Duke Augustus writes: “Shelter from the Storm” by Bob Dylan is the Royal Peace Song of the Day for Saturday, August 27, 2011.  Shelter and safety are on everyone’s mind as Hurricane Irene makes landfall on the East Coast.  Yesterday, a Long Island, New York restaurateur told Duke Augustus that he received a telephone call from a friend in the Louisiana.   The Louisianian had lived through Hurricane Katrina, and was concerned that his Long Island friend was prepared. The restaurateur assured his friend that his NY establishment was far in-land, and was windowless, but he appreciated the concern. For those in the path of Hurricane Irene, there is emergency information at the end of this post.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsyqQmnI0gc] 

Try imagining a place where it’s always safe and warm
“Come in,” she said, “I’ll give you shelter from the storm”

If you are like Duchess Susanna, and think that this post should have more content, then Duke Augustus will gladly comply by adding some more of his ramblings:

The song “Shelter From The Storm” seems to be out of Dylan’s sheaf of tales of lost love.  The Duke won’t claim to know the exact meaning since Dylan never tells, and when he does, it is usually the misdirection of a magician.  Then, his next explanation will totally contradict the last.  As the Wendell Berry wrote in one of the Duke’s favorite poems Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front

As soon as the generals and the politicos
can predict the motions of your mind,
lose it. Leave it as a sign
to mark the false trail, the way
you didn’t go. Be like the fox
who makes more tracks than necessary,
some in the wrong direction.

Dylan’s songs, like Picasso’s paintings, deepen with age. Picasso was told when he painted the expatriate poet Gertrude Stein, that his painting looked nothing like her.  He responded, “It will”.  And it did.

Similarly, Dylan sang the 1965 lyrics “It’s a shame the way she makes me scrub the floor/I ain’t gonna work on Maggie’s farm no more” during the 1985 Live Aid concert in Margaret Thatcher’s England.  The lyrics turned from an economic protest against a metaphorical Maggie to an outcry against Thatcher’s trickle-down economics.

Stay safe.

Related articles

• Royal Song of the Day: 8/25/2011 – Spiritual preparation for Hurricane Irene (peacecouple.com)
• Royal Song of the Day: Wednesday 8/24/2011 (peacecouple.com)
• Royal Song of the Day: Friday, August 26, 2011 (peacecouple.com)
• Royal Song of the Day: Sunday 8/21/2011 (peacecouple.com)

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Hurricane information and emergency/non-emergency phone numbers:

Realized that when something big happens, the websites of regular media could get overwhelmed. So, thought we would put some info about important phone numbers for potential Hurricane Irene problems here. Below are numbers for Suffolk County and Nassau County, Long Island:

You are asked to only call 911 if it is a life-threatening situation.

Some local politicians and media circulated a list with the following numbers…

American Red Cross of Suffolk County:
631-924-6700

Red Cross of Nassau County:
516-747-3500

Suffolk County Police Department:
631-852-6000 OR 631-852-COPS

Suffolk County Office of Emergency Management:
631-852-4900

Nassau County nonlife threatening emergency hotline:
888-684-4274

Long Island Power Authority/LIPA:
1-800-490-0075
(To report downed power lines or electrical emergency)

National Grid:
1-800-490-0045
(Emergency gas safety service)

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For NYC:

American Red Cross / Greater New York:
1-877-733-2767

New York City Government Information and Services:
Dial “311″

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There are other lists of emergency phone numbers at Long Island Press: here

And, at Newsday: here.