Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Is it only a dream that there'll be no more turning away?

It just goes to show if you stay alive long enough, you may actually live to see a dream come true. The trick, it seems, is surviving all the torturous bits that keep testing it in an unrelenting manner and getting through it without poking out both your eyes in shame and horror.

Sometimes it takes awhile for dreams, art and truth to make their journey out into the universe and cycle home to remind us who we truly are. All the more reason to speak it and make it and cherish these things for their power to heal. Twenty years ago this song was performed - in hindsight - at the dawn of the dark decades for democracy. It seems appropriate to listen to it and contemplate its message today with the inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States.

I hope we will all be as brave and smart as we want to be. Probably not; being human... but at least for a day or so we can feel like we've done something right. Perhaps we have reached a tipping point on our spin. On this day, we will collectively stand and not turn away; gather our strength towards wasting less and applying our Yankee ingenuity to dreaming up an even better world with all of the extra time we have not pounding the floor of a big box store...be a part of something larger than ourselves that is inclusive, wise and transparent in its intention.



On the turning away
On the turning away
From the pale and downtrodden
And the words they say
Which we wont understand
Dont accept that whats happening
Is just a case of others suffering
Or youll find that youre joining in
The turning away

Its a sin that somehow
Light is changing to shadow
And casting its shroud
Over all we have known
Unaware how the ranks have grown
Driven on by a heart of stone
We could find that were all alone
In the dream of the proud

On the wings of the night
As the daytime is stirring
Where the speechless unite
In a silent accord
Using words you will find are strange
And mesmerized as they light the flame
Feel the new wind of change
On the wings of the night

No more turning away
From the weak and the weary
No more turning away
From the coldness inside
Just a world that we all must share
Its not enough just to stand and stare
Is it only a dream that there'll be
No more turning away?


~Pink Floyd
A Momentary Lapse of Reason



Thanks to Jimmy Toast for posting the above video to You Tube.

Monday, January 19, 2009

You look so beautiful tonight

U2 has quite an investment in the election of Barack Obama as they are so passionate about liberty and have always been a force for the White House to contend with. I recall seeing them perform in Tempe, AZ on the Zoo TV tour at Arizona State University Activity Center in October 1992. I laughed with my heart breaking as Bono would dial up the White House from the stage to try and talk to George Bush. A bit he did, no doubt, from every performance. I'm so happy for all of us and for Martin Luther King's Dream that lives on in the name of love.

Here is a video from a White House party in D.C. yesterday that includes two songs, "Pride" and "City of Blinding Lights" leading us into a Martin Luther King Day to remember.



Thanks to IllBeBackCall for posting the video.