“We are but a moment’s sunlight…”

Journal entry today

I grew up in an era of political violence. I was all of 8-years-old when John Kennedy was assassinated that Friday in Dallas. The entire country was in shock, and I remember well the days that followed, the additional murder of Lee Harvey Oswald, the adult conversations, the televised funeral. Dark, dark days.

It was quiet for a while, but then came Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy in rapid succession. I was a 7th grader then, but it still made no sense.

In between all of that had been the rise of the hippie culture and the Summer of Love (1967). These things caught my attention and has never let me go. It was in the music and culture. It was part of everything. I still believe in the values I grabbed onto at age 12, and I don't see any reason to give them up. They define me now, even at age 68.

Now there has been an act of political violence once again. The target is someone I disagree with on every level. But to me violence is violence and is not warranted. It solves nothing.

I still believe love does solve everything. This is not airy-fairy because love is HARD.

Today I was reminded of a song that was out during the summer of 1969 -- "Get Together' by The Youngbloods. It begins:

Love is but a song we sing 

Fear the way we die

You can make the mountains sing

Or make the angels cry...

[Listen to full song here.The boy on the bicycle in the video reminds me so much of my little brother it was freaky!]

After the era of violence and unrest in the 1960s, we ended up with a "reset" of sorts. The Youngbloods' song was the anthem for what we needed to do. That summer we had the long-awaited moon landing and three days of peace and love at Woodstock. I was entering high school.

Everything felt possible.

This country needs a reset. The sooner the better. We have never been so far off. We are running on fear and threats of violence and whats-in-it-for-me.

Worst of all, some people are united by hate. How is that a way to live? How does that contribute anything positive to the American Experiment?

In the second verse of the song, we hear:

Some may come and some may go

We will surely pass

When the one* that left us here

Comes for us at last 

We are but a moment's sunlight

Fading in the grass

Life is fleeting. I'm feeling that more than ever these days. When will we get it together? Time is so short.

 

It is worth our time and effort to make a change.

 

The final verse says:

 

Listen

You hold the key to love and fear

All in your trembling hand

Just one key unlocks them both

It's there at your command

I believe love is possible.

I believe peace is possible.

I believe living the values of America is possible. 

I believe the power is within us

At our command.

And I will never stop believing.

 *The writer of the song, Chester Powell, had written the word WIND, not ONE. It was a Buddhist concept of the opposing states we live in: pleasure/pain, loss/gain, praise/blame, disrepute/fame. However, Jesse Colin Young, the leader of the Youngbloods, was Christian so he changed the lyric. You see opposing concepts in love/fear in the song.