A fourteen year old kid stabbed his mother in the chest and head last night. She didn't die. The kid's life is over. He faces attempted murder charges, and plead 'not guilty' this afternoon behind a straight jacket and a black eye. He couldn't weigh more than 120 pounds in a fat suit, but he raged the steel knife bent on his mother's skull. Granted, innocence is presumed, but the four people who wrangled the knife out of his hands and plugged his mother's body with washcloths will have a ghastly story to tell a jury. Bloody pictures won't phase most film-going sorts - who hasn't seen someone shot or stabbed? - but I imagine that these four will tell quite a story with their eyes.
There is nothing free about this kid's agency now.
On the other hand, James Talyor came to town the other night. He sings songs for a living. He's bald, but he didn't seem to notice. He kicked around with with the Beatles, Jim Croce, and Carol King. His music listens easy, and, though he claimed to have performed it everyday for decades, I know I've heard "Way down here, you need a reason to move" more times than he has sung it. JT knew that we wanted to hear Country Road, Fire and Rain, Something in the Way She Moves, Walking Man, and Mexico; he obliged. He is a musician, but we weren't too interested in his new music.
I suppose we make some choices, and consequence makes the rest.
8 comments:
did he happen to play Sweet Baby James?
Didn't his album Sweet B.J. come out in the early 70's? How do you know him? He's easy listening, isn't he? Was this his new one-on-one, talking concert? I've heard about it.
I don't like his new stuff--probably 'cause I don't understand jazz, and he's leaning toward a strange sort of white man's jazz whose rhythm I can't find inside me. I didn't know Carol King was still with him. She married a good friend of mine, Rick Evers, then moved to Idaho. My artist friend, Roy Reynolds, painted them sitting on her white horses for one of her album covers. A year before that, Rick left behind drugs to live with Native Americans where he learned how to make sheepskin coats. Went to LA to sell them. He was sitting in a booth next to King and 12 band members who were freaking about losing their 12 bedroom mansion. Rick--never very subtle--burst out laughing. They married a month later, he joined her band, started doping again, and Roy drove to LA the next year to bring back his body after he overdosed on her bathroom floor. We give away our agency in bits and pieces before we even realize it's gone. Why was this child--and he is a child--so angry? The image you paint is pure blood-soaked rage. Will you try the case? Good to see you post.
James has been singing to me since I was born - late 70s. Carol King wrote You've Got a Friend, and JT recorded it.
He sang Sweet Baby James, October Road, Copperline, Fire and Rain, Handy Man, and every other song I'd hoped he'd sing. He even sang Wandering. Danielle was hoping for September Grass, and I was hoping for a little taste of Long Ago and Far Away.
I won't try the case. I'm on a rotation where I read police reports and draft charging language.
As for his juvenile vs. adult status, even the legislature acknowledges attempted murder as worthy of big-boy consequences. The alleged crime automatically waives him into adult court.
I always wonder what starts the rage. Is it brain chemistry? Environment? A mixture? If so, then how much free agency did he have to begin with? It's a puzzle. How is your health? Or is that still a forbidden question?
I know C. King mostly as a song writer. She's written mocha much. "Make me Feel like a Natural Woman"; "So far Away"; "Where you Lead"; "Will you still Love me Tomorrow"; "Hey Girl";"One Fine Day"; "Up on the Roof";"Don't Bring me Down," etc. Mostly sung by others. When I first saw her, she was this little girl on TV, sitting in the rafters of a barn, singing "Look What They Done to my Song, Ma." Touching.
I'd like to see this concert. It sounds good. And I'm glad you're not trying this case.
Health is great. A lot of peeps seem to have a tough go with this, but I'm PD lucky.
I don't know much about chemistry, but I gotta believe that rage is rooted in choice. Elder Holland gave a great talk on choosing to be offended a couple Conferences back. I think the principle extends to any emotion, including rage. Perhaps chemistry dictates choice at some point, - like after the first herion use - but chemistry seems like a consequence to a choice. Obviously people don't choose heart disease chemistry, but they do choose cheeseburgers and a large fry. People don't choose to have mercury or lead poisoning, but they do choose to eat fish.
We anticipate and accept some consequences as fair, and we don't anticipate or accept others. Our foresight doesn't seem to influence the consequence, but our ability to accept, adapt, and advance may shape our next choice.
This kid had been mad before, but this was the first time he knifed his mom.
My dad just saw that concert in Vegas. He didn't know who he was and then realized he already had J.T. tracks on his iPod from when he handed it over to me and asked me how it worked.
I wonder what triggered that boy you're talking about, Tanner. We give the youth we work with in the desert access to knives, saws, and machetes and while there's only been a couple of instances throughout the years that ended up with a saw against a staff member's neck (and they've all turned into these great inspirational stories about how the program's blessed or how you can talk youth down from most bad situations if you stay calm)..............I sure don't want to see anybody get stabbed.
I agree with crescenet.
Ah, the feel of responsible, polite, Brazilian spam.
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