When Taylor Swift first arrived with her hit, "Tim McGraw," I heard her on the radio describing why she gave Tim McGraw (in Single-Man Envy Land we call him "Mr. Faith Hill") such a shout-out, and she said something like, "For people my age, Tim McGraw is a legend." I laughed at that, no disrespect to Tim. His highs are really high; I love the guy; he knows himself, and knows his audience. I always thought that what I'd heard of his albums (most of them) was a bit inconsistent. This dude is a singles artist to me, and that's not a slur. But then I thought about it, the phrase, "knows himself, and knows his audience." Maybe that's what a music legend is: he or she understands what he/she brings to the table, and doesn't do anything contrary to those shared musical experiences. This is my favorite Tim McGraw song. [Geez, you're haunted by ghosts.--ed.] Very likely. But seriously, the reason I love this tune is that it explains why I love R&B and country in the same song. Tim has sung approvingly of bending genres before, and even accomplished it a time or two. Perhaps my other favorite is this one. It's so packed with metaphors and similes that you say, "Hmmm, I gotta think about that one." [Every song you like is about women.--ed.] Hey, any idiot who's ever written a song will tell you: love songs are the easiest to write. [Noone says that but you.--ed.] OK. The reason I mention all this is that I woke up with "She's My Kind Of Rain" in my head. I don't know why. Next thought: "What a bloody great song." Thought After That: "Why didn't I write that?" [Because you don't play any instruments, and can barely carry a tune.--ed.] I don't sing that bad. There are worse with record contracts, I reckon.
I once had a friend, a dear friend, who helped me with personal care needs in college. Reformed Presbyterian to the core. When I was a Reformed Presbyterian, I visited their church many times. We were close. I still consider his siblings my friends. (And siblings in the Lord.) Nevertheless, when I began to consider the claims of the Catholic Church to be the Church Christ founded, he took me out to breakfast. He implied--but never quite stated--that we would not be brothers, if I sought full communion with the Catholic Church. That came true; a couple years later, I called him on his birthday, as I'd done every year for close to ten of them. He didn't recognize my number, and it was the most strained, awkward phone call I have ever had. We haven't spoken since. We were close enough that I attended the rehearsal dinner for his wedding. His wife's uncle is a Catholic priest. I remember reading a blog post of theirs, that early in their relationship, she told him of the p
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