Never Kill your Dog in Anger

Charlie has been chewing up iPod ear buds at the rate of about three pair per week. Tessa has ordered a new six-pack of ear buds that is being delivered by a lame panda from south China, so they haven’t arrived yet. That is why Charlie had to attack my awesome JVC headphones that I always hung lovingly in a special place at my work station.

These were special headphones. They preserved our home and saved our relationship. Much of my day involves sound editing. I have been editing sound for years. Music is bad enough, but the cartoons lately would have made Tessa run over me. If you view one of my cartoons, be assured that I have heard it in two-second increments at least a hundred times before you view it.

So, when we came back from the drugstore yesterday and saw my beloved headphones reduced to plastic gravel on the dog bed, I surged with mortal rage. My fingers were just closing around Charlie’s neck when I heard DJ’s voice.

I had used those very headphones to edit five albums for a recording artist here in Topeka named Dennis “DJ” Jackson. DJ was a great dog lover. His greatest song was about his service dogs Aubie and Satin. And, of course, Jesus. He even made you think about Jesus when he covered a Rod Stewart song or something.

Those were, in fact, the very headphones that DJ wore when he laid down the tracks for his greatest song. When you listen to the song, all the parts are done by DJ– the guitar, the bass, the vocals, the harmony. I heard DJ’s voice telling me, “Look, pal. Those phones are replaceable.”

“But they were so awesome,” I’m thinking.

“Fuck you,” he would say. “Tessa loves that fucking dog.”

Oh, and another thing. DJ had Tourettes. He was a nurse by profession, but a stroke in 1990 had left him with Tourettes and minimal ability to walk. His shows were never more than an hour because the ticks would kick in, and he was done. But he could play and sing beautifully. About God or cars or just about anything.

DJ got his time in in May 2010. He was a civil rights advocate for disability issues and for the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual,and Transgender community. When you click the blue button and listen to his song, you will think he must have been a giant of a man. Actually, he was five-foot-four and weighed about a buck and a quarter soaking wet. He was born with many birth defects that left his sex up to a coin toss. His parents decided to make him a boy, so his testicles stayed and lowered his voice. Yet, he lived as a woman with his back-up singer Donna in his final years– still singing with a male voice.

That’s another thing I will be contemplating as we hear from presidential wannabes who speak of homosexuality and transexuals as sinful. I wish they could hear DJ’s music. I’ve never known a person with a more intact relationship with the same God his condemnors worship.

• Click this space to hear DJ singing “Jesus, Aubie, Satin, and Me”.

Here are the lyrics to the recording. The title is “Jesus, Aubie, Satin, and Me.” But DJ’s fans referred to this song as “One Good Day.” (If you can’t play it in your browser, it should be available at the iTunes podcast in the right sidebar within a few hours of this posting. If it’s not there right away, give it time.)

Woke up this mornin’ to a sunshine day.
Got up and got ready, headed on my way.
Grabbed my dog and my wheel chair.
Then I stopped and prayed.
Said, “Lord, please, Lord, won’t You gimme just one good day.”

Just one good day. That’s all I need.
One good day for eternity.
Walkin’ with my Savior
Runnin’ wild and free.
If You really wanna gimme what I want, gimme one good day.

Sometimes I feel like I just can’t win,
And I’m never gonna leave this body I’m in.
Yeah, but I believe in Jesus.
He understands my pain.
Yeah, someday soon, He’s gonna give me just one good day.

Some day, some mornin’, gonna wake and find
That I don’t need this wheel chair
And that I have a sane mind.
I’ll be jammin’ with Jesus
We’ll make those guitars ring.
Hey, then Jesus, Aubie, Satin, and me
Will have a real good day.