After reviewing my previous blog entry about Nashville, I recognize that I painted a bleak picture and may have left the impression that my experience was horrible and depressing. The fact is, I loved being in Nashville. I hated my job, and that did jack me up emotionally for a few months, but overall-I loved it. I had never lived in a big city before. Amy was from St Louis so it was not so glamorous for her, but I was enthralled. We saw a lot of places and went out to eat often (spending money we didn’t have.) There was traffic and lots of people and Malls (remember those) and music venues and celebrities (Amy worked at the Target on White Bridge Road, we called it “The Target of the Stars” because so many Country Music artists shopped there.)
We became a part of Belmont Church on Music Row. It was a huge congregation with multiple services. Our first year there, Belmont rented West End Jr. High for one Sunday Morning service and utilized their small building on Music Row for the second service. Belmont then built their large facility on Music Row and we were in that first group to attend there. I loved the worship times. Michael W. Smith led occasionally. One Sunday morning it was just him on a piano at the Music Row building leading worship. He said he wanted to try a new worship song he was working on. It ended up being “Agnes Dei” probably his most popular worship song.
I learned a lot from Don Finto, the pastor. He was very “grace” focused in his teaching. It seemed every sermon eventually ended up in the book of Romans. It was a message I needed to hear and I needed to hear it often. I had an underlying doubt about my salvation. Don Finto constantly hammered home, “Grace through Faith. Grace through Faith. Grace through Faith. This is not of yourselves. It is a gift from God.”
We also met great people. Phil & Mary LaFleur were two of them. Mary was a folksy-neo-hippie-type songwriter (and person.) We met her at some writer’s nights and struck up a friendship. She and her husband Phil also attended Belmont and lived quite close to the Music Row building. Phil is a genius. At the time he had not finished college, but you could tell he had IQ to spare. His profession at the time was wall coverings (paint & wall paper.) He was very skilled in both.
I was unemployed and not in a great mental state to go effectively get a job, even though I really needed one. Phil heard of my plight and asked me if I wanted to help him hang wall paper. I had no experience but he wasn’t worried about that. He would teach me to prep the wall paper and he would hang it. He said he would pay me $5.00 a roll, and most of the rolls were double rolls which meant $10.00 for every double roll we hung. I was in no position to say “no” and it was a generous offer.
So Phil took me under his wing. He taught me how to measure, how to match a drop-pattern, how much adhesive to roll onto the paper, how to double-cut seams and have tight corners and cut the bottoms and everything I needed to know about wallpapering. Plus, he’d give me some money at the end of the day. But that wasn’t the best thing Phil did for me. He would talk.
Phil was (probably still is) a talker. And because he was a genius (in my opinion) he knew a lot of stuff about a wide variety of a lot of stuff. So we would talk…all day. I’m much quieter now that I’m an old guy, but back then, I was right there with him. I don’t even remember what we talked about, mostly just silliness and jokes. We talked about movies and politics and Monty Python and just nothing. I do remember on time we were in this huge mansion in Brentwood. We were upstairs in a bedroom and the radio was on a country station. One of the songs rhymed “higher” and “desire.” So started going off on how lame and hack-kneed that was, blah, blah, blah. Then we spent the rest of the evening trying to one-up each other with “ire” rhymes in conversation.
PHIL: I can hang paper all night and not tire.
ME: That is something I wish to aspire.
PHIL: That Alan Jackson is a real high-flyer.
ME: Like a circus performer on a high wire.
Etc…..
I don’t think Phil even needed my help. He was just a good soul. I had no pressure. It was manual labor. When the job was done you could tell it was done. People were happy. We went to a new place every couple of days. No one was physically attacking me or emotionally draining me. I was just hanging out with a funny dude who had a knack for cracking me up. It was awesome. Only later did I come to realize that that time with Phil was critical to my mental and emotional healing..
I worked for Phil for about three months. Then I got a new teaching position that started January 2nd of 1988. I’ve used all the skills Phil taught me during our days together many times since.
Mary LeFleur died of cancer October of 2007. Phil went on to become a psychiatrist (or something brainy like that.) Ironically we both got into doing treatment in Prisons. But that story is for later.
chris
For more information about Mary LaFleur: http://www.marylafleur.com/
For more information about Belmont Church in Nashville: http://www.belmont.org/
For more info about Don Finto: http://calebcompany.com/
Wow Chris. I'm touched and humbled. For the record I always thought you were a very cool guy and considered it a privilege to be your friend.
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