Something like a hootenanny.
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Here is the post without me reading and singing:
I just rode my bike to a street fair to fight capitalism. Promote socialism. To participate in good-natured banter.
I went to support an artist I know who needs money who led me to other artists, farmers, potters, bakers, sewers, etc. who also need money. I paid in cash, kept the cards out of it.
I paid cash to support efforts of creative artists fighting the system. I went to the ATM prior to subtract money from my account which is made through capitalism.
Anyway, it’s kind of funny how things don’t really add up, which is the beauty of letting things go.
I guess we need to do more than buying an electric car or earth-friendly appliances if we are to affect our planet’s health. These are consumer-focused actions.
Seems like really we need to drive a little less, fly less, eat less meat, shop locally, donate funds to earth-friendly efforts. This year I paid $50 to a couple that keeps a 300 acre refuge for beavers in upstate New York. With some of my money, and others, I know that two people are carrying out old feed bags filled with corn cobs, apples, and fresh willow branches after a long winter to feed the beavers. This gives me a good feeling and I need the good feeling feeding for me too.
Birds and beavers are not capitalistic but I send them financial support. They are nearly the opposite. Beavers generate and cultivate more water and cooler water for the benefit of hundreds of species including humans. Birds (and bats) pollinate and fertilize crops. This is just natural for these animals. They don’t need to be prompted, to have their consciousness raised. They enrich the planet naturally.
And so, what about Kum Ba yah?
Today my neighbor ran out to the street to ask me if a turkey lived at my house. He just watched one walk down the street, get to my house and turn and go directly over my fence and into my yard. I said, yeah, it kinda does, part time. And it has friends that come over too and I just let them and my cats don’t bother them nor does my dog.
He said, every neighborhood needs a sanctuary- and yours is ours.
Now, about Kum Ba yah, I just started wondering, why do people make fun of this song? We all kind of laugh at it and it’s become some sort of joke and when did this start and why and where did this song come from? I must investigate. I feel something interesting, a feeling around this question.
We aren’t sure when it began, but the song’s roots are from enslaved western Africans.
The song has 3 chords. C,F, G7. It is listed in my songbook as a traditional spiritual. Well, who could make fun of that?
The song stems from connection and caring and strength and something bigger.
Kum Ba Yah means “come by here” and it’s an appeal to God to help those who are suffering and in need.
It became strongly associated with the civil rights movement. The marchers from Selma to Montgomery for voting rights in 1965 sang it.
Sometime in the 1980s (perhaps sooner?) people started to put it down. They made fun of it. It became a symbol of weakness. Politicians referred to it as an example of too
much compromise. Like it was silly, impossible, and foolish.
So, groups who support human rights, labor unions, civil rights, Jewish people, women, African-Americans, you know, all the groups who must fight for rights, sing this song together.
When I read the lyrics it looks like a hymn. Like a prayer.
We ridicule what is pure sometimes, because it’s easier than embracing it.