Well Done, Good and Faithful Servant!

At the close of the weekend, I had planned to blog about when I thought the Six Nations could not get worse for Scotland - it did! However, after listening as I do daily to the Tom Morton Show on BBC Radio Scotland on Monday, it no longer seemed appropriate to say anything about rugby.

Thanks to Tom, I learned sadly that the father of Christian Rock, Larry Norman, had passed away on Sunday. Given Larry's long-standing health problems, all of his fans knew this day would come but it doesn't make it any easier. Growing up in a strong Evangelical Christian home, I was exposed to Larry's music at a very early age. At the time, I was far too young to understand the political aspects of Larry's lyrics but could easily relate to the religious ones. I've remained a fan of Larry Norman for nearly thirty years now and still listen to his music today - some of it as fresh and timely as it was when it was released. Whether you like or agree with the message, Larry was a brilliant songwriter and a tremendous musical influence to countless musicians in any genre.

I lost my best friend in life, my dad, shortly over a year ago. One of my final memories of he and I occurred when he came down to visit me in Texas and one day we hopped in my Ford F150 to go somewhere. Larry's "Only Visiting This Planet" was in the CD player at the time. I remember "I Wish We'd All Been Ready" playing at one point and my dad quickly started to sing along. He (my dad) was in his late sixties and I had just turned forty at the time. It was then that I realized how far reaching Larry's music went. I was the rocker, not my dad. He was a church hymn and gospel quartet man yet he recognized good music of all types - especially when it had a strong message.

Larry's wish was truly that, that we all would be ready. I'm sure Larry will be recognized as he spoke of in the theme of "I Am A Servant" and be told "Well done, good and faithful servant"!

Despite our loss, your fans, Larry, you deserve the peace and release that you now have from the weakness of your physical body. I know you're now in a better place. After all, you were "Only Visiting This Planet"!

Rest In Peace, Larry.

Miserable Six Nations - So Far

Yes, it has been a miserable showing in my favorite of all sporting tournaments - The RBS Six Nations - for my team, Scotland Rugby. What is the problem? Is it coaching? Is it the infrequency that the players get to play with each other outside of their league teams? For many of us, we don't know.

Two things I'll state so far though. Number One, those of you knocking Dan Parks, lay off! He has proven himself to be a quality player for both Glasgow Warriors and Scotland. Number Two, I was wrong about Chris Paterson. After being subjected to the humiliating defeat of Scotland by Italy last Six Nations in person at Murrayfield, I thought he was overrated coming in to this season's competition. I was over 100% wrong. Chris Paterson is an outstanding player that simply must be part of the Scotland squad. I'd like to see Dan Parks stay too despite his couple of errors recently. My beef with Scotland Rugby is the lack of attack and focus on scoring tries. Every game seems to focus on field position and the kicking game. That's obviously not enough against a crafty young squad such as the new French team.

All I can hope for is improvement throughout the rest of the campaign. Come on Scotland!

A'Best and Cheers!
Neil