Paul Thorn: Thinking About Thorns in the Flesh, By Whitney Farmer – Un Pop Culture

August 5, 2010 Whitney Farmer 5 Comments

Whitney runs a rock music venue on the beach in L.A. She as an M.B.A., but her car is in the shop.

Paul Thorn, #1 Americana on the Billboard charts, played at the club last weekend. A former professional boxer who fought a nationally televised bout against Roberto Durán, he is a dead ringer for Jason Statham of “Transporter” fame except with a gracious Southern accent and really nice manners.  And my goodness, that boy can play music…

His latest album is called “Pimps and Preachers”, inspired by his parish pastor father and his stable-running San Quentin alumnae of an uncle. He says without guile that both taught him how to be a man. He says that we all have both within us, like cutting open a chicken and finding both white and dark meat.  He also remarked that these two seemingly opposite archetypes on the moral scale have much in common: They dress in the same manner, have the same speaking style, and both promise you heaven while dangling you over hell.

One of my spiritual grandmothers was an unknown heroine from an unwritten book. She worked as a missionary in Kenya for 40 years, providing sanctuary for young women who were fleeing ritual female circumcision. She was personally despised by Jomo Kenyatta and on the death list of the Mau Maus, and she was a friend of Emperor Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia before he became viewed as Jah and the spiritual ruler of the Rasta movement. Sometime within her 60^th decade, she received a letter and a proposal of marriage from a man she had known as a young girl. This amazing woman – bald from wearing a helmet for most of her life – believed that she heard the voice of God telling her that a marriage was part of His plan to finish up her training. It turns out it was true.

Most of this soul work was told with laughter and a smile after the lessons had sunk in. Her vanity was targeted when she was told she needed cancer surgery: She had a handsome doctor and didn’t want him to see her with her false teeth out – necessary for general sedation – so she insisted on having multiple lumpectomies with only local anesthesia. She laughed when she described how unbearable the pain was when they sunk the long needles into her breasts.

Her patience and forgiveness were refined when once, shortly into her marriage, she showed up with her bags packed on our doorstep, determined to leave.  She went back after spending a couple of days with us, but the character development continued after her awkward newlywed days at the age of 67.

Her pride and prudishness were shown the door when her beloved husband died.  Everyone wanted to know what were the last words of this amazing man of God: Did he see heaven? Did he give a word that would sustain the church through the grief of losing him?  Blushing, she told my mom what had transpired if she promised to tell no one until she also had passed away: As she had bent close to her 92-year-old husband as his life was coming to a close, he whispered gently to her, “If you wiggle underneath me, I can just flip over…”

Yesterday, I came out of the drug store where I had just bought a box of hair dye and a pack of gum in preparation for a date. I discovered that my right eyeball which I had scratched earlier in the day was now full of blood. My imperfect roots and the character challenge that they might present to this first date candidate lost their power over me in that moment as I looked at how particularly monstrous I now appear. Not that I will be provoking in my imperfection, but I can only be with someone who likes both my white meat and dark meat. No reason that it shouldn’t start now, because I know I am still just working towards perfect love and strength and wisdom. There will always be something to work on, and the only promise I can make is to try to be as forgiving as much as I will need to be forgiven.

Quote of the Blog from Paul Thorn, who sang it right: “The more I learn, the less I know. The more I change, the more I grow. I pray the road I’m travelin’ on will lead me to the Light. God, I hope I’m doin’ this right…”