I
know I’m gonna date myself on this next statement, but I don’t care, ain’t no
shame in my game. When I was a kid my
dad was a master mixer on a top of the line reel to reel recording device. He created masterpieces of singing from a
variety of church folk and sermons, most of them his, and a variety of others,
for example: He took that big
contraption (which probably used “D” batteries with him to hear Dr. Martin
Luther King at the San Francisco Cow Palace and to Memphis, TN to record Bishop
Charles Harrison Mason, founder of the Church of God in Christ. I remember the recorder sitting upright on a
table he had set up in a makeshift work area where he would spend hours
listening, splicing and/or repairing tapes.
I didn’t have as much interest as my dad, but I was amazed at his.
Tania
not Tanya nugget: Splicing is the act of
cutting the tape at the required point and rejoining it to another section of
tape using adhesive tape, or sometimes glue. It’s another term for editing. The splicing tape has to be very thin to
avoid impeding the tape's motion, and the adhesive is carefully formulated to
avoid leaving a sticky residue on the tape or deck. Usually, the cut is made at
an angle across the tape so that any "click" or other noise
introduced by the cut is spread across a few milliseconds of the recording. The
use of reels to supply and collect the tape also made it very easy for the
editor to manually move the tape back and forth across the heads to find the
exact point of the desired edit. Tape to be spliced was clamped in a special
splicing block attached to the deck near the heads to hold the tape accurately
while the edit was made. Only a skilled
editor could make these edits rapidly and accurately. The recording tape was made out of cellulose
acetate plastic (a substance used as film base in photography) is coated with iron
oxide (chemical compounds composed of iron and oxygen).
For
those of you who are not familiar with a reel to reel, they work very similar
to a cassette recorder except everything is much larger and delicate. Primarily because the reel to reel tape is fully
exposed unlike that of a cassette tape where everything is smaller, compact and
the majority of the tape is protected by the outer cover. Cassettes also have downsides of being easily
worn out or warped if left exposed to sunlight making tape repair a huge
obstacle because you would have to open the case before you could even get to
the tape.
Believe
it or not even today, some artists of all genres prefer
analog tape's "musical", "natural" and especially
"warm" sound. It’s common for artists to record to digital and
re-record the tracks to analog reels for this effect of "natural"
sound. In addition to all of these attributes of tape, tape saturation is a
unique form of distortion that many rock, blues and funk artists
find very pleasing.
My
Dad has always taken care of his things by keeping them neat and clean, no
matter what it was. His reel to reel
collection wasn’t an exception either.
From what I remember he kept them in cases (sleek little durable
cardboard boxes customized for the reels).
He labeled each one with his "unique" penmanship for identification
purposes so that he could easily retrieve just the right one when he wanted it. To this day, I don’t ever recall him lending
his equipment to anyone or allowing others to use it unless he was
instructing them. Why? I can only assume because he didn’t trust
others with his valuable items which brings me to my actual topic, Trust.
When
people asked my dad to help them with their raw data, unedited tape, it
required that they trust him, because once he began the process there was no
going back. He took the raw data they
entrusted him with not knowing exactly what they were going to get, but
trusting he would return the finished product to their specifications. He never charged anyone a fee, nor did he
force his services upon anyone, everything was always voluntary at the owner’s
request. Once they entrusted him with
their priceless memories he went to work with the raw data, hour after hour listening,
rewinding, listening, rewinding.
Sometimes rewinding slowly by hand and other times allowing the natural
process of the unit to do the job but he never over did it because too much
stress could cause the tape to break.
Watching and listening ever so carefully for the perfect opportunity to
begin the delicate work of splicing the tapes to create a masterpiece. Splicing required that he cut the precious
tape, discard what wasn’t needed only to reconnect the severed tape to reunify
it, not in just one area, but in many areas only as a skilled Master craftsman
can.
And
so it is with Our Father, who is in Heaven.
He takes the raw material of our lives, all the junk, drama, nasty,
stinky sin that caused us to be angry, mean, raggedy, hurting, individuals
living like condemned inmates on death row who have run out of appeals, and He splices
our lives back together as a Master craftsman, but only if we trust Him with
our raw material. You see, His one and
only desire is to make us whole so that when people hear us they hear the
melodious sound we produce as we “play it forward”, especially those who knew
us in our raw uncut state.
Trust
God you say? But how can I trust a “god”
who made me suffer the years of abandonment, abuse and neglect? He didn’t “make” you He “chose” for that task
because He knew you wouldn’t break. He
needed an example, someone like you He could trust to be an example for others
to see go through their stuff and come out with their sanity, thriving and
making it happen. He chose others, but
they blew it along the way, but not you sweetie, and if you just trust Him a
little while longer, He’s going to blow your mind with things you “have never seen, heard or imagined” (2
Corinthians 2:9) or not; it’s left up to you.
You can keep your ugly stinky raw material or make a step towards trust,
even if it’s an eeny weenie teeny step.
But
how can I trust God when he took so much from me? Took from you? Every single day He gives you is a gift, it’s
called the “present”. With it come
twins, grace and mercy. Yeah, yeah, yeah
Tania, I don’t want to hear all that stuff, I can’t take the twins to the bank
or the grocery store. Well you could if
you would stop whining like a little baby and listen. Trusting God is not something you can
actually explain, it’s something that you decide to do and no experience is
needed, only action. Putting one
(spiritual) foot in front of the other.
How, you say? The same way we talk about living a victorious life: praying, reading his love letters, fasting,
find a seasoned blood bought believer and asking them to mentor you.
· But I don’t know
how to pray. Open your mouth and tell
him how you feel, what you need and that you’re scared, etc. Have a conversation with Him, just start and
stop making excuses. Or not, it’s left
up to you;
· But I don’t know
what Love Letters to read? Open your
mouth, ask Him to show you what to read and then open the Book (or your phone app). As you begin to familiarize yourself with the
Love Letters (the Good Book (the Word), my Favorite Book, the Bible) you’ll
start to discover things other areas to read.
Listen just start and stop making excuses. Or not, it’s left up to you.
· But I don’t know
how to fast. Boy bye! We give instructions every Wednesday, quit
playin’. But why do I need to fast?
Because some things come out through prayer and fasting. (Matthew 17:21)
· But I don’t know
where to start, again, open your mouth and say: “I trust God”; say it again,
say it again, say it again. OK, how
about this, say it until it becomes real (not reel) to you. Think it, hum it, sing it, rap it, whisper
it, yell it (unless you’re at home or at church J).
Text it to yourself, email it, post it, put it in your calendar as a
daily reminder
I’m
out of time for now.
Because
of his promised Favor
Tania
Not Tanya
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