Alice, institutions, Woody

[lupinesque]

Kimberly wrote:

> > ...but my train of thought is too convoluted for him, or maybe 
he's 
> > just never visited Alice's restaurant.

David wrote:

> Indeed not - I can't even work out from the references here what it 
> *is* - book, record, what?

Record by Arlo Guthrie, recounting in hilarious and convoluted detail 
how he escaped the draft, and mostly spoken, save for the refrain, 
whose immortal line Pippin already quoted:  "You can get anything you 
want at Alice's Restaurant (excepting Alice)."  As for really being 
able to visit, there is an Alice but I don't recall whether her 
restaurant still exists.

To come full circle (har har), Arlo is founding a church, in the 
Berkshires IIRC (Massachusetts mountains that are the locale of 
Alice's Restaurant), or some kind of spirituality center, for Aging 
Boomers Who've Decided to Give Religion a Go.

Kimberly wrote:

>I prefer the term faith to religion. (look out, tangent coming!) 
> Religion implies an institution of some sort,

I think institutions get an unfairly bad rap.  (Though I'm moved to 
contradict myself by quoting Gloria Steinem:  "I have no objection to 
the institution of marriage.  I just don't want to live in an 
institution.")  Yes, they can rigidify like arteries on 3 eggs a day, 
with results that are just as dangerous, but they can also be the way 
principles get put into practice.  They lend permanence and stability 
to any effort, which sure comes in useful when that effort is 
essentially revolutionary and difficult to maintain, e.g. the U.S. 
Supreme Court is an institution maintaining the crazy, high-flying 
hopes of the Constitution.  

At their best, institutions are simply human beings organizing 
themselves to get done what they could not do alone or in a short span 
of time.  I'm extremely grateful that the founders of my 
faith/religion created institutions to pass on their insights and 
didn't just leave future generations to start from scratch.

Re: Woody Guthrie tribute, check out the WG/Leadbelly Folkways album 
from about 12 years back.  (Bob's on it too, singing "Pretty Boy 
Floyd.")

Amy

As through the world I've rambled, 
I've seen lots of funny men 
Some will rob you with a six-gun,
and some with a fountain pen.
                 --Woody Guthrie, "Pretty Boy Floyd"

The gambling man is rich and the working man is poor.
                 --Woody Guthrie, "I Ain't Got No Home"