![\"Terry](\"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Terry-Mosher-3.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n
TERRY MOSHER<\/p>\n
Maybe I have become full circle. I discovered Hank Williams as a young teen, grabbed on and didn\u2019t let go until I was closing in on 40. But now I have come back, having exhausted all my reality and all my dreams so there isn\u2019t much left but to break old Hank once more and maybe for the final time.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t know many others who could write and sing songs that went straight to the human roots as did Hank Williams. Some of the songsters like Billy Holliday, Dinah Washington and Patsy Cline came close, but none could sing so raw and so emotional as if they lived it \u2013 and he did.<\/p>\n
Sad was his life. He had many demons that would not let go of him. As he twisted about and struggled with them, he poured his tortured soul into the words and the music that made him famous in his mid-20s and dead before reaching 30.<\/p>\n
Take \u201cI Saw The Light\u201d, which Williams wrote I believe in the backseat of a taxi that was taking him and Minnie Pearl to their next gig. Minnie congratulated him on the song, but Hank protested because, he said, he could not see the light.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cI wandered so aimless life filled with sin<\/p>\n
I wouldn’t let my dear savior in<\/p>\n
Then Jesus came like a stranger in the night<\/p>\n
Praise the Lord I saw the light.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I saw the light I saw the light<\/p>\n
No more darkness no more night<\/p>\n
Now I’m so happy no sorrow in sight<\/p>\n
Praise the Lord I saw the light.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Just like a blind man I wandered along<\/p>\n
Worries and fears I claimed for my own<\/p>\n
Then like the blind man that God gave back his sight<\/p>\n
Praise the Lord I saw the light.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I saw the light I saw the light<\/p>\n
No more darkness no more night<\/p>\n
Now I’m so happy no sorrow in sight<\/p>\n
Praise the Lord I saw the light.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I was a fool to wander and a-stray<\/p>\n
Straight is the gate and narrow the way<\/p>\n
Now I have traded the wrong for the right<\/p>\n
Praise the Lord I saw the light.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I saw the light I saw the light<\/p>\n
No more darkness no more night<\/p>\n
Now I’m so happy no sorrow in sight<\/p>\n
Praise the Lord I saw the light.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I saw the light 24 years ago after a year-long and very determined search for God. That search began when our granddaughter was killed, throwing our family into brief turmoil and then into full fledged flight toward God.<\/p>\n
It took me a year because, I guess, I\u2019m stubborn. But when the light came on it was nothing like I had ever experienced. For six days I cried and during those days all the terrible defensive mechanizes I had constructed to get me through my teenage dark years came pouring out of the top of my head. Yes, they actually came out of the top of my head and as they did I could see them. I should have been an engineer because the construction of them was amazing, but also very destructive to my self.<\/p>\n
Then on the seventh day I felt the hand of God and the warm of true love. There is nothing like it. It can\u2019t be described accurately in human terms. The closest I can come is that I felt absolute love for everything and there were no agendas, no qualifiers to it.<\/p>\n
The window to true love was open just briefly, and I realize now that God gave me a special exemption so I could see what it is like on the other side. Why He did that, I don\u2019t know. But it was amazing, such a sense of peace and calm and love so deep nothing could scar it.<\/p>\n
I was on the ferry going to Seattle when this all happened and as I drove off the ferry heading toward the Kingdome and a Mariner game, I prayed to God to let me continue experiencing true love.<\/p>\n
It was to no avail. Once I got to the press box, it was gone. I longed for it to return, but the window had closed.<\/p>\n
Hank sang as he experienced life. His words were true, his life not so true. But that\u2019s life. In his song \u201cPictures from Life\u2019s Other Side\u201d, we learn what he was thinking.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the world’s mighty gallery of pictures
\nHang the scenes that’re painted from life
\nThere’s pictures of love and of passion
\nAnd there’s pictures of keys and of strife<\/p>\n
There hung pictures of youth and of beauty
\nOf old age and a blushing young bride
\nThey all hung on the wall but the saddest of all
\nAre the pictures from life’s other side<\/p>\n
Just a picture from life’s other side
\nSomeone has fell by the way
\nA life has gone out with the tide
\nThat might have been happy some day<\/p>\n
There’s a poor old mother at home
\nShe’s watching and waiting alone
\nJust longing to hear from a loved one so dear
\nJust a picture from life’s other side<\/p>\n
The first scene is that of a gambler
\nWho had lost all of his money at play
\nAnd he drowses dead mother’s ring from his finger
\nWhich she wore long ago on her wedding day<\/p>\n
It’s his last earthly treasure but he stakes it
\nThen bows his head that his shame he might hide
\nBut when they lifted his head they found he was dead
\nThat’s just a picture from life’s other side<\/p>\n
Now the last scene is that by the river
\nOf a heartbroken mother and baby
\nAs the harbor lights shine and they shiver
\nOn an outcast, soon no one will save<\/p>\n
And yet she was once a true woman
\nShe was somebody’s darling and pride
\nGod help her she leaps, oh there’s no one to weep
\nIt’s just a picture from life’s other side.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
So much has transpired in the years since I first discovered Hank Williams. Most of the friends I had then have joined Hank on the other side. I\u2019ve gotten to the point in life on this side that I\u2019ve grown nearly irreverent. The mainstream has passed me by. Each day brings me closer to the other side. I know now that you can outlive your usefulness, which is how some people wind up in nursing homes nearly abandoned by family that is being swept downstream by the mainstream.<\/p>\n
I knew a person who died recently who was living past his expiration date, and detested every minute of it. He was once reverent to our community, but now was pass\u00e9.\u00a0 But there was nothing he could do about it. He just had to wait for the time that God would take him back to the other side, and put up until that time with a body that continued to rob him of strength and the vigor that he once represented as a main part of our community.<\/p>\n
I guess that is a picture from this life\u2019s side.<\/p>\n
As mainstream life passes me by, I\u2019ll go back to listening to Hank. He died 61 years ago, but his voice still gives for me some stability as I slip away.<\/p>\n
Be well pal.<\/p>\n
Be careful out there.<\/p>\n
Have a great day.<\/p>\n
You are loved.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
TERRY MOSHER Maybe I have become full circle. I discovered Hank Williams as a young teen, grabbed on…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-column","category-mosher"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1231"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1231\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1232,"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1231\/revisions\/1232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}