The Indigo Girls happen to be one of my favorite bands. I'm kind of a sucker for some acoustic guitar and great harmonies. Add some fabulous, meaningful lyrics to that, and I'm very likely to be a fan.
Amy Ray of the Indigo Girls wrote a song called Tether. In it she seems to be reflecting on war (the Iraq/Afghanistan War was happening when she wrote the song). She asks the question: do we tether the hawk of war or the dove of peace? In the end she says, "let go of the hawk; we let go of the dove." When we quit wanting to make war, then we will find peace.
But in the midst of the song, she also has these words:
I see this world battered but not broken
There's a fallow heart, it's waiting on a sowing hand.
You can grow what you want, but one day it's gonna rise up.
So plant what you need to make a better stand.
These words have spoken to me since I learned them. For me, this is affirmation and encouragement that all is not lost. Even though we see problems in our communities, suffering and struggle for people around us, there is still hope. But we must let go of the hawk to release the dove of peace. Put down the need to fight, relax, care about those around you and sow the seeds of kindness and education and opportunity and community to be able to reap the possible.
Our society seems to have become less community oriented and more individualistic. We expect people to "pull themselves up by their boot straps" and all those other trite sayings. But we're all in this world together. We can be self-reliant, self-suffient members of the community - situated in a place in which we are able to give to the community as a whole, share when we have abundance and receive when we have need.
This blog will include my thoughts on what I think might be a better way to live among each other. My thoughts about how I think the world should function. It may be all things that you have heard before. It may be overly idealistic. But I hope that every now and then, you will find something helpful, something that makes you think.
