October 3, 2020
Good Morning, God and All! Most High and glorious God, enlighten the darkness of our hearts and give us a true faith, a certain hope and a perfect love. Give us a sense of the divine and knowledge of yourself, so that we may do everything in fulfillment of your holy will; through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Prayer of Francis of Assisi, 1182-1226)
By The Numbers:
It’s the 277th day of the year, with 89 days remaining.
Days 'til voting in the 2020 election ends: 31
Drop in GDP during the 2nd quarter of 2020: -31.4%
Number of nurses in the world: 28 million
Percent chance that a new UCSF study suggests "intermittent fasting," in which eating is restricted to a specific window of time, doesn’t help you lose weight: 100%
Start Your Day With A Song:
This Land Is Your Land (1940) Woody Guthrie; 1975 cover performance by Bruce Springsteen
Holy Guardian Angels, Guide, Guard, and Pray For Us!
One of the most consoling truths of the Christian faith is that God’s providence does not only govern the universe from afar; He shows an intimate concern for the welfare of each person. A touching sign of this is that God gave us angels to serve as protectors and guides throughout our life. Our guardian angels’ mission is to conduct us safely through the perils of our earthly life, so we can be assured of their powerful help in all things when we seek to win the joys of heaven. “Specially love and revere the Guardian Angel of the diocese in which you live, those of the friends who surround you, and your own. Commune with them frequently, join in their songs of praise, and seek their protection and help in all you do, spiritual or temporal” (Quote from St. Francis de Sales (1567-1622), as found in the current issue of Magnificat)
The memorial of the Holy Guardian Angels is celebrated on October 2.
But It’s A Protest Song (the Message):
I hope you’ve taken the opportunity each week to “Start Your Day With A Song”. It’s a weekly feature of the Post; during December I’ve done this daily to feature some seasonal music you may not hear so much. (At least I wait a bit. The holiday hype starts ‘way too soon on the Hallmark Channel. If anyone finds anything they’re showing to actually have a meaningful reference to the birth of Jesus Christ, let me know.)
But before I protest too much myself, I must point out that many things in sparkling packages lose their luster once they’re opened.
"This Land Is Your Land" is one of the United States' most famous folk songs. Its lyrics were written by American folk singer Woody Guthrie in 1940. (Guthrie died on this date in 1967.) The first time I heard it in my childhood, I was captivated by the lyrics I heard. The first verse paints a majestic panorama of the landscape. As I was walking that ribbon of highway/I saw above me that endless skyway/I saw below me that golden valley… It ranked right up there with Katherine Bates’ spacious skies, amber waves of grain, and purple mountain majesties above the fruited plain. “America the Beautiful” appears in nearly every hymnal I have. For some reason it’s not in my 1978 Lutheran Book of Worship but one should not construe this to mean Lutherans are not patriotic. Irving Berlin wrote another very patriotic song, “God Bless America”, in 1918 and it’s not in any of the hymnals I have, though it’s performed in churches and sporting venues across the nation regularly to this day.
Guthrie’s lyrics have been covered by many musicians over the years. Glen Campbell; Peter, Paul and Mary; Tennessee Ernie Ford; Connie Francis; Bing Crosby; Raffi; and Bruce Springsteen (featured today) are among the performances. Still, there’s more to all of this than meets the eye and ear. Sometimes our acceptance of something at surface value poses a potential problem or two.
Guthrie wrote “This Land Is Your Land” as a critical response to Irving Berlin’s “God Bless America” which had become Kate Smith’s signature song in the 1930s and with the newly found success of broadcast radio, got lots and lots of airplay. When Guthrie got tired of hearing it, he originally called his song “God Blessed America For Me” before renaming it. In fact, by the time he had finished penning the lyrics, God had been effectively scratched out of the song. Not only that, two verses were written that obscured the picturesque landscape of the first verse.
Yes, what many of us see as part of our patriotic repertoire actually started as a protest song. Guthrie grew up in Oklahoma and Texas during the Dust Bowl era, and in his late teens joined the thousands of Okies and others who migrated to California to look for work, leaving his wife and children in Texas. Many of his songs are concerned with the conditions faced by working-class people. Two very little known verses of “This Land is Your Land” referred to protesting against the vast income inequalities that exist in the United States, and against the sufferings of millions during the Great Depression. America, Guthrie insists, was made—and could still be made—for you and me. This interpretation is consistent with Guthrie's lifelong struggle for social justice.
Changing a word or two here and there (and dropping a verse or two when necessary) put the song in a list of patriotic favorites. For me, it’s one reason to be careful about grand displays of patriotism. Maybe we’re too quick with the chest-thumping in being proud of our country…rather, proud of our humanity, and how quickly that pride becomes nothing more than self- (as in the nation as a whole) serving. Our faith points us in a different direction. In the New Testament letter of James, we are reminded to humble ourselves before the Lord and he will exalt you (James 4:10). That verse alone was set to music in the late 1970s.
This land is God’s land, blessed for you and me.
Now if I can just get the old beer commercial out of my head…the one claiming that western Wisconsin is “God’s Country”…and that older polka song, “In Heaven There is No Beer.”
Memorable Moments:
1789 – George Washington proclaims a Thanksgiving Day for that year.
1863 – The last Thursday in November is declared as Thanksgiving Day by U.S. President Abraham Lincoln.
1919 – Cincinnati Reds pitcher Adolfo Luque becomes the first Latin player to appear in a World Series.
1949 – WERD, the first black-owned radio station in the United States, opens in Atlanta.
1952 – The United Kingdom successfully tests a nuclear weapon to become the world's third nuclear power.
1957 – The California State Superior Court rules that the book Howl and Other Poems is not obscene.
1962 – Project Mercury: Wally Schirra in Sigma 7 launched from Cape Canaveral for a six-orbit flight.
1985 – The Space Shuttle Atlantis makes its maiden flight.
1990 – The German Democratic Republic (East Germany) is abolished and becomes part of the Federal Republic of Germany.
1993 – An American attack against a warlord in Mogadishu fails; eighteen US soldiers and over 350 Somalis die.
1995 – The O. J. Simpson murder case ended with a verdict of not guilty.
2008 – The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 for the U.S. financial system is signed by President George W. Bush.
2013 – At least 360 migrants are killed when their boat sinks near the Italian island of Lampedusa.
Happy Birthday!!!
1925 – Gore Vidal, American novelist, screenwriter, and critic (d. 2012)
1940 – Alan O'Day, American singer-songwriter (d. 2013)
1941 – Chubby Checker, American singer-songwriter
1947 – Fred DeLuca, American businessman (d. 2015)
1949 – Lindsey Buckingham, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
1954 – Dennis Eckersley, American baseball player and sportscaster
1954 – Al Sharpton, American minister, talk show host, and political activist
1954 – Stevie Ray Vaughan, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (d. 1990)
1955 – Allen Woody, American bass player and songwriter (d. 2000)
1959 – Greg Proops, American comedian, actor, and screenwriter
1969 – Gwen Stefani, American singer-songwriter, actress, and fashion designer
1973 – Neve Campbell, Canadian actress and producer
1979 – John Morrison, American wrestler and actor
1984 – Ashlee Simpson, American singer-songwriter and actress
1988 – ASAP Rocky, American rapper and songwriter
1995 – Lil Tracy, American rapper
We Remember:
1838 – Black Hawk, American tribal leader (b. 1767)
1867 – Elias Howe, American engineer, invented the sewing machine (b. 1819)
1967 – Woody Guthrie, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1912)
1998 – Roddy McDowall, English-American actor (b. 1928)
1999 – Akio Morita, Japanese businessman, co-founded Sony (b. 1921)
2000 – Benjamin Orr, American singer-songwriter and bass player (b. 1947)
2004 – Janet Leigh, American actress (b. 1927)
2014 – Benedict Groeschel, American priest, psychologist, and talk show host (b. 1933)
…and 1970s pop singers Helen Reddy and Mac Davis, who both died Wednesday and both at age 78;
…and Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher Bob (“Gibby”) Gibson, who passed away Friday at age 84.
Parting Words:
Now that the President and First Lady have tested positive for the coronavirus, I hope all of us will take this a bit more seriously than we might have taken it before. This does not mean we have to panic, but do what we can how best we can to mitigate its spread, while continuing to pray that God will guide scientists and researchers to an effective remedy.
“Someday we’ll look back on 2020 and laugh.” --A Guy I Just Punched (per Conan O’Brien)
Until we meet again, may God be with you; and may God have mercy on us all…
+the Phoenix
