The Man Comes Around

Johnny Cash
Oil on canvas, 7 x 5 inches, 2016.

“It is hard for you to kick against the pricks” was a Greek proverb, but it was also familiar to the Jews and anyone who made a living in agriculture. An ox goad was a stick with a pointed piece of iron on its tip used to prod the oxen when plowing. The farmer would prick the animal to steer it in the right direction. Sometimes the animal would rebel by kicking out at the prick, and this would result in the prick being driven even further into its flesh. In essence, the more an ox rebelled, the more it suffered. Thus, Jesus’ words to Saul on the road to Damascus: “It is hard for you to kick against the pricks.” 
(Copyright 2002-2016. Got Questions Ministries.) ...I always wondered what it meant.

Dear John

Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash
12" x 9", oil on wood, 2005

Johnny Cash did not make the top 100 list this year. It's actually been seven years since he did. I just realized he's not even represented in the archive (to your right). And now this has to change, I have always liked Johnny Cash and he never stopped scoring points for songs I'd listened to. Through repeated play over the years, Hurt, a cover of a Nine Inch Nails song from the album American Recordings IV, entered this year into my "All Times" list. In a week full of things breaking down and dying, one positive thing happened: I was able to get everything I wanted from the hard drive of my old, long dead, computer. That includes a full set of images from three top 100 years, as well as a lot of the music that were in those lists. The Top 100 2005 included five paintings featuring a chicken. I know it's very silly to put one on top of June Carter Cash' head but hey, at the time I thought it was a good idea. (Ouch) I have a Johnny Cash 45 titled The Chicken in Black.