Thank you, Oliver, for working so hard. I certainly believe that you are “building a truer ensample of valorous mein” and for that I say, “good on you, boy!” as we say down South. I count myself among your fans and, dare I say, friends. And look forward to knowing you more as you allow a few peeks into who you are. I have certainly enjoyed every tiny glimpse, so far.

I listened to your new band. Although, because I, too am who I am, I listened to some songs before I got to the one you included. Jade Fire. Wow! It took me back to the 1st time I heard The Allman Brothers Band, before Duane was killed. Yes, I am that long on this earth. And since Duane’s death I have treated motorcycles with contumely. The Allman Brothers Band were to open for the Grateful Dead in Houston the night it happened. I was in the audience when they announced that the concert was cancelled and why. It was the 1st semester of my senior year of high school. Still, I remembered well, thanks to your recommendation, how my soul tingled with emotion and delight and something as deep and sad as a Southern secret kept for generations when I first heard that riff and raspy voice.

So thank you, Oliver for another experience I shall never regret, a gift from you. Of you.

I was never good at waiting to open gifts. As Christmas Day drew near, they would call to me from under the tree weeks before they were to be opened. Until I figured out how to wrap and rewrap gifts so no one could ever tell they had been touched. My father always said that doing such a thing must have ruined the surprise and created less joy. He was wrong about the joy. I received it twice!

Please know I enjoy the slow process and your hard work at the peeks and glimpses of the gift of you. You are worth the wait to get the “True things. Honest things. But things arranged just cleverly enough that the realest part of me stayed hid.” The realest part is my favorite gift your writing brings. I open it when I can. And always savor it.

Once Jules wrote that she felt I whispered when I write, something like that. That is likely because I am frightened, too, so tread lightly, although that is not the only reason, at all. But the most Medium reason.

It is because I am the one and only “beautiful and unique” me as you are the one and only you with your morals which include “alacrity, specificity, and eloquence”, three things I enjoy and encourage along with your honesty. And loneliness, I too know. Maybe in a different way. I actually find it a friend, except when it isn’t and then it certainly is a source of unhappiness.

But I digress.

Thank you for sharing this great band and yourself. I would “like” them on Facebook to help get them to the Ogden but I don’t do social media other than this place here, this Medium. But I will listen to them often, thanks to you. Music and writing come from and go to the same place inside of me. My best writing, when I do it on a keyboard feels the same as when I sit to play my piano.

And your best writing, which must include all I read here, allows me to see you peeking through as I read the blood and soul splatters “among precisely painted lines spread out over huge canvase”. Those peeks bring me that same joy I got twice from every Christmas gift.

Thank you!