It’s A Song About Alice
Well, it is rolling around to Thanksgiving again. It has been a couple of years since I posted this one. I am trying to decide how to handle traditions in our post-COVID era. Let’s take a peek at a rerun and see where we were and where we are now. It’s not really a song about Alice! I keep saying that…
Adam Sandler not withstanding, there is only one Thanksgiving song: Alice’s Restaurant by Arlo Guthrie; especially if you have a Folk Music and/or Hippie type background. To both, I will raise my hand in affirmation: Dylan, Pete Seeger, the Weavers, Peter Paul and Mary; as to Hippie: I play electric guitar preferably in elephant bell bottoms! The original recording is 18+ minutes long. While Arlo was “workshopping” his song, it could run over thirty minutes. [Author’s note: I didn’t link to Mr. Sandler’s song because of explicit lyric warnings.]
I didn’t go out of my way to listen to the song this year, it just popped up on the radio one day. However, as music does, it transported me to a different place and time. Now don’t misunderstand me, this is not about nostalgia, longing for the “good old days,” or comparing then with now. This is about knowing what could be done and for what ever reason, valid or otherwise, not acting to affect a change in the situation.
Alice lives in a church. Arlo thought it would be a “friendly gesturer to take all the garbage down to the city dump.” (You probably have to listen to the first two minutes…) This was the line that transported me. In American Church language, it “convicted me.” You see, in the Youth Room at Hope, there are a bunch of empty returnable bottles and cans just waiting to be redeemed. I had thought it would be a friendly gesture to take some back. Only I never got around to doing it. No one asked me to do it, no one expected me to do it. I saw a need and failed to act on it.
So now I need to sit on the Group W bench. (About the 10:30 mark!) “You can get anything you want at Alice’s restaurant.” So, I have just started the “Alice’s restaurant anti massacre” movement. Just listen to the whole song. It starts with a friendly gesture. Take in some bottles and cans.
You have been made aware of a need. How will you react to this need? So I will paraphrase Paul:
I am entrusting this instruction to you, my friend, so that by it you may fight the good fight, with faith and a good conscience. (1 Timothy 1:18 EHV altered)
This is my attempt to regain a good conscience.
It’s not really a song about Alice.
Trust the Promises,
Steve Skiver
View on Hope’s website
[Author’s Note (11/30/2020): This Family Table Devotion ran last year in the email only version. There was nice feedback from it, so I am running it here, in case you missed it. I am pleased to report that the empty returnables have been redeemed! Some by me, some by others. Thank you! As more show up, they too are redeemed! Again, thank you! Where is the next need?]
I probably will listen to the entire song this year. Not for tradition’s sake, but to reflect on the unchanging nature of our God and Savior.