Welcome Home Soldier (c) 2006 Tommye Rodrigues 

1
Welcome home     soldier
We gotta celebrate
You've come home alive, boy
Celebratin' can't wait
  
2
You've tied one on now 
Don't you  drink and drive
You'll kill somebody   drivin' that ah way 
Drunk drivin’n  ‘s  a crime   
Why are you laughin, soldier?
What did I say?

3
Soldier boy    tell me now        
What's the matter with you?
Did you right some wrongs, boy?
Did ya kill us a few?
You lookin’ kinda strange now   
What’s the matter with you?

Well, I gotta few problems, Daddy      
Just one or two

CHORUS: 
Bullets   ricocheting       flying round   in my head
Firefights        most ev'ry night   
Flashing hot     golds  and reds
Keep  thinkin'   I've died, keep thinkin' I've died
But I wake in my bed

    
4
Nightmares follow     sure as night follows day
Keep wakin’ up shakin’     I'm back there again
See’n   ‘em   die      feelin’ their pain
Feelin’ their fear     feelin’ my shame    Dyin’   n’   cryin’  in this president’s name 

BRIDGE:
But so many dead    
How can I complain?
Graves for their bed 
How can I complain?
Cold earth for their beds
How can I complain
All that killin's   
Gonna drive me insane

6
Get on with your life now    say all my friends
Get a job   make some money
It's the beginnin'      not the end
No more talk of war boy
That's enough said
Forget the dead, yeah
Put ‘em out of your head
Buy a house in the suburbs
With your GI loan
Forget the dead now
Those boys are gone
Those boys are gone

I must take it to the big bad physician! He will have it for only a few days I hope. To my friends on blogstream: be happy! Tome

Stay well folks and talk with you later.

STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS
I met my old lover
On the street last night
She seemed so glad to see me
I just smiled
And we talked about some old times
And we drank ourselves some beers
Still crazy after all these years
Still crazy after all these years

I'm not the kind of man
Who tends to socialize
I seem to lean on
Old familiar ways
And I ain't no fool for love songs
That whisper in my ears
Still crazy after all these years
Still crazy after all these years

Four in the morning
Crapped out
Yawning
Longing my life away
I'll never worry
Why should I?
It's all gonna fade

Now I sit by my window
And I watch the cars
I fear I'll do some damage
One fine day
But I would not be convicted
By a jury of my peers
Still crazy
Still crazy
Still crazy after all these years

ONE TRICK PONY
He's a one trick pony
One trick is all that horse can do
he does one trick only
It's the principal source of his revenue
And when he steps into the spotlight
You can feel the heat of his heart
Come rising through

See how he dances
See how he loops from side to side
See how he prances
The way his hooves just seem to glide
He's just a one trick pony (that's all he is)
But he turns that trick with pride

He makes it look so easy
He looks so clean
He moves like God's
Immaculate machine
He makes me think about
All of these extra movements I make
And all of this herky-jerky motion
And the bag of tricks it takes
To get me through my working day
One-trick pony

He's a one trick pony
He either fails or he succeeds
He gives his testimony
Then he relaxes in the weeds
He's got one trick to last a lifetime
But that's all a pony needs
(that's all he needs)
He looks so easy
He looks so clean
He moves like God's
Immaculate machine
He makes me think about
All of these extra movements I make
And all of this herky-jerky motion
And the bag of tricks it takes
To get me through my working day

One-trick pony, one trick pony
One-trick pony, one trick pony
One-trick pony (take me for a ride)
One trick pony

Dr. George Rodonaia holds an M.D. and a Ph.D. in neuropathology, and a Ph.D. in the psychology of religion. Most recently he delivered a keynote address to the United Nations on the “Emerging Global Spirituality.” Before immigrating to the United States from the Soviet Union in 1989, he worked as a research psychiatrist at the University of Moscow.

Dr. Rodonaia underwent one of the most extended cases of a “clinical near death experience” ever recorded. Pronounced dead immediately after he was hit by a car in 1976, he was left for three days in a morgue. He did not “return to life” until a doctor began to make an incision in his abdomen as part of an autopsy.

Another notable feature of Dr. Rodonaia’s near death experience – and this is common to many – is that he was radically transformed by it. Prior to his near death experience, he worked as a neuropathologist. He was also an avowed atheist. Yet after the experience, he devoted himself exclusively to studying the psychology of religion. He then became an ordained priest in the Eastern Orthodox Church. Today he serves as an associate pastor at the First united Methodist Church in Nederland, Texas.

“The first thing I remember about my near death experience is that I discovered myself in a realm of total darkness. I had no physical pain; I was still somehow aware of my existence as George, and all about me there was darkness, utter and complete darkness – the greatest darkness ever, darker than any dark, blacker than any black. This was what surrounded me and pressed upon me. I was horrified! I wasn’t prepared for this at all. I was shocked to find that I still existed, but I didn’t know where I was. The one thought that kept rolling through my mind was, ‘How can I be when I’m not?’ That is what troubled me.

Slowly, I got a grip on myself and began to think about what had happened, what was going on. But nothing refreshing or relaxing came to me. Why am I in this darkness? What am I to do? Then I remembered Descartes famous line: ‘I think, therefore, I am.’ And that took a huge burden off me, for it was then I knew for certain I was still alive, although obviously in a very different dimension. Then I thought, ‘If I am, why shouldn’t I be positive?’ That is what came to me. I am George and I’m in darkness, but I know I am. I am what I am. I must not be negative.

Then I thought, ‘How can I define what is positive in darkness?’ Well, positive is light. Then, suddenly, I was in light; bright, white, shinny and strong; a very bright light. It was like the flash of a camera, but not flickering – that bright. Constant brightness. At first I found the brilliance of the light painful. I couldn’t look directly at it. But little by little, I began to feel safe and warm, and everything suddenly seemed fine.

The next thing that happened was that I saw all these molecules flying around, atoms, protons, neutrons, just flying everywhere. On the one hand, it was totally chaotic, yet what brought me such great joy was that this chaos also had its own symmetry. This symmetry was beautiful and unified and whole, and it flooded me with tremendous joy. I saw the universal form of life and nature laid out before my eyes. It was at this point that any concern I had for my body just slipped away, because it was clear to me that I didn’t need it anymore -- that it was actually a limitation.

Everything in this experience merged together, so it is difficult for me to put an exact sequence to events. Time as I had known it came to a halt; past, present and future were somehow fused together for me in the timeless unity of life.

At some point, I underwent what has been called the “life-review process,” for I saw my life from beginning to end all at once. I participated in the real life dramas of my life, almost like a holographic image of my life going on before me – no sense of past, present or future, just now and the reality of my life. It wasn’t as though it started with birth and ran along to my life at the University of Moscow. It all appeared at once. There I was. This was my life. I didn’t experience any sense of guilt or remorse for things I’d done. I didn’t feel one way or another about my failures, faults or achievements. All I felt was my life for what it is. And I was content with that. I accepted my life for what it is.

During this time, the light just radiated a sense of peace and joy to me. It was very positive. I was so happy to be in the light. And I understood what the light meant. I learned that all the physical rules for human life were nothing when compared to this universal reality. I also came to see that a black hole is only another part of that infinity which is light. I came to see that reality is everywhere. This is not simply the earthly life but the infinite life. Everything is not only connected together, everything is also one. So I felt a wholeness with the light, a sense that all is right with me and the universe.

So there I was, flooded with all these good things and this wonderful experience, when someone begins to cut into my stomach. Can you imagine? What had happened was that I was taken to the morgue. I was pronounced dead and left there for three days. An investigation into the cause of my death was set up, so they sent someone out to do an autopsy on me. As they began to cut into my stomach, I felt as though some great power took hold of my neck and pushed me down. And it was so powerful that I opened my eyes and had this huge sense of pain. My body was cold and I began to shiver. They immediately stopped the autopsy and took me to the hospital where I remained for the following nine months, most of which I spent under a respirator.

Slowly, I regained my health. But I would never be the same again, because all I wanted to do for the rest of my life was study wisdom. This new interest led me to attend the University of Georgia where I took my second Ph.D., in the psychology of religion. Then I became a priest in the Eastern Orthodox Church. Eventually, in 1989, we came to America and I am now working as an associate pastor at the First United Methodist Church in Nederland, Texas.

Anyone who has had such an experience of God, who has felt such a profound sense of connection with the reality, knows that there is only one truly significant work to do in life and that is love; to love nature, to love people, to love animals, to love creation itself, just because it is. To serve God’s creation with a warm and loving hand of generosity and compassion – that is the only meaningful existence.

Many people turn to those who have had near death experiences because they sense we have the answers. But I know this is not true, at least no entirely. None of us will fully fathom the great truths of life until we finally unite with eternity at death. But in the meantime, it is our very nature to seek answers to our deepest questions about the near death experience and immortality.