Hope Brought by Song

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

On the way into work today I was listening to K.D. Lang sing. It was beautiful. I will post the link below of the song that I was hearing. Methinks I will also post the lyrics because they are so hopeful, so right for a moment with so many dark currents swirling about.

The music came from Hymns of the 49th Parallel. So moving, so wonderful are the tunes contained on this shiny round piece of plastic that the dashboard of my car swallows and then aurally renders. The four song cycle that this song sits in the middle of includes, After the Goldrush, Simple, Helpless and I Could Drink a Case of You. All of these songs are wistful, longing, romantic and ultimately hopeful. There is a shininess to them that lifts me out of any funk I might be in.

Three of the four of these songs were created by 1970 when the zeitgeist was a belief in unlimited possibility. It was a time when freedom, justice and love were the touchstones; well they were the watchwords at least. I think we did okay on the justice part but we really bungled it badly on how we handled the love and freedom part. Still, when I can tap into that moment as when a song like this and its mates touch those memories of the era I remember what we, what I was striving for. When I feel that feeling again it is easier to face a day filled with the petty grievances, the failed schemes, the greed and the myopia that so surrounds us.

Motivated by a lyric sung high and hopeful I can focus again on love and justice and freedom in a world that seems to have lost its way.




Flawless light in a darkening air
Alone...and shining there
Love will not elude you

Love is simple
I worship this tenacity
And the beautiful struggle we’re in
Love will not elude us

Love is simple
Be sure to know that

All in love
Is ours
And love, as a philosophy
Is simple

I am calm in oblivion
Calm, as I ever have been
Love will not elude me
Love is simple
Be sure to know that
All in love
Is ours...
Is ours...

That all in love
Is ours
And love, as philosophy
Is simple...
And ours...