It is Saturday, and that means it is time for music on MORE TO COME. While music “will play a vital role over the next handful of years,” notes BGS’s Justin Hiltner, “music, the arts, and creativity won’t be enough to save us.” This moment calls for much more. But music has always been a way to process grief and point a way forward in times of turmoil and social injustice.

So we sing, play, and listen to music that helps us understand the moment and inspires us to continue to do the good work we should be doing.

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Mercy Now

As Venice (not Venus) Williams wrote, “You are awakening to the same country you fell asleep to. The very same country.” Only now we know the truth about the country we live in.

“How do we get through the next four years?” Some of my Ancestors dealt with at least 400 years of this under worse conditions.

Continue to do the good work. Continue to build bridges not walls. Continue to lead with compassion . . .”

The world has changed too fast for too many people, and I suspect we will find that they voted from a place of fear. This is a place and time where mercy is needed. And in Mary Gauthier‘s Mercy Now, the message “of mercy applied broadly, universally, and without qualification, is more than timely. It’s evergreen.” As Gauthier sings near the end, “Every single one of us could use some mercy now.”

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Reconciliation

A friend and retired Episcopal priest put it this way in a post he shared that was written immediately after the 2016 election.

“The long period of speculation is past.  The die is cast. Capital ‘T’ truth about our nation is right before our eyes.  We now must get on with the business of being a nation. A primary task is obviously reconciliation. If we did not learn anything else in the past twenty-four hours, we all must know that we live among deep and painful divisions. The primary ministry objective must be reconciliation which is an ancient and basic function of the Christian Community.”

Reconciliation is not easy. Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, notes that in secular thinking, “reconciliation is an event that takes place quickly and then everyone moves on. It is basically a ‘kiss and make up’ event.” But true reconciliation takes time. A lifetime and then some. It must be “lived out and grown into.”

Reconciliation, writes Welby, “involves the transformation of fear and exclusion of others into abundant joy in relishing difference. It is “the transformation of destructive forms of conflict and disagreement into the capacity to disagree well.”

This was never going to be a short journey.

There will be many who say we should be an “every man for himself” type of nation. But the Black string band supergroup New Dangerfield—which features Jake Blount, Kaia Kater, Tray Wellington, and Nelson Williams—reminds us in Put No Walls Around Your Garden that the only way we’ll get through is together. Rather than walling ourselves off, “now is the time to throw open our garden gates and welcome each other in. Share our abundance, work through our scarcity and lack, and care for each other’s needs—big or small.”

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Listen

I do not know what happened on Tuesday. In that regard, I am like millions of others and virtually all the pundits. Of course, that fact doesn’t stop those pundits from expressing their opinions. It’s what they do (see here and here, for example). But if you’re going to listen to pundits, you might do worse than consider what H.L. Mencken wrote a century ago about complexity, wild promises, and moral certainty.

• For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong. 
• If a politician found he had cannibals among his constituents, he would promise them missionaries for dinner.
• The worst government is often the most moral. One composed of cynics is often very tolerant and humane. But when fanatics are on top there is no limit to oppression

There is much I don’t know, although I feel that we continue to pay for America’s original sins of slavery and the extermination of our indigenous peoples. Racism and misogyny are clearly part of what happened this week. Disinformation on a massive scale is also responsible and remains a clear and present danger.

However, I just don’t know the answers. Wisdom is knowing what you don’t know.

I do believe that in listening to different perspectives we may find some ways forward. “Media, social media, and the internet all incentivize us to speak, to center ourselves. As Kyshona Armstrong reminds us, let’s listen more. Especially right now.

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Processing grief. Finding hope.

I had not considered the role that the pandemic may have played in voters’ decisions, but it is worth considering.

Unprocessed grief is never healthy. The suggestion that behind our anger is lingering pandemic grief seems an astute observation. My friend Sandy pointed me to the article where I heard these voices saying that the toll of that period of national and personal crisis is still unfolding.

‘Underneath it all, so much of the rage and angst and animosity, I believe, is unprocessed grief,’ said the Rev. Amy Greene, who was the director of spiritual care for the Cleveland Clinic health system during the pandemic.

America is particularly ‘grief-phobic,’ she said. ‘Anger is a lot easier because it makes you feel powerful even if you are not. It overwhelms fear and sadness,’ she said. ‘I think that is why we see so much rage on both sides.’ . . .

Grief is scary, and it is hard . . . and grief is just vulnerability like nobody’s business . . . America’s not a big fan of vulnerability, on either side of the equation.”

Grief, however, has always been a component of the old songs. Especially those out of Black traditional music.

Rhiannon Giddens, in a NPR Tiny Desk (Home) Concert filmed during the heart of the pandemic, launched into an old spiritual, “’cause with these kinds of emotions, the old songs say it best.” That seems to fit today as well.

The set list for the mini concert includes Black As Crow, Spiritual, and the tune set Carolina Gals / Last Chance. While all are wonderful, the haunting vocals and lyrics of Spiritual (at the 9:16 mark of the video) seems especially meaningful for this time:

“I’m gonna tell God of all my troubles, when I get home / I’m gonna tell God of all my troubles, when I get home / I’m gonna tell God of all my trials, my hardships, my self-denials / I’m gonna tell God of all my troubles, when I get home.

I’m gonna tell God the road was rocky, when I get home / I’m gonna tell God the road was rocky, when I get home / I’m gonna tell God the road was rocky, and my heart it is so heavy / I’m gonna tell God the road was rocky, when I get home.”

Giddens also sings a beautiful version of one of my favorite songs—Wayfaring Stranger—accompanied by the haunting sound of her fretless banjo and the mournful accordion played by Phil Cunningham of Silly Wizard fame. With one of the most expressive and powerful voices in music today, Giddens transports us to a deeper spiritual place, no matter our beliefs. It is a good reminder that we are all on a journey in this life.

The Saturday following the January 6th insurrection I wrote a post entitled The darkest hour is just before dawn. That post has been trending this week, probably because the title of this old country song offers some hope in the face of grief. The first line of the chorus is pure country poetry: The darkest hour is just before dawn.

“The sun is slowly sinking
The day is almost gone
Still darkness falls around us
And we must journey on

The darkest hour is just before dawn…”

One doesn’t have to believe in the gospel context of the song to understand and appreciate the meaning of trial, loss, and rebirth. The definitive version in my mind is undoubtedly by Emmylou Harris, with Ricky Skaggs singing harmony.

Keep journeying forward, with hope and work for a better world.

More to come . . .

DJB

Image by Coombesy from Pixabay