#47: An ER Visit & Universal Gospel Song

1. ER
Close friends know that Jim was in the ER this weekend. He had a very bad weekend where he was almost catatonic, sleeping 23 out of 24 hours. It was so weird and inexplicable, when he finally agreed to go to the ER on Sunday morning, we were relieved that there was no one in the waiting room and we went right in.


They tested everything but nothing came up positive. On Monday, I was really in a panic because it seemed like they had no diagnosis and he looked worse.


Then suddenly, he came out of it and was absolutely normal. We will be seeing his primary doctor today to see if there is any explanation. Thanks to everyone who wrote and expressed sympathy.


2. If You Don't See God.
With AI music proliferating, a single person can "create" and upload hundreds of phony mediocre "songs" based on nothing but a "prompt," thus denying actual songwriters royalties by flooding the market with this crap.


THAT BEING SAID, if someone told me when I was a kid that a song I wrote (YES, THAT I WROTE WITHOUT AI), could come to life almost immediately, I know I would have jumped on it. Now, others may disagree and that's fine.


So what I've done is I've taken a gospel song I wrote some time ago but always wanted to hear in its full glory. But what it needs is a killer soul vocalist, a huge choir and instrumentation. I couldn't afford this kind of production even if I did have the right singers and musicians.


I said above, in the title, that this was a "universal gospel song" and it came from my desire to write songs that could universally apply across any and all faith traditions based on my belief that, in all ethical religions, there is a lodestone of truth-love that runs beneath them all.


Since the rules of the use of AI in streaming is still being worked out legally, I'm only releasing this on YouTube because, frankly, I want everyone SINGING this song.


Long ago, when I left my home church due to their rejection of gay people, it was 25 years before I ever darkened the door of a church again. I'm still not back in or out. As I wrote in another song, "I stand outside," not because I think I'm better but because that's where I am. Period. Pushed out and now outside. And that's fine with me because I have found that I'm welcome in any congregation with an open mind. Whether that's Christian or Jewish or Unitarian or any other other sacred space, it doesn't matter because Truth is Truth and Love is Love.

So, here is the song! I hope it is meaningful to you.


https://youtu.be/J1kfRAs1rRs?si=bqs44AXz-QADY6fO


IF YOU DON'T SEE GOD

If you don’t see God
In the eyes of the people
Then you don’t see God

Search in the stars
Check all the nooks
Know every word
Found in your books
Sort through creation
Sift all the clues
Pay all the dues, but…

If you don’t see God
In the eyes of the people
Then you don’t see God

Pray every prayer
Follow each rule
Learn every lesson
Taught in your school
Wear the right clothing
Walk the right way
Know what to say, but…

If you don’t see God
In the eyes of the people
Then you don’t see God
If you don’t see God
In the eyes of the people
Then you don’t see God
Then you don’t see God
Then you don’t see God

©2004 by Steve Schalchlin / Lil Shack O Tunes ASCAP