A recent, intense look and passionate enthusiasm into Arlo Guthrie in the past year has led me here, to post on a forum, distracted by the smilies to the left, blinking, blushing, laughing. . .the color swatches to the right, so many possibilities. . .and I wonder what the hell I am doing typing these words, "and I wonder what the hell I am doing typing these words". . .then I panic and think about why I would begin a forum, what do I want to discuss, or ask, or tell. . .oh, yes, I only wanted to add in a lil' post I wrote on my blog. . .understanding why we are so changed by things seemingly so distant is just another wonder that keeps life so grand. . .


Thanks, Arlo, for actuating the most perfect combination of de javu and reincarnation every time this young lady listens to your voice, and for inspiring me to find all the pieces of happiness and family that were found 40 and 50 years ago, to keep them safely sewed within the pockets of my children's garments, passed along the line. . .your music and words and experience have added an incredible joy of shared laughter and understanding between me and my kids, thank you. . .

this is from my blog, http://www.thepartingfamily.blogspot.com

Looking for a way out of war via Arlo Guthrie storytelling trip

I know I've heard Arlo when I was a kid, and my mom sang us the likes of Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan, and her fav - Peter, Paul, and Mary, who sang many a well-repeated song with pacifist substance and immediate, calming yet raw sway for change. . .you know, the Gandhi-King-Lennon (John) approach. . .
But as I have written, never was I so borderline obsessed over any song since the Cure in 9th grade, Robert Smith's neon cherry painted lips mouthing Love Cats, and no war protest about it. . .

It all began with Alice's Restaurant, as it seemed to have begun with Arlo Guthrie himself. The son of Woody Guthrie, of This Land is Your Land fame - a song I believed was akin, equal, even more fitting than our national anthem when I was in elementary school - I believed we had to memorize it, and yes, had the concrete realization that such a lovely and catchy tune about sharing and being proud and honored to live in such a place that valued freedom and gratitude as our country - well, had the actual thought that it was a much more appropriate anthem then relating our entire existence solely on battle, on bombs, on icons like the flag. It seems to me that we are founded on good principles, but just like not seeing the forest for the trees, we lose track of them and focus instead on big bangs and big bucks. . .enough! This is by no means a political commentary space, I'm too far removed to make intelligent observations or opinions. . .

So, it all began outside Stockbridge, MA. A sudden realization of the power to answer most questions or interests that pop into my head at any moment, I remembered the mystical and omnipotent powers of the internet and, in a moment of curiosity looked up the church from the song. Sure enough, by Jove - it stands, it lives, it breaths! They're even added to it. It's now a non-profit called the Guthrie Center, and tomorrow at 6am, we are taking the bus up for a visit to the legendary church, sleeping on the bus, talking with some friends we haven't seen yet.

This may not be anything to anyone, but it's terribly significant for me. Life is in a constant motion of change - you may think you are stable and even have a routine, most of us have jobs that have corralling effect, money that keeps our imagination in check, our spontaneity in a dusty lock-box at the bank, only available with apt notice and planning. . .some of us are impulsive in a positive way, of being un-scared, honest, epic, and completely optimistic. Don Quixotes of the world, let us never stop.

Even though the original plan for the bus is a plan of either the past or the distant future, another plan is formed. Alice's Restaurant, the song, is mainly re-telling the happenstance manner in which Guthrie avoided the Vietnam draft because of littering. . .the movie is about a time when being yourself was hard. Sound familiar? That's because it can always be difficult to be yourself, or rather, to recognize that others may be ok with you being yourself. And peaceful, and perhaps - diplomatically and respectfully - disagreeing with a stance of war that is, for some people. . .seen as needlessly violent or wasteful, negative, deleterious, fatalistic, self-defeating, and/or antipathetic. Seems like Guthrie, and an entire generation, got a whole lotta difficulties for exercising things like First Amendment rights and humanitarianism. Sometimes I feel like a bubble of glue-energy (that's static energy that just glues me stiller than a bowl of fruit in an oil painting from the black and white days), unable to let things move, to see the significance of things like pickles. . .uhoh, here I go again with references. Let's just say, that it can be easy to get stuck on an idea, let's say the idea of how things aren't working out. OR we can say, "I'll just step back a few paces to give myself, my ego, and my fear some breathing room" and wallah! we can see the significances, the connections, the why's. Not always mind you. Sometimes it's all such a reach it feels like you're lying to yourself.

"Yeah, Sabrina, I'm stoked on the bus concept completing morphing into something less adventurous and more local geographically, looking forward to art openings and acting cool." Um, no. I'm looking forward to introducing artists and concepts that may not be welcomed in the sleek and sterile environs of the galleries of So-Ho, Olde City, and geez, whatever Boston and Baltimore have, and G_d knows I'm taking Sirius down to Austin and Albuquerque and San Diego.

So. . .looking for a way out of patterns, holes, or repetitious thoughts that consume us, actions that form us without our full consent, lifestyles that are created through a false sense of urgency, of lack, of need for more. . .Guthrie wasn't particularly looking for a way out (the movie suggests he was, kinda) but look what happened. Well, listen to what happened. If you have no idea who or what I'm talking about, that's an opportunity for you to check out this.

So tomorrow, with 4 children and two adults, we will make our way to visit the church that held an infamous Thanksgiving Dinner, the cafe that sorta inspired the name of the song, and a nice place in the woods to park the bus, morphing into a gallery for all those incredible humans out there who I know would enjoy a nice, renegade showing of mobile art, versatile and slightly disruptive, passively awesome, rolling on wheels of imaginative solutions, and somehow - I'm working on this one - somehow making the world a better place. Sharing, acknowledging the beginning, middle, and now, and, allowing growth and directions to open up my mind.

See you in Massachusetts!
Posted by Sabrina Berstch at 12:39 AM

Welcome to the site. I bet you'll have a fun trip.

Thanks Cheryl - this was from a couple weeks ago, the trip was amazing, I wrote more about it on my blog listed above. I'm hoping to make it back up in September. I'm also in love with Massachusetts...

\Welcome, not sure if travel by school bus is my way of travel but sounds like fun. Next time up stop by Pittsfield*bigger than Great Barrington and then take 7 on up through Williams, maybe even a quick stop at Mt Greylock which is gorgeous in the fall.

I'd love to visit the church someday. Probably never will due to various reasons which won't be brought up here, since I am most likely in the vast minority of this forum concerning certain things, but it is something I'd like to do.

Same here

And the words (and movie) were made flesh

I do hope you are able to visit the church some day too. I wasn't sure I'd ever make it either, but I did and it was totally worth it.

I'll have to check out your blog sometime and read about the trip.