Finding hope in hard times

[jesse_the_k]

The UK election result crashed through my news barriers. Oh, crap.

This scary turn reminds me of a song that helped me in an earlier ugly time, when I was stunned in certainty of imminent nuclear annihilation.

What can you do with each moment of your life
But love til you’ve loved it away?

Bob Franke: Thanksgiving Eve.

Bob Franke: Thanksgiving Eve. ©1982 Telephone Pole Music Publishing Co. (BMI)

It’s so easy to dream of the days gone by;
It’s a hard thing to think of the times to come.
But the grace to accept every moment as a gift
Is a gift that is given to some.

Chorus
What can you do with your days but work & hope,
Let your dreams bind your work to your play.
What can you do with each moment of your life
But love til you’ve loved it away,
Love til you’ve loved it away.

There are sorrows enough for the whole world’s end,
There are no guarantees but the grave;
But the life that we live and the time that we spend
Are a treasure too precious to save.

As it was so it is, as it is shall it be,
And it shall be while lips that kiss have breath.
Many waters indeed only nurture Love’s seed,
And its flower overshadows the power of death.

Three ways to hear it (hoping one of these links survives):

• Bob Franke performs with Chamber Orchestra Kremlin inside a nuke-proof bunker in Moscow

• Franke writes from a Christian tradition, so it’s no surprise Amidon Choral Music arranges the song for SATB, with full recording and lyrics

• More sonorous version from Irish singer Janet Holmes 2004 record, Road to the West

Comments

[julian]

Huh. I didn't know I knew this, but I do, and I love it. Thank you for the links.

You're most welcome!

[jesse_the_k]

...I forgot to mention that the song is in Rise Up Singing, which may be where you know it from.

(I was a political songster in an earlier life. Earlier yet, I went to the summer camps where Rise Up Singing was born.)

Re: You're most welcome!

[julian]

Yes, after doing some mental reconstruction, I think it's that I know it from some sing-alongs, and then when I went to a Woolman Hill retreat weekend with the Rise Up Singing folks, they sang it, because my mental memory is of in-person fiddle.

Re: You're most welcome!

[jesse_the_k]

Ah...that singing retreat sounds magical! ...and I'd suspect julian was That Jluian and I'm glad to hear I was right.

I can only sing for short bursts now before losing my breath -- I'm grateful that my pool's shower room has great acoustics and humidity. Yesterday I was belting out How Can I Keep From Singing, another exemplar of abiding shitty times.

For the first time I understood why people may re/turn to faith as they age: we see the cycles of change and oppression, and must rest in the longest view.

Re: You're most welcome!

[pennypaperbrain]

For the first time I understood why people may re/turn to faith as they age: we see the cycles of change and oppression, and must rest in the longest view.

Oh! That really struck me, thank you. Religious faith is not for me but in the same way I find myself thinking that it has to be worth believing the general progress of the human race is forward, even as the national lurches backward get more dramatic. It's important to work for changes in faith that they will pay off one day, even if we have to relinquish immediate hope.

Re: You're most welcome!

[jesse_the_k]

Exactly. I was raised to scorn religion, and still ....

Imagine my surprise!