Hold on to the circle! Hold on!
I am writing on the day after Thanksgiving, 2016 in the United States. The two previous days I have spent with amazing, giving people in homes where differences in political and religious frameworks were not in evidence. What was in evidence was that we were bound together in a circle of love. Some of us had a long history together and some of us had just met. Yet we gathered as one to give thanks and break bread together.
Yesterday I talked with or exchanged messages with two of my sisters, my son, other friends, and clients. I also had communication from two different people I had not heard from in some time. One I thought was angry with me and one I was fearful that the over four years he had been kept in isolation in a prison in West Virginia had finally stolen his will to live. The person I was fearful was angry did not need to say why she had blocked me for weeks. It was enough that she reached out and acknowledged that she had been “MIA.” The other, had finally been moved from isolation to a different prison where he is living in the general population. The fact that he should not be in prison at all is an issue for another blog.
This morning as is my Friday morning habit I downloaded and listened to the more recent On Being conversation between Krista Tippett and her guests Béla Flec, the banjo player and his musical and life partner Abigail Washburn, the banjo player and singer. She sings in both in English and Chinese.
Mr. Fleck did a documentary which traced the roots of the banjo from Africa to the United States. Ms. Washburn talks about the documentary. She says of what Mr. Fleck learned:
“Yeah. And what he had learned and part of the reason the documentary is called Throw Down Your Heart is because, as people were being boarded onto the slave ships, they said, “Throw your heart down here. You’re not going to want to carry it to where you’re going.” And a lot of the slave masters figured out that if they had a banjo player onboard playing the music of home, more of the cargo would live to the other side. So the origins of the banjo in America are the bitterest of roots.
It makes me want to cry just thinking about it in this moment. And it formed an amazing origin to what became a blend of traditions from Africa, Ireland, and Scotland, when those banjo players from Africa and those fiddlers from Scotland and Ireland started playing plantation dances together. That’s what really started what we know of as that early Appalachian and that early American sound. And that sound is based in this bitter root, but with this actual hope — this hope that I can live, that I can live, I can survive. It’s an amazing tradition.”
Actually, I had previously read or heard of this history. Ironically, just yesterday I was talking with someone about the history of the music known as the Holocaust Music which was composed by people in the death camps.
Most of us also know the history of the “Negro” spiritual which was a safe way to express hope and despair. Spirituals were also a safe way to communicate other messages hidden in the music.
My mind then wandered to a Christian hymn which I first heard as a young child. This hymn was written in 1907 by Ada Habershon and the music was written by Charles Gabriel. The chorus of the song is:
Will the circle be unbroken
By and by, by and by?
Is a better home a-waiting
In the sky, Lord, in the sky.
Circles, as contributors to Wikipedia remind us, “commonly represent unity, wholeness, and infinity. Without beginning or end, without sides or corners, the circle is also associated with the number one.”
In short, I am again reminded that we can choose to form a circle of love, faith, and hope. We can choose – certainly I can choose – to continue past Thanksgiving here in the United States to break or not break the circle which can be inclusive of all religions and political frameworks, people of all ages, sexual orientations, backgrounds, colors, abilities, and talents. We/I can choose to speak in the language of music which may at times be intended to pacify one, but which can also draw upon the depth of strength we together share. We can choose to sing “We shall overcome” without needing to understand the words or speak the same physical language.
We can choose to gather together throughout the year, join hands and acknowledge the circle or honor the circle that is us
Written November 26, 2016
I am writing on the day after Thanksgiving, 2016 in the United States. The two previous days I have spent with amazing, giving people in homes where differences in political and religious frameworks were not in evidence. What was in evidence was that we were bound together in a circle of love. Some of us had a long history together and some of us had just met. Yet we gathered as one to give thanks and break bread together.
Yesterday I talked with or exchanged messages with two of my sisters, my son, other friends, and clients. I also had communication from two different people I had not heard from in some time. One I thought was angry with me and one I was fearful that the over four years he had been kept in isolation in a prison in West Virginia had finally stolen his will to live. The person I was fearful was angry did not need to say why she had blocked me for weeks. It was enough that she reached out and acknowledged that she had been “MIA.” The other, had finally been moved from isolation to a different prison where he is living in the general population. The fact that he should not be in prison at all is an issue for another blog.
This morning as is my Friday morning habit I downloaded and listened to the more recent On Being conversation between Krista Tippett and her guests Béla Flec, the banjo player and his musical and life partner Abigail Washburn, the banjo player and singer. She sings in both in English and Chinese.
Mr. Fleck did a documentary which traced the roots of the banjo from Africa to the United States. Ms. Washburn talks about the documentary. She says of what Mr. Fleck learned:
“Yeah. And what he had learned and part of the reason the documentary is called Throw Down Your Heart is because, as people were being boarded onto the slave ships, they said, “Throw your heart down here. You’re not going to want to carry it to where you’re going.” And a lot of the slave masters figured out that if they had a banjo player onboard playing the music of home, more of the cargo would live to the other side. So the origins of the banjo in America are the bitterest of roots.
It makes me want to cry just thinking about it in this moment. And it formed an amazing origin to what became a blend of traditions from Africa, Ireland, and Scotland, when those banjo players from Africa and those fiddlers from Scotland and Ireland started playing plantation dances together. That’s what really started what we know of as that early Appalachian and that early American sound. And that sound is based in this bitter root, but with this actual hope — this hope that I can live, that I can live, I can survive. It’s an amazing tradition.”
Actually, I had previously read or heard of this history. Ironically, just yesterday I was talking with someone about the history of the music known as the Holocaust Music which was composed by people in the death camps.
Most of us also know the history of the “Negro” spiritual which was a safe way to express hope and despair. Spirituals were also a safe way to communicate other messages hidden in the music.
My mind then wandered to a Christian hymn which I first heard as a young child. This hymn was written in 1907 by Ada Habershon and the music was written by Charles Gabriel. The chorus of the song is:
Will the circle be unbroken
By and by, by and by?
Is a better home a-waiting
In the sky, Lord, in the sky.
Circles, as contributors to Wikipedia remind us, “commonly represent unity, wholeness, and infinity. Without beginning or end, without sides or corners, the circle is also associated with the number one.”
In short, I am again reminded that we can choose to form a circle of love, faith, and hope. We can choose – certainly I can choose – to continue past Thanksgiving here in the United States to break or not break the circle which can be inclusive of all religions and political frameworks, people of all ages, sexual orientations, backgrounds, colors, abilities, and talents. We/I can choose to speak in the language of music which may at times be intended to pacify one, but which can also draw upon the depth of strength we together share. We can choose to sing “We shall overcome” without needing to understand the words or speak the same physical language.
We can choose to gather together throughout the year, join hands and acknowledge the circle or honor the circle that is us
Written November 26, 2016
RSS Feed