He ain't heavy, he's my brother

I must admit that I'm a little melancholy today. I'm tired...tired of all the attempts to use people's lives for political point-scoring, tired of the violence and hate, tired of hearing we're all on our own in the world. But most of all, I'm tired of people who would use and exploit the worst in all of us as human beings.

For the last few days I've had an old song on my mind. I finally took the time to go find it on youtube and wound up taking a journey through some songs that reminded me that it has often been our artists who have reached into our hearts and inspired our better angels.  So now I'm going to invite you to take that journey with me in hopes it will inspire you as well.

For you old-timers, remember when this was the ethos in the air?



Its been done to death, but I never tire of this one.



Of course Stevie is the master of this kind of music.



We should always remember that being the "shelter in the rain" is not just an act of selflessness. Its in our own self-interest as well. I love how Daniel Barrigan put it.

Sometime in your life, hope that you might see one starved man, the look on his face when the bread finally arrives. Hope that you might have baked it or bought or even kneaded it yourself. For that look on his face, for the meeting of your eyes across a piece of bread, you might be willing to loose a lot, or suffer a lot, or die a little, even.

And here's Garth Brooks singing about that.