In a previous article I mentioned applying Country Music to TheWay. This article is a continuance of the concepts began in that article, that is, it falls under the umbrella of learning to like what I don’t like while exploring other concepts. I’m using the Texgesis of Country Music as a Way to use my desires to achieve certain goals, one of them being learning to like Country Music, with a greater goal of learning to sing songs on guitar with my family, in an effort to bolster family togetherness. Quite a plan, no?

As part of this plan, I’ve been trying to learn and apply a concept called self-observation to hopefully better live out TheWay – be a better father, man, and so on.

I’ve read through Allan Cronshaw’s works on this. I’ve read a few fourth way materials, and listened to some fourth way type Pod-casts to try to find more technical details on self-observation that appeal to my mindset.  It seems to be quite a big topic and there is lots of projection and mental filtering occurring when describing this topic. Some folks say they are self-observing, when other folks say they aren’t, and some say they are and aren’t and so on. It sounds like a religious war in many ways. Will the real self-observation please stand up. I’m sure there are levels of understanding as well, so where else to begin, but my own.

In my own efforts, one of the things in at least attempting to self-observe was noticing that I notice things that I haven’t noticed before. For example, with self-observation, I observed that I don’t “self-observe” and then begin to wonder why.  I notice that “self-observing” is subjected to my own filters – for example, I like to see my self in a positive light a lot! I also noticed that self-observation is hard to do and I quickly run out of energy during mundane times especially. There are other thing I began to notice that I hope can be used as a larger analogy for the process of self-observation at my current level of understanding.

For example, being from Texas, I’ve heard the below song (All My Exes Live in Texas) almost all my life, over and over and over again. Yet not until someone asked me if I was into transcendental meditation one day, did I notice  that country music could sing about meditation!  Not even a few hours after being asked this question about transcendental meditation did I hear that song come on the radio and start singing about meditation of all things. A synchronicity I suppose.

I relayed the fact that George Strait sang about transcendental meditation to my friend who had asked the question, then my Dad, my friend Etal, and they had never noticed either! Gee whiz, have we been in Tennessee (I’ll explain shortly)  all our lives or what?

Here is the song (http://www.cowboylyrics.com/lyrics/strait-george/all-my-exs-live-in-texas-8840.html) and my ex’s-gesis follows:

All my ex’s live in Texas by George Strait

All my ex’s live in Texas
And Texas is the place I’d dearly love to be
But all my ex’s live in Texas
And that’s why I hang my hat in Tennessee

Rosanna’s down in Texarkana
Wanted me to push her broom
Sweet Eileen’s in Abilene
She forgot I hung the moon
And Allison’s in Galveston
Somehow lost her sanity
And Dimple’s who now lives in Temple’s
Got the law looking for me

I remember that old Frio River
Where I learned to swim
But it brings to mind another time
Where I wore my welcome thin
By transcendental meditation
I go there each night
But I always come back to myself
Long before daylight

All my ex’s live in Texas
And Texas is the place I’d dearly love to be
But all my ex’s live in Texas
Therefore I reside in Tennessee

Some folks think I’m hidin’
It’s been rumored that I died
But I’m alive and well in Tennessee

That was the song, but there was more that I noticed after starting to dive in to it a bit. Just like Damascus or Jerusalem in the Bible, could Texas be a code word in all those country songs – alluding to something deeper? After all, it is the Lone Star State! If I apply some exgesis, could the Lone Star be symbolic for our struggle to become one again, whole, to go towards the Light, after all – this is where George desires to be, and don’t we all desire to be in the Light as exemplified by our current culture’s fascination with sex, drugs, and so on – if only to taste Light for just a second? Yet, ironically, what is keeping him from being whole and complete is the state of division and separation from his ex’s – perhaps not learning some lessons here and there. Sounds familiar.

Let’s try to divide the song up a bit and see if we can read in some additional meanings (Texgesis) just for the fun of it (lyrics in bold):

Rosanna’s down in Texarkana Wanted me to push her broom

By not meeting Rosanna’s desires to clean house, he hadn’t yet learned to serve his wife, and we have that it is difficult for a woman to change a man, if not impossible. The mind is a sort of function of the body and Spirit – move the body, you move the mind. I guess he didn’t want to.

Sweet Eileen’s in Abilene She forgot I hung the moon

A hinting at the Law of Octaves affecting his relationships again and perhaps by not treating his wife as a goddess, she in turn forgets that he hung the moon.

And Allison’s in Galveston Somehow lost her sanity

Possibly, this may happen when a woman has somehow found herself without  a “stable” male influence in her life, i.e., the man who is hopping from ex to ex in this song.  Given that Galveston is on the south end of Texas is it may be alluding to the lower controlling the upper with the result being a loss of focus.  I don’t know it was a guess.

And Dimple’s who now lives in Temple’s Got the law looking for me

Temple, right back at the heart of Texas and the matter, we find that  the universal spiritual Laws will eventually use our emotions as a method for us to see our selves for who we really are.

I remember that old Frio River Where I learned to swim

We see that he remembers learning by struggling against a winding body of water (emotion).

But it brings to mind another time Where I wore my welcome thin

This old memory triggers an association to something of a fall, somewhat akin to the various Biblical accounts (e.g., Genesis) and a recalling of something greater, the Light as symbolized by Texas.

By transcendental meditation I go there each night

He views from a higher perspective during the negative phases (night) of life – the hard times force us to seek.

But I always come back to myself Long before daylight

But using meditation he is unable to maintain this state of mind, this higher perspective – and comes back to the reality that he is still in the dark. And we may have more allusions to divisions within our self – note the: “I always come back to myself”. Which I is returning and which was myself? How can I return to myself?

He then goes on to comment about residing in Texas vs. Tennessee. We’ve already covered Texas representing the Light being the Lone Star state, but division is what is keeping us out as embodied in the four (4) ex’s and the last one being the Law. But what about Tennessee? According to the Wikipedia: “The meaning and origin of the word are uncertain. Some accounts suggest it is a Cherokee modification of an earlier Yuchi word. It has been said to mean “meeting place”, “winding river”, or “river of the great bend”.[55][56] According to James Mooney, the name “can not be analyzed” and its meaning is lost.

Thus George, as the character he plays in the song, lives in a state of unknowing – uncertainty – where the meaning  is lost and indeed so are we (or at least I am) trying to find my way back home to proverbial Texas. Given that he now resides in Tennessee, the volunteer state, it is up to him to begin the journey. Some folks would say that he’s hidin (from the Light), and some would say that he’s dead (Jesus said: let the dead bury the dead), yet he thinks that he’s Alive and well in Tennessee, the proverbial state of being lost. And don’t almost all of us think we know, except you, of course, you wouldn’t think that, would you?

It’s an old tale. They did the same thing in the Wizard of  Oz, the Bible, Star-Gate, Star Trek, Plato’s Cave, and so forth and no one would ever believe what was being said until EXperience brought her lessons.

If in a similar way we can apply some of the concepts of self-observation, triangulation, etc. we may then be able apply a similar exegetical process in that song to our very lives. Looking for the repeating patterns, the things about our self that we never noticed, but have continued on in the same pattern over and over without any real thought as to why or what we we are doing. I never noticed those words being in that song. This points to many things I have not known about myself. I thought that I knew this song – I really did. I was convinced, yet there it was staring me and many that I know right in the face, we did not know. What this may say is that even within my self, there are certain changes I can try to make, that if I don’t know my self, it is like having someone you don’t know change your self! Is this a self-observation? There could be things about ourselves that have been there our entire life, that we have never known! Scary and exciting.

Maybe there are some changes one can attempt to make that may be tried and true, just like Texas. I suspect that a start begins with whatever has been placed into your life – trying to become more family centered as much as is possible for your current conditions and this is what I’m trying to do. Divorced and  my ex lives in Texas, but I do have children and have been trying to be the best father I can be for them.

I wonder if George Strait knew all this was in this song as he was singing it. He’s #3 or #4 on all time record sales, so I’d guess that he’s an advanced soul of some kind – he may very well have had an inkling.  Maybe he just had really good writers.

Returning back to myself (remember we started this path with learning to like what we don’t like), I think I’m learning to like Country Music.

How about you?