…and the jokey answer to that is Good, because I can’t play the piano now.
I love music. But I can’t play an instrument, can’t sing, can’t even really remember words to songs very well. I can be listening to someone play music and strain to remember the words, even if I know the song. The only time I sing is if I’m in the car by myself. Or in the house alone.
Yet even so, music can transport me to a glorious place:
a place where I can sing;
a place where kindness and mercy are attending;
a place where the wind sings alto;
a place where the rain and the sun
fall together;
a place both near and far
where the world has turned on its axis
and is the world we long for,
not the world we live in.
Yes, heaven.
Where is heaven?
It is the step through the air,
there but here,
the hand on the mirror but
through the looking glass.
Where the world is the same but better.
More glisten.
More light.
More calm.
More mercy.
The dimension beyond
where sometimes we can catch
a glimpse,
a shadow.
I was there this morning when the pianist played a piece so intricate, so graceful, that spontaneous applause burst out (in church!) when he was finished.
I was there the other evening when I put in my earbuds and listened to an updated video of the Beatles singing Let It Be.
And that same evening I rediscovered Joan Baez’s 75th Birthday Celebration when she and EmmyLou and Jackson Browne sang The Plane Wreck at Los Gatos (Deportee). And if you don’t know the words, listen and weep.
I was there driving down the road earlier this week when the deep rhythmic bass of Celtic Worship’s bagpipes announced my favorite hymn, Jesus Paid It All. And yes, I sang along.
Musicians, artists, writers, storytellers — they remind us of the good; that we can be the force for good; that we are the force for good. Against ugliness, against unkindness, against authoritarian regimes who try to get us to believe untruths. They speak, sing, paint, write what is Real.
And here is Springsteen — showing and singing the crowd his version of heaven. I call it his This Is Happening Now speech. Watch him remind us that We the People are the force for good.
And after you watch that, watch this video of Bruce singing This Land Is Your Land.
We the people are a force for Good. For Democracy. Against authoritarianism. Against military parades that cost 45 million dollars when the government is ostensibly firing federal workers and agency budgets to cut waste. If you want to protest on June 14, the day of the parade, check out this Indivisible page. It will show you where protests are happening around the country. Coming to a place near where you live. Start making your music (and your signs) now. Whether you can sing or not.
the circle of life 