artwerxnz: November 2019

Saturday, November 23, 2019

Exclusive interview with Ian McCormack (The Jelly-fish man)

Sometimes I miss "my" old guitar. It was a toy guitar that was actually given to one of my little sisters. The reason I don't have it anymore is that when I was attending the Gisborne Assemblies of God in the late seventies, I was trying to bless the Pastor and his family and offered to give guitar lessons to their oldest daughter, who also was in my son's class at school. This was all a very long time ago. It's 2019 now, and I'm pushing seventy. But I remember being a twenty-something single mother of a seven year old as if it were yesterday afternoon, and I was living in a Fox Street Flat in Whataupoko instead of by the sea in Auckland. I don't remember Michelle even receiving one first lesson. In fact, I remember hinting for her family to set a time and day to begin the lessons. The last time I saw "my" little guitar, it was being stowed in a top shelf of a bedroom in their home, as I tried several ways of politely asking for it back...if that would be all right, if it wasn't too much trouble. Talking to her mum was a bit like talking to a wall, and it was never given back. I felt bad at the time, because it wasn't really mine to give, and that only dawned on me when I attempted to retrieve it. No one in our family ever mentioned it when I adopted it to take to Fox Street at the time. Thirty years later I found Michelle on FaceBook! It was around the 2009 mark, and she even friended me on that platform for awhile. She'd married someone named "Bishop", which I found ironic, since the Pastor's close associates used to call him, "The Bishop". The funny thing was, she barely remembered who I was. She didn't know what I was talking about when I mentioned the guitar. She didn't even remember that my son and I gave her his brand new bike because she didn't have one. My son has a high power job now, and a collector's item car! The Lord has poured out His blessings on us, and we want for nothing...except the friendship of our fellow Humans. People have their free will choices, so neighborliness is not always easily arranged. But I miss that little toy guitar that came to hand in our family home, when I first came home from being baptized...all anointed by the Spirit of the Lord! I used that little toy to praise him for days straight, then on and off for weeks & months. I'm sure there's a replica of it in Heaven and I'll be glad to pick it up again and sing my heart out to my God and Saviour! I hope I see you there...