J. M. Walsh

“J: Yeah, so, strange thing happened today… Joey the hurler: Why are you texting me? J: Because I took your brothers and they’re at my house. Joey the hurler: Why? J: I don’t know. Joey the hurler: Do you plan on giving them back? J: I guess. Joey the hurler: You’re really fucked up, Kavanagh. J: I know. Joey the hurler: I’m on my way.””

“It is important that we do not attempt to freeze Cockburn’s spirituality at a particular point in time or from a particular “theological” perspective. In a 1986 interview for Nerve magazine, Cockburn said, “The fact that I’m a Christian has an obvious effect on how I see the world, which in turn shows up in the songs.”[30] But both the association of the word Christian with the religious Right in America and Cockburn’s own deep distaste for all “dogma” that ends up functioning as a violent weapon with which to attack others have led him to “rely on oblique imagery to get at the real things.”[31] While he has a profound and deep sense of “walking with God,” he also knows that such language is almost totally inexplicable to most people, precisely because such pious talk has been co-opted and defiled by a religious fundamentalism that has been at the heart of so much evil in the last few decades. Yet, Cockburn can’t help himself. He has a decidedly Christian-shaped experience of God that is caught in mere “glimpses.” Those glimpses, however, “are strong and tantalizing.” And so he confesses that the “sense of being in the company of God is continually growing. And I like it!”[32]””

“I’m your big brother. I will always stick up for you.” “I l-love you, J-Joe.” “I love you, too,””