It is a Sunday. It is also Father’s Day. The weather, here in The Burg, is perfect for this day. It will be a day of wistful reflection for many. I day of unbridled celebration for others. For many it will pass without note. For me, it will involve some of each. Days like today are ripe for opportunity. I am taking such to ride a train. …(continued)
I love this song. I think it was not meant to be a hymn. I also think that it should be sung in every church across our country. At 60 years old, the teachings from my youth at Irene Cole are blurred daily by events that dominate the news. Either I did not pay attention or a lot of fine folks, most of them ladies, so dear to me still to this day, misled me. The latter did not happen. On that there is no blur. This song, a gospel inspired reflection of changing social and political times inspires a clear focus for me on each listening. There is no cover that I like better than Eva’s.
Her cover was on a playlist I listened to last night. The playlist, one populated entirely by female voices, is used for both happy and sad reflection. Music helps me to focus. To remove the blur. If it is a song I genuinely like, it will inspire happiness. Simple as that. Songs meant to be happy do this. Songs meant to be sad do so as well. I don’t know why it works this way. I am just glad it does. I am also glad I figured it out a long, long time ago.
Smiles and laughter are good. Tears can be also. Music makes me happy. It has for a very long time; A lifetime minus only a few years that I cannot hope to remember. Memories of the very, very young are like that. Tears of joy evoked from a song written around sadness cannot be unique to me but I do believe I have come as close to perfecting it as anyone.
When We Were Very Young, music played a role. It is only as the years have passed that the role is realized. I am sure that at one time the Winnie the Pooh theme song provided for me just as much as Eva’s cover does now. Today, the Winnie the Pooh theme song for me is silly and boring. Yet it is, at times, still fun. It is always happy.
So, what is the point of this post? I am not sure. I think I am but suggesting that there is a basic good that can come from the teachings of one or the music of another. The better of each share a common ground and within this common ground you can seek inspiration. To me this is quite clear. As clear “As an unmuddied lake or an azure sky of deepest summer”. From inspiration can come happiness. Find your inspiration for happiness in any form you may.
Mine, my inspiration for myself, for a goodness and stillness of heart, can always come from music. Be it People Get ready, Ode to Joy or Winnie the Pooh, these songs and others reside in an all too familiar place. I know exactly where to find them. I must only choose to board the train that takes me there. I am doing that more and more these days. The trains continue to run like Clockwork and most people I know, have likely paid their fare time and time again. Train rides are much better with company.
There are way too many empty seats though. I purposely have chosen not to take the window seat in a mostly empty car. That is the how it should be on this train. We just need for there to be a time of not enough trains instead of a time of too many empty window seats.
Feel the Burg 