This Is The End: Ray Manzarek

John 3:15

So that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life.

With the passing of Ray Manzarek of The Doors, my youthful days become even more distant. I am sure that those who were teens and young adults in the 1960's squint even harder to see the past. As a cloud than vanishes away in the hot afternoon. The scorching winds of time whisking life away.

This is the end, my only friend the end.....of everything that stands the end....I'll never look into your eyes again. Beautiful poetry, quite sad. Perfect for adolescent angst. The End, the magnus opus of The Doors. Every great band has one song that defines their best work.

I had a pattern as a teen to adopt a band and then listen to them incessantly like a perseverating autistic child. The Doors and The Jimi Hendrix Experience were by far the two most prolific on my playlist. It was a good yet destructive habit. I appreciated the intelligence of the music yet it was a downer. Not a good thing necessary for a lost teenager to try and find his way with. Broken flashlights were these musicians.

I had to put such bands away as one hides the liquor from the children. I didn't need to be influenced but it was already in my system and the liver of redemption had to do its work of slowly getting it out of me. Yet, traces remain and always will. Who I was will always be with me.

But, this life is not the end. In a very real way, I admire those who have no hope in the life after this one, who carry on nonetheless, as a soldier on the losing side of a battle whose death is only a matter of time but who fights on. That is not me. If this was all there is, I would have layed down my weapons a long time ago and walked into the line of fire.

Hope is the sweetest song and He who listens to Jesus has the only hope there truly is.