Christmas in Heaven: Donkey Ollie lessons in English, Cambodian and Chinese

My Brief Life

In America, we are quite obsessed with fame, not only with the riches it brings, but with the popularity And access to a larger life in the spotlight, where everyone knows our name too. We believe that celebrities are inherently different from the rest of us. We believe they are immune to insecurities, loneliness, even the consequences of death. When someone famous dies, we do a celebration of it, and collectively they don't think it's even happened. In many cases, they become even more iconic with a legacy that eclipses the one they had while they were among the living. We ignore their multiple cries for help as they exaggerate, and discard their broken relationships as part of the game and the collectiveAnd we do little or nothing to reach people at the top of their field or those who shine brightest in the public spotlight. Why? For we have not come to hold fast to the truth of Jesus' declaration. "What will a man benefit from to win the world and lose his soul?" We mistakenly think that winning the world is a viable step to secure our eternal destiny, that somehow God will tip the scales and give those who have achieved much on this earth a different measure of judgment on the last day of recount. We have financed entertainment industries, supported political dynasties, overlooked oppressive and excessive monopolistic business practices and educational environments that say loud and clear "success at all costs". Wand forget about the terrible consequences that come with the practice of extreme selfishness, and we overlook the eternal rewards that come with loving God with one heart and loving others as yourself. We are obsessed with winning and not losing, we forget the importance of honesty in business and politics, the crucial life-changing need of morality in entertainment, and we dilute loyalty in religious practices everywhere, conveniently replacing compassion for others with mantra, "People can believe what they want." We forget that as free moral agents, we can believe and live as we choose, but we cannot and will not escape the eternal consequences of those same choices.

It's easy for us to embrace messages like, 'cheat your partner', 'do anything for fame'. Wand I step over others in our business and personal activities and believe that it is OK to influence policies and politics regardless of the truth or inherent lies we present. We tell those responsible that no matter what they do, we'll still believe it, it's blind loyalty. We have created a delusional world, a world in which celebrities have their own rules made to themselves; the greater their steps, their wealth, the more latitude they are allowed. We have blindly followed those who have "succeeded" and continue to follow and worship them even when the path they walked was one that led to their desperate and untimely death. We make idols of Elvis, Hendrix, Morrison, Joplin, Monroe, Cobain, Jackson, Ledger and Winehouse and propel them to stratospheric stardom in their disappearance, it's often a stardom that shades the success they had while they were alive. The big question is why? Are we so bound by our own innate failures that we choose to ignore a perfectly loving God, who lived as a human being free from sin and self-interest? A God who only paid the final price for our disobedience, the disobedience that encompassed the entire human race by stepping on a rough Roman wooden cross that was estranged throughout the time and eternity that our ancestor had realized of rebellion, one that began in the Garden of Eden, when they chose forbidden fruits of the only forbidden tree for them and disobeyed the only commandment that their Creator love had placed upon them. Now we can look back and see that humanity has reaped centuries of death, destruction, disappointment, and decay. That act had horrendous consequences.

During my short life, I've had my share of encounters, multiple conversations with celebrities some were fleeting many were consequential. Each of the celebrities was famous in a different sphere - in politics - in entertainment, music, even science. I've always been surprised at how normal each person was. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that although they existed with fame and fortune, they were not very different from the others I had met and ultimately they were not very different from myself. One of the first celebrities I met was Seth Taft, grandson of Howard TaftA President of the United States I was fourteen years old and hired for promotion to the Cleveland Ohio Mayoral race in 1966. Seth drove to Cleveland's West Side on the Lorain Bridge and the Twenty-Fifth Street area, while my three-piece band played out loud trying to draw a crowd. He spoke to the little crowd that had gathered to listen to us. He wants we'll hand out balloons, buttons and stickers. We have to interact with the crowd and even shake their hand a couple of times. He didn't win the election, or any of his next Senate offers.. Hand was, however, able to become the county commissioner, And a prominent lawyer and died at the age of 90 without compromising his principles. I don't know where his eternity is going.

I loved music and studied piano and keyboards at the Music Grotto on East 24th and Euclid Avenue across from Cleveland State University. I went to concerts with my friends and often arrived early to help with the team, hoping for a free ticket. I got a free concert ticket helping the James Gang. He didn't think much of about fourteen years old. Guys waiting in the parking lot, helping move their gear to the Saint Richards gym on Lake Avon, where they were booked for a dance. Apart from looking at each other with contempt for a brief moment, he barely gave us the time of day. I was grateful for the free ticket and enjoyed the show that I went to see it several more times. Years later, Joe left James' band went to Hollywood, where he later joined the famous band The Eagles. He has a Christian wife and family and lives in the famous and wealthy san Diego Rancho Santé Fe area. He is most famous for his self-despicable song 'Life in the Fast Lane' where he sings about destroying hotel rooms, accelerating into his expensive vehicles, and the dangers of drug use and rock stardom. He has donated a number of guitars to his son's Christian school for his fundraising events. He is one of the few survivors who got help and now lives a drug-free life.

I loved it when the local band with the top forty hit - The Choir came to St Edward's High School. I thought your singer Eric was extremely talented playing guitar and piano. They could imitate anyone's songs and everyone loved Eric Carmen. I was surprised when a few years later my high school friend Rich Reising recording for Cleveland International chose Eric to produce his CD 'No Surf in Cleveland' for his band "Euclid Beach Band". I went to New York to visit them in the studio. Eric at the time was on fire through the recording budget and tried to convince me to travel through the city to bring him something to keep him going. I was surprised at how little the group was achieving; seemed to be more concerned with having fun than making good music. The album didn't go very well, but Rich and his bandmates were able to help Eric when he recorded the classics 'Never Fall in Love Again' and 'All by Myself' and joined him on tour. Since then Eric has retired from most of his tour and is raising his family in Cleveland, I imagine his jail time for a DUI put him in the sobriety car.

I was lucky enough to meet and work with many bands, personally and on the University of Arizona concert committee. I was also able to volunteer with Wolf and Rissmiller Concerts outside of Los Angeles. I saw and spoke to many musicians from different backstage bands, people from Electric Light Orchestra, Bruce Springsteen Band, Peter Frampton Band, Doobie Brothers, Pink Floyd, Leon Russell Band and I was able to talk to Donald Fagan of Steely Dan who was upset with his high school promoter friend Larry because he had to play a Baldwin and not a Steinway at the Tucson Music Center. I also met many colleagues who were insecure and seemed obsessed with drugs and girls. I often wondered 'why didn't they have their own girlfriends, why were they so desperate?' They were famous and rich. It was an eye opening for me.

Once, I came back from college and visited my parents in Bay Village, Ohio and my friend Doug who had performed at the local Upbeat Television show came to my house with Neil Sedaka, famous for the song 'Calendar Girl'. Doug brought it to my parents' house, where McArthur Park played reading our Piano Story and Clark Console. Doug told me later, Neil was interested in him. I was surprised again why someone so famous was bothering a young who had barely become an adult. I was able to talk to him and I found out how consummated he was. He didn't make any bone about the fact that he preferred men to women.

One day, my friend, A backup singer came to Arizona for a concert with the Billy Joel Band at the Coliseum, I was picking up for a day of sightseeing and got to know Billy in the hotel parking lot before he left on a motorcycle ride. He was a skilled musician and seemed to enjoy himself. Not pretentious about his fame and fortune and seemed to live at the time. He was driving his motorcycle fearlessly without a bodyguard in the trailer.

A few years later, I went on a missionary and musical trip to Mexico City having stayed with a friend from the U.S. Embassy and met a girl named Lynn, the former road director of The Who and Rolling Stones, was also a former girlfriend of music manager Peter Asher. I was in a Mexican jail for drug possession and he asked me for help. I knew Peter was leading Linda Ronstadt and I was invited backstage to meet Linda at a concert my friend promoted in Tucson and sat next to her after the show and asked her for help. Linda who had dated Gov. Jerry Brown was skeptical about helping at first, but gathered her musician friends to raise money to get Lynn out of jail. I heard it took over fifty thousand dollars and about nine months of time. I was there to pick her up at the San Diego Correctional Center when she was finally released. I kept in touch with Lynn as she returned to work for Arista's records and became the road manager for Whitney Houston. We had many conversations and Lynn did her best to leave the past behind and embrace the forgiveness offered in Jesus Christ. Twice she invited me to an event where Whitney was singing the second time Whitney was performing in New York City and couldn't sing the whole set, two of my friends Jerry Peters and Paul Jackson Jr were in their band and enjoyed the shows. To this day I don't know if he did it or not. Whitney died in a tragic drug overdose; with their stellar origin in the gospel, no one really knows for sure where he is spending eternity. He had married Bobby Brown singer for New Edition who had worked with my friends Ric Timas and Vincent Brantley. I imagine drugs made negative things happen in their marriage. When she sang about Christ you could feel the passion I wonder if her drug use and the pursuit of fame and fortune made her turn away from her faith, as the circumstances of her death remain a mystery.

While in Los Angeles, I searched for keyboard lessons from acclaimed producer Michael Omartian. I arrived at his house after securing his address from Pat Boone's office. He was retiring from the entrance and stopped for me. I asked him if he could receive a couple of lessons, as he was new to the city. He was very kind, but he said 'No.' His wife Stormy was in the car with him and said he didn't have time to teach him either. I shared a jazz class with her later at the Dick Grove School for Jazz in Sherman Oaks. I also got to know The Great Evangelical Keith Green and was able to learn some songs from him. It was an inspiration that saddened me to see him die so early in a plane crash. I tried to get into Richie Furay's band, but I didn't pass the cut. I joined a well-known Trio of Gospel Archers and traveled around doing shows at universities and festivals. One of my highlights was to meet Phil Keaggy, who was instrumental in bringing my best friend Doug to Christ. He was sincere and kind. He was also a wonderful singer and guitarist. I befriended Leon Patillo, a former Santana singer, helped book it at some shows and visited with him at a couple of different festivals. I have to have a meeting in Beverly Hills with Bruce Bird who ran Donna Summers record company Casablanca. He was using several drugs and damaging his health. He accepted Christ just before he died. Donna Summers also died knowing Christ and they have made a musical of her life for Broadway.

I volunteered for the Phoenix First Assembly and was able to meet some well-known athletes. The one that impressed me the most was Ernie Shavers. I went to some events with him was able to conduct him and I discovered how much Christ had shaped his life. Ernie had fought Mohammed Ali in a classic battle in the boxing ring. I could hear Ernie's testimony. In an industry where so many go through fortunes and misfortunes, Ernie received the power of God to keep his head up and walk humbly. Ernie always took time to talk to the children and warn them to walk the wide path to destruction.

There's a celebrity meeting that will always stay with me. While I was working my way through my new career as a piano tuner. I took a part-time job as a room service waiter at the Pointe Resort in North Phoenix. I was offering room service to a breakfast guest and the world-renowned scientist opened the door - Carl Sagan of the popular PBS Series Cosmos. We participate in a two-hour marathon conversation of Creation vs Evolution. He was not an expert debater, but he had listened to and studied some well-known creationists and was able to share some good facts with him. But I have learned that salvation is not a matter of convincing the mind. It is a matter of the heart becoming open to humility before God. More than enough evidence has been discovered and provided for us to believe, and there is also a lot of falsehood that allows us not to believe. Can to deny with supposed logic that Jesus is the Christ that there is no creator. It is foolish to do so, but they will not be thrown into a Mental Institution for doing so, for many share those beliefs that ultimately come to each of us experiencing the changes that come with abandoning our own ways and walking the path that God puts before us. The world was made in six days? Did Jesus rise from the dead? Is the Bible a truly divine book? These are the questions that everyone has to ask themselves. If we seek with all our hearts we are promised the ability to find God and true answer.

Carl Sagan's breakfast meeting had stretched for three hours. Every time I came up with a good point to which I had no answer, he sent me back to the kitchen for a hot toast. He told me that his best friend was a minister who believed in Christ, but he never humbled himself or sought Christ at least not what no one knew of, he died without knowing or accepting Christ. Yes, he engaged in conversations, examined other evidence, but eventually remained in his own beliefs. We cannot find God unless we come as little children who we just have to decide to believe. After making that decision we can find ample proof that there is a God and he is a 'good God all the time'. We have to accept the fact that the free alé we have has extreme consequences. If your child flees from a home where they are loved and nurtured, they will soon find themselves in a world of perverts and unimaginable horrors. It's the same with our spiritual home. We come from God's very heart the electrical impulse that is measured when a sperm permeates an egg is the same hand of God that gives us life. Taking us from eternity to live here. God hoping that we would choose to find him to love Him, God paying the final price to help us set aside our sinful nature. We live and breathe in God's heart every thought he has for us is eternal and has eternal consequences. We cannot die our spirits live forever with God in heaven or separated with the rebellious Satan and his angels in the Lake of Fire. It was for our welfare that Christ stepped on the wooden cross. When Eve took the forbidden fruit in a show of disobedient, our marks were created in that selfish nature of sin, nature that tells God "No, My Way." It doesn't have to be like this. From our beginnings to our death we exist in the Love of God. We are in His mind, heart, and will. Jesus told the story of the father with the prodigal son. After the son left every day. Looking into the distance and waiting, praying that your son would return voluntarily. When he was bankrupt, friendless and reduced to living with the pigs he came to his senses and went home. He was not convicted or lectured; he was given a ring, a robe, and a feast. He was covered in kisses. If we consciously turn away and choose never to return to the Heart of God, our eternal home if we ignore such a great sacrifice, then we will suffer unnecessarily from the consequences of our personal will. Our free high is not violated, but the consequences of it are not only here on earth are eternal.

I went to an Oscar party with some colleagues in a movie I helped produce called Death or Prison eventually. The party was for all Hollywood actors who didn't get Oscar nominations that year. It was fun there were a lot of real Hollywood stars there- Corey FeldmanTom SizemoreGary Busey, and Sally Kellerman. I saw a very famous lawyer from the OJ Simpson case and I looked at her and told him how nice his outfit was. She smiled and thanked me. I was surprised to see how some of the celebrities couldn't even walk. He reminded me at the same time that I met Johnny Winters at the Renaissance Festival and was drunk blind being carried by his friends.

My favorite meeting was with Bob Dylan outside Tucson Music Hall. I had got out of Scottsdale with my musical friend Victor. We were standing outside. I was hoping Larry would Vallon The promoter was going to get me free passes. Bob came up to us and asked if the music from his gospel album Long Train Coming was popular enough to satisfy the thousands of fans he already had. He had obviously received bad press for not playing. "If I were a carpenter." "Lay Lady Lay" "Blowing in the Wind" and countless other of her folk-rock hits. We talked for about twenty minutes and encouraged him to move on that I loved his new clues. They were great.

My second meeting with Amy Grant was a little humorous. I was hired to make sound for her at the East Valley Auditorium in Phoenix. It was a low-budget show produced by its Manager Brother-In-Law of the Blanton and Herald Company. What we were told in the corridor for the event was different from what we Wanted. She was going to make a mix on stage for her, just a guitar and piano setup with two monitors on stage. I also had the concert tuned the piano for forty extra dollars. She showed up with her boyfriend Gary Chapman and was going to do a lot of duo tracks and was also going to use a recorded background. I had to drive through town to pick up a TEAC 4 track tape machine. When I came back I was finishing the tuning. He came up to me at the piano and asked. "Are you hungry? Do you want a hamburger or something to eat?" I was flattered that she even cared to say "Thank you" and then added "No!" The show was embarrassing to me, but I survived. Throughout the concert, my head got stuck above stage level because they wanted me to mix from in front of the stage. Before the end of the concert, one side of our amplifier exploded knocking down the sound on the right side of the auditorium. Her manager was mad at me, but she seemed to enjoy herself.

I met Rob from the world famous Milli Vanilli about five times. I had to bring a pizza and soft drinks to every meeting. He had burned his money from Arista Records and I was working on a script for him to star in. I was going to be an angel punishing evil people. I hated my script, I really hated it. I probably spent a hundred bucks on all the pizzas because my friend Ricky said he wouldn't even talk to me unless I fed him first. He later committed suicide by jumping out of a hotel in Hollywood. I was saddened to hear it.

I met Jim Brown actor and Cleveland Brown football player twice in my life. The first time was at the Hippodrome building on Euclid Avenue in Cleveland, we were getting down in the same elevator, I had to tighten my neck to take a look at it. And thirty-a few years later, when Dick Bernal threw a dinner party in Los Angeles and sat next to him during the event. The first time I was just five feet tall and he stood on me. The second time I was almost six feet tall and he was just Slightly higher and I thought it was really Really pleasant and committed to helping others. It was a Truly nice gentleman.

I was in Missoula, Montana for a wedding and my relatives were hanging out at the hotel bar/restaurant. I sat next to them and started talking to a very nice person in the same group. I thought you were there for the wedding. No one in my family said anything and our talk continued for about forty minutes. I asked her name. He said he was very well known and that he was Dirk. Well, I assumed it was Dirk Benedict from Team A, later my sister-in-law asked me why I talked to him all that time. I told him I thought I was with the wedding. He was very nice and knowledgeable about a lot of things.

I met Alice Cooper once. He was moving to Chicago and called me to buy his piano. We had a long talk at his house overlooking Phoenix. I saw him years later at a Phoenix Suns game sitting next to one of my piano tuning clients Danny a concert promoter. He didn't remember me, but he was still nice. I took some friends to eat in Alice Cooperstown the food was pretty good, I think he came in when I was leaving. A girl I liked sang in the church choir which she was so I saw it a couple of times that there's okay, I almost let her have her own space. They always taught me to live and let live.

My piano tuning took me quite backstage. I was hired to tune the piano for a Glen Campbell recording session in Paradise Valley Arizona. Pantheon Studios had a nine-foot-long Steinway Concert Grand that had the melody very well. When I finished tuning I played one of my worship songs. "O Lord, O Lord" quite straight B to E patron, Glen listened and offered me a job writing songs for him. The salary was to be $200 a week. I thanked him and let him record my song. He never finished it, but Steve the Engineer let me hear the demo. I was so excited that I recorded it. I shared the gospel with him several times. He later joined the Northern Baptist Church in Phoenix. I saw him play with the choir once. He was a great singer and player. I got a little stuck in his guitar was amazing.

My meeting with Lawrence Welk was very brief. He was performing with his orchestra at the Sun Dome in Sun City. He was tuning the piano before the show and he came up to me and started a conversation. "It used to be a piano tuner." Said. "That's great I answered."

While I was living in Los Angeles, I was invited to John Reid's house. He lived in a mansion in Beverly Hills. I was working with a girl who was in love with her client Elton John. I was hoping to get help with my record career at the time Elton was selling stadiums. Lunch was fun, I never realized he was gay and was probably interested in me.

John Heyman was a well-known film producer. He won an academy award for Passage to India and produced Saturday Night Fever and many hits. They introduced me and told my script to Sugar Baby about a white baby adopted by children of color. He loved my script and let me go see it every few months. We talked about Broadway Plays and Songs and enjoyed each other's company. When I finished my first long-running animated script Donkey Ollie Shipwrecked booked a room at Club Med Paradise Island and paddled a kayak to his Paradise Island home. I met her mother talking to her daughter. He even got a call from his best friend Richard Harris while I was visiting. It was a fun afternoon. He made a script option, but he never filmed it. I later filmed some episodes of cartoon films with DQ Animation in Hyderabad, India. John had a close relationship with his son David Heyman who produced all the Harry Potter films, for a while he was walking with God fellowship with other Christians, and produced the film JesusNow translated into more than 300 languages. He died a few years ago, I hope that once again he will make his peace with God.

Sometimes it's sad to meet familiar people. The late Jeff Fenhold "Jesus Christ Superstar"comes to mind. I helped book some of his tours and put together the artwork and duplication for his testimony with most of his short audition and songwriting period with Black Sabbath and his time on Broadway and hanging out with Salvador Dalí. I was impressed by his Dalí necklace and some of the drawings he had. It was sad to see Jeff go through a divorce and have his heart crushed. We met quite a few times, but I never thought he was at peace. Perhaps now he is resting in the arms of Jesus Christ, a man who played on Broadway and spoke on television and church stages.

John McCain the famous senator was introduced to me at a politician's house in Mesa Arizona. He was so committed to earthly fame and position that despite having a deadly battle against brain cancer he stayed in the Senate, without even taking time to spend with his family before his death. I thought that was excessive.

I never thought I was talented enough to write a book. I had memories of going to the Bay Village Public Library with my mom and carrying out so many books that they spilled everywhere. I have memories of being bored and hiding a book in my textbook reading my way through boring high school and college classes. I liked writing poetry, songs, plays and scripts. I never thought I could make a whole book until a friend named Etan asked me to finish a novel I'd written. It was that experience of writing correct, editing by adding words that gave me confidence.

There comes a time in every writer's life when the characters come to life and you sit on the edge of your seat by typing the next page, the next chapter so you can figure out where he'll live and who will die and what he'll do. I am comforted by the fact that God wrote a book about me as it says in Psalm 139. So as long as I'm alive, I'll continue to write stories to inspire both young and old and carry out my designated destiny. It is unlikely that I will never be famous or be invited to talk shows or literary award presentations. You'll probably enjoy writing more and more as the days come and I'll become a better communicator. Who could ask for more?