before getting into the others. Sweet voice you have my friend and the writing is fantastic. Speaking of, haven't delved into your book yet but very much looking forward to it.
Walk in a good way!
tr ig
These folks don't want to be embalmed, and they certainly don't want to be cremated, but I suspect that plain pine box will only add fuel to the fires of Hell.
Pandora
As you well know, one needs be careful what gets put in or let out of a box.
Yeah, religion sure does give sex a bad name, but where would all those churches and preachers be without it? Like you, I've sinned aplenty when it comes to drinking and sex, but as far as I can see, those sins don't hold a candle to raping and pillaging the public for personal profit. And yet those who do so are held up in their churches and synagogues as "pillars of the community". Jesus weeps.
On a cheerier note, glad your package arrived safe and sound. Enjoy.
Thanks for your concern, but I am not galled. I am concerned about those who are being gulled by the present deplorable state of politics, where prevarication, vacillation and character assassination are the order of the day. That Romney, for instance, has the audacity to rale against Obamacare, when it is precisely the same as the Romneycare he installed in Mass, or that he takes credit for the GM bailout he raled against -- well, that is to me truly, truly galling.
I've dared to call Romney a sociopath. But I don't make that charge lightly. It is clear to me from his present words ("I like firing people" "the poor are doing just fine") and his past deeds that he is a bully. That is evidenced by both his youthful "pranks" (which like any good sociopath he denies or conveniently forgets -- while chuckling at the remembrance) and his business practices.
Yes, that chargecan be dismissed as just the ranting of another rabid liberal, but I'm certainly not so rabid a liberal as to think there's no place for loyal opposition. Indeed, I used to hold Republicans in high regard for their fiscal conservatism.
But alas, that is no longer the case because they are no longer fiscally conservative, as any fair reading of the cause of our present deficit will attest. The cause? Unpaid for elective wars, monstrous tax cuts, and ill-advised hands-off business policies that led to the destruction of the American industrial base, and with it the middle-class that formed the base of our consumer economy.
That anyone would be so foolish as to want to double-down on those bad bets -- or support anyone that does -- simply defies reason. But politics has long since devolved beneath reasonableness.
But worst even than pandering to banksters and corporate crapitalists is the Party's pandering to its aptly-named base. That is beyond galling. In my view at least, it's enough to disqualify from office anyone who doesn't stand up and denounce that base for what it is -- a mob of racists and misogynists bent on establishing a theocracy based on Christian Sharia.
And here I thot this post was going to avoid politics.
I'd never heard the term "cowboy burial" before. It mirrors what I understand to be Jewish practice.
Great lyric as always. You're a song machine.
Sorry to have gone off on a rant -- but I wonder how Republicans -- like the many good and decent and caring Republicans I know -- are able to stomach what's become of their Party. God knows the Democratic Party ain't perfect either, but it truly astounds me why more Republicans aren't openly in revolt.
Do they really imagine Romney is suddenly going to turn moderate if elected? Or that the Teapartians in Congress will let him do so even if he wanted to?
And I suppose this really is about caskets -- the inscription on the tombstones? Here Lies the Republican Party or Here Lies Democracy.
Excellent and moving, and even a little tragicomic, all at once. Wonderful work.
R
Thanks for the kind words, and you're welcome around these parts any time. Yes, this story is a bit tragicomic -- but only from a distance can one appreciate the humor. Surely, Gaylord's life was in many ways a tragedy. But to my mind, even more tragic was the broken relationship between two brothers over something that was ultimately inconsequential.
Sorry for the loss of your son -- no parent should ever have to bury or cremate their child. As for the waiver, a cynic might be inclined to say someone was out to extract the last pound of flesh -- for a price.
Yup, its set to music -- befittingly simple music, three chords and the truth
postmormongirl
Thanks, love your nom de blog
I watched the first episode of H & Mc, but so far have been unable to catch either of the other two. Yes, it's pretty good TV. I researched that feud as part of my book The Disappearing Cemetery, and as far as I'm aware, the basics of the feud are historically accurate -- or at least as accurate as can be determined.
Far from being a dispute over a pig, this was a property dispute or a land grab, depending on which side you were on. That sort of thing continues here in the mountains , because much of the property -- even today -- has never been properly surveyed or titled.
These people were far from being the inbred cretins portrayed in the popular press of the time -- especially in the Eastern papers -- thought regrettably some of that disdainful attitude has crept into this portrayal as well, especially with the minor characters. Not saying they were all Rhodes scholars, but they weren't imbeciles either -- they simply lived by a different code, a code that is still very much alive in the mountains, where "lawin'" somebody is the next thing to a mortal sin.
In this part of America (then and to some extent even now), the law was something people expected to take into their own hands. In this case, things simply got out of hand -- as is often the case with any clan dispute.
By the way, this was far from the only such dispute. Indeed, my dad's people were involved in a similar dispute in Eastern Kentucky, which eventually led to the governor sending in troops. This sort of thing was common in many places in the South during Reconstruction because former Confederates were excluded from govt positions, even as school teachers. Thus there was a nominal government, made up of mostly Republican interlopers and carpetbaggers, and a shadow government of mostly Democratic vigilantes.
Knowing that violence only tends to beget violence is why you and I will have to agree to disagree about efficacy of guns to resolve what are essentially political and property problems. In short, if shooting people really solved such problems, by now there should be no trouble in the world.
Well, if you're gonna go full au natural, just take a walk in the woods as the old Indians used to do. The idea was to feed the animals who had so long fed you.
Abrawang
Embalming is not new -- if I'm not mistaken, the ancient Egyptians practiced it with their mummies. I'm no certain of the exact reason, but it has something to do with disease control. Not so long ago, lime was used for the same reason -- again, if I'm not mistaken.
Poor Woman
Hey, feel free to grin -- after all, the Irish and others have used a wake as a cause for partying.
I grew up in these mountains you write about.
Never heard of a 'cowboy burying' but do know of plenty of bodies that got a quick burial...No embalming needed...
From what I read yesterday, there will be a pile of body stacked up high soon, and the coffins are waiting in a stack of black plastic bins with interlocking lids...
Ponder if they will be a-preacher man giving them the funeral service and some old ladies singing 'I'll meet you down by the river...
All I can say is watch the rest of it. You will love it. They cover everything: the law, religion, guns verses reasoning, autonomy of the states. It should have been an epic movie for the summer of Americas discontent but instead I am sure we will get Batman part 44.
Not sure what you're alluding to, but whatever it is, you can better there will be old ladies wailing and singing sad old songs
Thanks for the compliment, but I fear I'm not able to live up to that assessment of prodigious, and I'm surely too long in the tooth to be a prodigy
So the story goes -- tho I can't say as I remember ever meeting him. That goes for a lot of my kin on Daddy's side
ChiGuy
Thanks, it's funny how small stories about small people cast a much bigger shadow -- certainly Studs Terkel knew that
Thanks for the kind words. Not familar with the RPC, but if length of comments on one's own blog counts for anything, why, I'm a winner hands down :-).
As for my book, there are two ways to read it -- quickly 'cause I intended it to be a fairly easy read -- or slowly 'cause 2,000 years of history isn't easily squeezed into 350 pages. Enjoy.
and play the pipe lowly ..."
Lezlie
We share the same frustration about the sleep of the nation. And you are right, Romney is a classic over-achieving psychopath. Have you ever noticed that he contrives to never look directly into the camera? He's the same way in person. He never looks directly at you and certainly not with the penetrating full attention presence I've been told that Obama gives people.
All politics aside, why is not obvious to everyone that Romney has no personality and therefore no center. This is why he can successively take opposing opinions, because nothing matters to him except what he thinks.
This campaign has been going on for a year now, and he has yet to make a single concrete statement about HOW he would do anything of the things he claims to be able to do.
When I do a consulting gig, I tell the customer exactly what I am going to do and exactly how I am going to go about doing it. Why is it so hard for these candidates to do that?
That was a rhetorical question. We both know the answer to that one.
:)
This is such a stellar post.
Yup, and Streets of Laredo is a nod to an even older tune, the name of which escapes me at the moment
LintheSE
Not familiar with Scotty McCreary -- I confess I don't watch American Idol or much TV at all beyond news and sports. I do make an exception for Book TV on CSPAN and the occasional old movie. Last night, it was Bonnie and Clyde -- I thot it held up rather well.
In his book, The Psychopath Test, Jon Ronson argues that psychopathology is far more common among CEO's than in the general population. Indeed, he compared the prevalence among CEOs to that of prison populations. I dare say psychopathology is truly rampant among corporate raiders and vulture crapitalists like Romney.
It ought to be obvious -- but apparently isn't -- that there is something terribly, terribly wrong with a system that obscenely rewards conscienceless bastards driven only by profit motive. But up until recently, these vultures have been held up as role models.
Nothing will change in this country until that is no longer the case, and the fact that Romney appears to have at least an even chance of winning the Presidency, suggests quite strongly that things are going to have to get a helluva lot worse before people wake up.
Not to worry -- things are going to get a helluva lot worse.
" taught that suffering here
results in greater reward in the hereafter.
That's always struck me as a poor way
to teach people the joy of doing right for it's own sake. "
nobody really believes it, i dont think. we all know love.
what it is, in here now terms.
we seek it forevermore, though.
but it has gotta be earned, here, now.
Thanks for visiting -- yes, the intersection between cultures is interesting. I seem to distantly recall from my Christian indoctrination that the crucifixion of Jesus was a rush job to avoid violating religious strictures.
Poor Woman
Will wonders never cease! But, alas, fame is fleeting -- especially in the OS feed
Thanks for the kind words, and nice to meet a fellow traveler. I'm afraid my songwriting has become more than a bit obsessive. I've got around 900 in my "book" and counting. That's not to brag -- it takes that many to get a dozen or so good ones.
I regret to say -- well, not really -- A Cowboy Buryin' is already fitted to a bouncy little melody much in contrast with the subject matter. Indeed, much of the poetry I post here is from my songbook.
It's nice to meet someone who gets IT. Unfortunately, a majority (and a large majority, I'm afraid) of the Christians of my acquaintance -- and certainly that includes most television preachers and their congregations-- don't get IT.
What is IT? The teaching that love is ALL that matters, and the rest is window-dressing or praying in the street rather than in the closet.
Is there an afterlife? I don't know -- and neither does anyone else, no matter what they promise or choose to believe. I do know that counting on it is a dangerous game, if it precludes one from living this life fully.
What did Jesus mean when he said "the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand"? He obviously couldn't have meant immediately. So what did he mean? Did he mean that it is right at hand for those who are wise and courageous enough to reach out and grab it? If that's so, "Christians" who continue to "build up stores" and "take up the sword" may be in for a big surprise.
They can't say they haven't been warned: "As you have done to the least of these, so also have you done to me."
Thanks for dropping by and for the kind words. Oh, and be careful what you wish for -- you've never heard me sing :-).
I'm honored -- and so is Uncle Gaylord, watching from wherever he may be in the hereafter
Thanks. Why? Why indeed -- I suppose because I'm a better song-writer than I am a song-plugger
Thanks. Seems to me that more than ever people campaign on lies and govern on bigger lies. That was certainly the case with Obama's predecessor, who campaigned as a "compassionate conservative" and governed as a chickenhawk corporatist -- until 30 years of supply-side voodoo economics caught up with him and forced him to become a Keynesian -- but only long enough to pull his friends the have-mores asses from the fire.
You and I ought to have a conversation about Judaism one of these days. Not that Judaism is evangelical - it agressively isn't. However, as strange as it may seem, in certain ways it makes a lot of sense:
Traditional burials are quick and simple. (Not always followed, at least the simple part. The quick part is.)
No original sin.
Satan is a minor figure. If you screw up, take responsibility for it, don't blame someone else.
Emphasis on how you treat others is theologically paramount. Not an emphasis on what to believe. Conduct trumps faith.
Afterlife is believed in but mostly ignored and not really used as a motivator. Life is the main event, not death prep. Virtue mainly is its own reward.
The big mission is to Repair The World.
Questioning scripture is a tradition; in fact, it's our most sacred tradition - that's mainly what Torah study is. "Israel" (well, really "Yisra el" if pronounced in Hebrew) translates into English as "wrestles with God." There's a reason for that.
Sex is not a bad thing. Infidelity is, because it hurts people.
Throw in an overwhelming dose of tribalism and, if Orthodox (I'm not), a whole lot of very stringent rules, and you've got Judaism. The tribalism can get intense, but the theology is in many respects remarkably sensible. Not always, but more so than you'd think.
Perverse isn't it -- that that which is prohibited is made all the more desirable. That said, I'm not sure I'm willing to concede that the Church made sin any more pleasurable, save in a perverse sense (and isn't Church teaching often perverse?), that is in the sense of pain as pleasure. Me? I'm too much a wimp to be a masochist.
Indeed, by throwing a heavy burden of guilt on that which brought us all into this world, I think the Church made sex less pleasurable for most. I'm reminded of the line from the movie The Leopard, in which Burt Lancaster's character says to his good Catholic wife "I've had nine children with you, yet I've never seen you naked above the waist."
I remain a Christian because that's how I was raised, and in that, I'm with Jesus and Gandhi -- I can't imagine two better role models. As I've argued with others many times, I see no reason to exchange that faith until I've practiced it. Sad to say, damn few people who call themselves Christians even bother to try to put their faith in practice -- as our elections bear stark testimony.
The twin pillars of that faith, at least as espoused by Jesus -- who most Christians seem to forget was not a Christian, but a Jew -- are pacifism and communism. Advocating either in this self-professed "most Christian nation" can get you ostracized or killed. So much for the Prophet of Peace.
From your description of your faith, it sounds as though I'm Jewish without the conversion.
(1) No original sin.
The very idea is absurd on it's face
(2) Satan is a minor figure.
I don't believe in Satan, and I see no need for him/it as long as there are humans on this Earth. If God exists and is omniscient and omnipotent, the whole scenario of "Battlefield Heaven" and "fallen angels" is also logically absurd.
(3) Emphasis on how you treat others is theologically paramount. Not an emphasis on what to believe. Conduct trumps faith.
Exactly as Jesus espoused it, tho the heretic Saul of Tarsus argued otherwise. I prefer James the brother of Jesus on the matter -- "Ye shall know them by their fruits" and Jesus himself "As you have done to the least of these, so also have you done unto me."
(4) Afterlife is believed in but mostly ignored and not really used as a motivator. Life is the main event, not death prep. Virtue mainly is its own reward. The big mission is to Repair The World.
If there is a Heaven -- and frankly, I rather doubt it -- it certainly won't be as it's sold to Kindergarten Kristians. I have fun with these questions: If we are to be restored our earthly bodies (as it appears Gaylord might have believed), how so? Will I be a helpless baby that can't fend for itself? Will I be an obstinate teenager? Will I be in the full physical glory of my thirties? Or will I be forced to spend eternity in the body of a decrepit old man with twisted painful joints, a bald head and a weak heart? These questions are no more absurd than the usual "answers".
(5) Questioning scripture is a tradition; in fact, it's our most sacred tradition - that's mainly what Torah study is. "Israel" (well, really "Yisra el" if pronounced in Hebrew) translates into English as "wrestles with God." There's a reason for that.
When I was young and questioned the faith I was handed, my father would say "When you talk like that, the Devil has entered the room." Sorry, Dad, but either God gave me this mind and expects me to use it, or there is no God and my humanity demands that I question what does not comport with reason and experience.
(6) Sex is not a bad thing. Infidelity is, because it hurts people.
I'm afraid I learned that not from my faith, but from my own painful experience. Indeed, among the wisest things I ever learned was from a Catholic priest: "A man's only authority is his own experience."
"Jewish without the conversion." I noticed that. That's why I said something.
You don't believe in Satan. Satan in Judaism is basically an angel that has a discussion with God about Job, more devil's advocate than devil. Believing in Satan isn't important enough in Judaism to be relevant.
Yes, Jesus was Jewish. Actually, never Christian - Christianity didn't become necessary until Jews refused to believe in the resurrection, which is obviously after the fact. Jesus was a Jewish reformer and, as far as I'm concerned, an extremely good one. "Let ye who is without sin cast the first stone" is one of my favorite sentences anywhere. I also agree about Saul of Tarsus, who I think is way more responsible for what Christianity looks like than Jesus is. My issues with Christianity aren't with Jesus the man at all; they're with the theology that grew up around him. Jesus was the guy who saw one too many rich guy stroll blithely past grinding poverty without giving it a second glance, through up his hands in frustration, and muttered "It's gonna be easier to get a camel through the eye of a needle than to get one of these guys into Heaven," not the Pat Robertson creation that likes wealth or Bradley Whitford's "Supply Side Jesus." And you're right: "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need" would be a statement of which he'd have approved. That statement came from a man who didn't approve of Judaism but whose grandfathers were both rabbis and he didn't have enough sense to know just how much of what he came up with came from his background.
Original sin is about one thing: Recruitment. Original sin says that you have to convert or face an awful, permanent fate.
Well, now you've done it! Your comments and my replies will now be worked into a post -- working title: Funny, I Don't Look Jewish