Some music therapy

There is nothing like some good music to soothe the soul. As I began thinking of next week’s article, the results of the midterm election were not known. Next week we will either be humming the Hallelujah Chorus or singing the Blues. But whatever the outcome, we will probably need some music therapy. As Mary Poppins taught us, “a little bit of sugar helps the medicine go down.”

So I am recycling the article “Somewhere to Begin...” from 2017, which shares some good music. These songs remind me that if “changes are to come, there are things that must be done.” Good change is a process - not an event - and it often takes many years to accomplish anything. We don’t always win all the battles but we have to keep working for peace and justice.

Let’s begin with “Somewhere to Begin” by the late T.R. Richie. I first heard this song from Sara Thomsen, a wonderful Duluth singer and songwriter. Written long before our current political dystopia, this speaks directly to our current situation with a call to sing, dream and love.

“People say to me, Oh, you gotta be crazy!

How can you sing in times like these?

Don’t you read the news? Don’t you know the score?

How can you sing when so many others grieve?

People say to me, What kind of fool believes
That a song will make a difference in the end?

By way of a reply, I say a fool such as I

Who sees a song as somewhere to begin.”

“A song is somewhere to begin
The search for something worth believing in

If changes are to come, there are things that must be done
And a song is somewhere to begin.”

The other verses insert “dream” and “love” instead of “sing.” To hear the song get Sara’s CD Somewhere to Begin or Google the title with Sara’s name.

We certainly need dreams. The Old Testament Book of Proverbs says, “Where there is no vision, the people perish...” We need dreams of better, more just, tolerant, peaceful, and sustainable communities. We need what Martin Luther King talked about in his famous “I have a dream” speech in 1963. He talked about a lot more than integration and civil rights. We definitely don’t need selfish, arrogant, divisive visions (or delusions) of making America great.

Nothing good can come from our present atmosphere of division and hate. We would all be better off with more tolerance and respect for differences. We could use more of Glenn Campbell’s song “Let me Be a Little Kinder,”

“Let me be a little kinder, let me be a little blinder

To the faults of those about me, let me praise a little more

Let me be when I am weary just a little bit more cheery

Think a little more of others and a little less of me”

“Let me be when I am weary, just a little bit more cheery

Let me serve a little better those that I am striving for

Let me be a little meeker with the brother that is weaker

Think a little more of others and a little less of me.”

But working for change and trying to be a “little kinder” can be tough. Reading the news can be depressing. It seems like nothing ever changes for the better. The system is corrupt, money rules, the rich get richer, and the rest of us don’t matter. Greg Brown talking about this in the “Poets Game” says, “I cried out in a song...why does good change take so long?”

But there is hope. The song “Ship Gonna Sail” by Utah Phillips puts it all in historic perspective. The song uses the metaphor of building a ship to talk about those who worked in the past for peace, justice, equal rights, fair workplaces, and a better society. We are not alone in the struggle. We stand on the shoulders of others.

“Working on a ship we may never sail on