{"id":114166,"date":"2019-07-09T10:36:05","date_gmt":"2019-07-09T15:36:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/?p=114166"},"modified":"2019-07-09T10:36:05","modified_gmt":"2019-07-09T15:36:05","slug":"weeds-by-randy-krzmarzick-louis-said-it-all-its-a-wonderful-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/weeds-by-randy-krzmarzick-louis-said-it-all-its-a-wonderful-world\/","title":{"rendered":"Weeds by Randy Krzmarzick: Louis said it all: It\u2019s a wonderful world"},"content":{"rendered":"[ad id=”11753″]\n

\"\"<\/a>I was somewhere with longtime friend Billy Moran. I can\u2019t remember where, a bar or a ballgame?\u00a0 \u201cWhat a Wonderful World\u201d by Louis Armstrong was playing in the background.\u00a0 Bill offered casually, \u201cThis is a great song.\u201d\u00a0 Sometimes it is the role of friends to state obvious things that we have missed.\u00a0 It hit me then as I listened to Armstrong\u2019s soulful crooning: this is a great song.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve never been a fan of oldies.\u00a0 Living through the music of the Seventies once was enough.\u00a0\u00a0 Before that revelatory moment with Bill, \u201cWonderful World\u201d was in that category of a thousand songs that are on at malls or dentists\u2019 offices that are aural background.\u00a0 After that, I started picking up on it when I heard it.\u00a0 I put it on my Pandora app, and it came around more often.\u00a0 Now, my mind stops what it\u2019s doing to listen.\u00a0 I sing along with Louis, out loud if I\u2019m on the farm, in my head if I\u2019m in town.\u00a0 It\u2019s become a life\u2019s anthem.<\/p>\n

There are many reasons to feel down about the current state of the world.\u00a0 If you can\u2019t find a depressing conversation, you can go online and read the comments to any story and be certain the world is going to hell in a handbag.\u00a0 If you can\u2019t find something bleak or dispiriting, you\u2019re not looking.<\/p>\n

But in Armstrong\u2019s simple little song, less than three minutes long, there is full and beautiful reminder that it\u2019s not so bad. \u00a0Many artists have covered \u201cWhat a Wonderful World,\u201d and bless them for trying.\u00a0 But the gravelly, lilting voice of Armstrong gives the song a quality that is abiding and eternal.<\/p>\n

Louis Armstrong was born at the beginning of the twentieth century in New Orleans.\u00a0 It was a world where slavery may have ended, but America\u2019s freedoms were begrudgingly parsed out to minorities if at all.\u00a0 Armstrong grew up poor, left school at 11, and got in various troubles.\u00a0 Early on his talents with the trumpet had him playing in brass bands and on riverboats.<\/p>\n

Armstrong went to become one of the first black performers to cross over to white audiences.\u00a0 \u201cSatchmo\u201d was well known in 1967 when \u201cWhat a Wonderful World\u201d was offered to him.\u00a0 It was recorded at 2:00 AM at a studio in Las Vegas after one of his shows.\u00a0 It had to be re-recorded several times when a train whistle interrupted.<\/p>\n

The president of ABC Records was disappointed with the slow-moving song.\u00a0 He wanted something upbeat.\u00a0 \u201cWonderful World\u201d was hardly promoted and sold only 1,000 records in America.\u00a0 But it became instantly popular in Europe where American jazz had a large following.\u00a0 That gave it a life that it might not have had otherwise, and it gradually grew in popularity on this continent.\u00a0 Unfortunately, most of that came after Armstrong\u2019s death in 1971.<\/p>\n

\u201cI see trees of green, red roses too
\nI see them bloom for me and you\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Us northerners know the colors of this season that explode when spring\/summer return.\u00a0 Nature swells around us.\u00a0 If you don\u2019t mind the bugs, these days are magnificent.\u00a0 But all the seasons have charms, if you give them a chance. \u00a0The greens and bright colors of now will be replaced by sparkling white and stark brown six months from now, and that has its own beauty.\u00a0 All those offerings, they are for me and you.\u00a0 Me and you and everyone, regardless of wealth or status.\u00a0 They are a gift from a generous Creator.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I think to myself what a wonderful world\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em>\u201cI see skies of blue and clouds of white
\nThe bright blessed day, the dark sacred night\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Blessed and sacred.\u00a0 Here, the song becomes a benediction of sorts.\u00a0 We live spiritual lives, whether we are aware or not.\u00a0 If probably is necessary that we are only part of the time aware of the holy that surrounds us. \u00a0We must go about our tasks here on Earth and can\u2019t be constantly overwhelmed by awe.\u00a0 Still, it is good to step back and let the sacred wash over us sometimes, whether that is in church, in the woods, or listening to a song with a friend.
\n\u201cAnd I think to myself what a wonderful world\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em>\u201cThe colors of the rainbow so pretty in the sky
\nAre also on the faces of people going by
\nI see friends shaking hands saying how do you do
\nThey’re really saying I love you\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

From every religion, and even no-religion and natural wisdom, we learn that we are put here to serve others.\u00a0 Our lives are a tug of selfishness versus the pull of service to our fellow man\/woman.\u00a0 Each of us has people in our lives who are easy to love, and then some who are various degrees of challenging.\u00a0 Our finest moments aren\u2019t the easy ones; our finest moments are when we dig inside and find hard-to-reach love.<\/p>\n

Last week, an article was around about a small group in St. Cloud that meets regularly to do everything they can to fight the influx of Somalis into their community.\u00a0 It may not be \u201chate\u201d that compels them. But if you are deathly opposed to someone being near you, it\u2019s certainly a branch of the hate tree.\u00a0 Each of us has perhaps some moments each day we spend in jealousy or resentment or ill will.\u00a0 \u201cThe faces of people going by,\u201d each one of those created by God, call for continued effort to live in love.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em>\u201cI hear babies crying, I watch them grow
\nThey’ll learn much more than I’ll never know\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Nearing the end of the song, we look to the future.\u00a0 It is in these crying babies that our community will carry on.\u00a0 I love the sound of laughing and playing children.\u00a0 And as I get older, I mind less the sound of fussing children.<\/p>\n

Our time here is short.\u00a0 Many great and beautiful things are short: the bloom of a peony, a fresh strawberry, Armstrong\u2019s song.\u00a0 Our lives are like those more than they are like a stone that lasts eons.\u00a0 We will be replaced.\u00a0 My replacement is a remarkable little grandson.\u00a0 But my replacement is also a scared child at the border seeking asylum with desperate parents.\u00a0 All the planet\u2019s children are my legacy.\u00a0 They will carry on when I am gone.\u00a0 They\u2019ll learn much more than I\u2019ll ever know, as it should be.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I think to myself what a wonderful world
\nYes, I think to myself what a wonderful world<\/em><\/p>\n

Oh yeah.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[ad id=”11753″] I was somewhere with longtime friend Billy Moran. I can\u2019t remember where, a bar or a ballgame?\u00a0 \u201cWhat a Wonderful World\u201d by Louis Armstrong was playing in the background.\u00a0 Bill offered casually, \u201cThis is a great song.\u201d\u00a0 Sometimes it is the role of friends to state obvious things that we have missed.\u00a0 It …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[162],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-114166","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-weeds-by-randy-krzmarzick"],"aioseo_notices":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-22 14:40:52","action":"change-status","newStatus":"trash","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114166","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114166"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114166\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":114168,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114166\/revisions\/114168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}