NEW "FAVORITE SONGS"

NASA photo of Earth from space



In the years that I have been a counselor/psychotherapist,
there have been two clients who have brought their guitars and sung their "agendas".  Several years ago, a man who was experiencing difficulty articulating in conversation his pain was eloquent when singing several of his original pieces.  Then a couple of weeks ago, a man who  articulately expresses his 50+ year perspectives sang a particularly poignant concern in a song that I had never before heard . . . but which has become my new "favorite song",  Mark Erelli's Passing Through.

I remembered the title before I did the artist's name and when I looked for it on the computer search engine, I discovered yet another by the same title, this one sung by Leonard Cohen. And, I claimed it as another new "favorite".
(Both are available via YouTube, so I will not include extensive lyrics here.)  While you may not care for the instruments used, I recommend focusing on the words.        

Perhaps a case could be made for a certain fatalism in both; but I hear instead a call for transcending the 'muck and mire' that seems often the human lot.  Many years ago, I heard a lecture entitled, To Hell with Posterity. Among the implications --we are owners, not tenants of this world and all that lies within. Along side that, I remember The late Rev. Dr. Fred Craddock saying  something to the effect that the person who can see no more than the timeframe of his/her own birth and death is an orphan in the universe. In neither version of Passing Through did I hear anything resembling "to hell with posterity". Nor was there a "eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow you may die" attitude.  More of a "make a contribution while here because it's not just about the Right Now".  A couple of illustrations from the lyrics:
Erelli: "This big blue ball keeps shrinking . . .  [and] for better or for worse now this whole world's our neighborhood . . . . we all need to get along and not just get our way --not only for each other but for our children's children too."  Then these potent LEGACY issues :"And I wonder sometimes what will I pass on . . . Sometimes injustice and indifference are the only things I see but I refuse to let my hope become the latest casualty. . . . And, if I can't change the world, I'll change the world within my reach and what better place to start than with me and you !"

HOPE  (according to an on-line dictionary) is a feeling or expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen."
The author of the Christian New Testament book of Hebrews called it "the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen" , suggestive of being unmoved by the circumstances of the moment.  This is , to me, quite different from Wishful Thinking that believes things such as "One day my ship will come in" , a kind of magical thinking.  My mentor, the late Dr. Harrell Beck, observed that he once thought Hope to be the icing on the cake but in time came to realize that Hope was THE CAKE that sustains life.  And, as Erelli noted, injustice and indifference do not necessarily get to have the final 'say', despite often compelling circumstances.

Cohen's words capture something within, what . . . the human spirit, the awareness of something transcendent, the limitation of 'logic', the power of the NOW.  (Again, for the full text listen to the songs)                                                  
"I saw Jesus on the cross on a hill called Calvary. 'Do you hate mankind for what they've done to you ?' He said, 'talk of love, not hate. Things to do, it's getting late. I've so little time and I'm only passing through."  And, "I was with Washington at Valley Forge, shivering in the snow.  I said, 'How come men here suffer like they do?'  'Men will suffer, men will fight, even die for what is right. Even though they're only passing through.' "   Then, in the final verse, attributing sentiments to President Roosevelt: "Yankee, Russian, white or tan,' he said, 'a man is still a man. We're all on one road and we're only passing through."

"Passing through, passing through. Sometimes happy , sometimes blue. Glad that I ran into you.  Tell the people              that you meet that you saw me passing through."       
                                                           
Satchel