And this post starts with Johnny Cash singing Ain’t no grave while I look for the hook that will set the tone and the rhythm for this post.
Well, look way down the river, what do you think I see?
I see a band of angels and they’re coming after me
Ain’t no grave can hold my body down
There ain’t no grave can hold my body down
We’re in the midst of a particularly challenging and scary time and more than a few people have asked me to share my thoughts.
I tell them that music and the arts will save us. I tell them we’re going to find our way and that even though it seems unlikely there is truth it is always darkest before dawn.
Some tell me I sound naive and ask for more details so I shrug my shoulders and say I have walked the streets of hell covered in gasoline.
I tell them when you have loved someone with all you have and lost them you feel like you are choking and you shiver. You do these things in spite of standing under the brightest blue sky on a warm day in a home that smells of cinnamon.
But if you are made of the so called sterner stuff you rediscover the warmth of the sun upon your back and the joy of pure laughter.
So wandering through the streets of fire and fields of uncertainty isn’t as frightening as it could be because experience has provided you with proof of your strength of character.
You are a survivor and recognize that you can be the hero in your own story.
What Is The Plan?
They ask me to share with them my roadmap to safety and maybe salvation. They ask me how to move from here to there when we’re not sure who is leading the charge and what that charge is.
They tell me they can’t figure out how I can stay positive and I snort. “I am no different than you. I find myself feeling lost, angry, sad and in need of hope. But I get lost in memories and in the stories I build inside my head and find my way to the next place I need to go.”
Sometimes they ask for more details and I tell them again that music and the arts will save us. I pull out a favorite quote from Rush’s Freewill and tell them to try it on for size.
You can choose a ready guide in some celestial voice.
If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.
You can choose from phantom fears and kindness that can kill;
I will choose a path that’s clear-
I will choose Free Will.
If that doesn’t work I offer a few other choices like Simon & Garfunkel’s Bridge Over Troubled Waters and America.
Sail on, silver girl
Sail on by
Your time has come to shine
All your dreams are on their way
See how they shine
Oh, if you need a friend
I’m sailing right behind
And
“Kathy, I’m lost”, I said, though I knew she was sleeping
I’m empty and aching and I don’t know why
Counting the cars on the New Jersey Turnpike
They’ve all come to look for America
All come to look for America
All come to look for America”
Sometimes they push me again and insist there must be moments where I feel like the weight is impossible to carry. I nod and say I could quote Johnny singing Hurt or share a few lines from Ozymandias.
The words below carry a weight and a heaviness to many but to some they carry a message of hope couched in warning. Act now, there is still time.
And on the pedestal, these words appear:
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
But I can always come back to John Keating quoting Whitman in Dead Poet’s Society and feel inspired.
What will your verse be?
Epilogue
Per request here are links to recent posts:
- Is It The End Of A Chapter Or The Start Of Something New?
- When Your Father’s Ghost Visits You Part 2
- When Your Father’s Ghost Visits You
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