*
Interesting that McLean believed in 1973 that the next two or three years were going to be a turning point, and an ugly one, with ugly events, and we would want to hearken back to earlier times of knowing God. Barry McGuire also thought so in 1964. Each election, we are told this is the most important in our lifetime, and as I always say, well, it's certainly the most important election in their lifetime. Because to the recent riots, and cancel culture, and philosophical fads that are becoming mainstream, I read folks on conservative sites saying that we are at a critical juncture, in this election and over the next few years. Environmentalists have been saying such things for decades.
We have an impression of being at the edge of the abyss, or at least at an inflection point in history. Perhaps we are. I don't feel a need to play up or play down the importance, because it is largely immaterial. This is the time we are living in. We have no other. Therefore it is up to us to do what we can now, whether it is an important time or an unimportant one.
As Gandalf said “It is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succour of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields that we know, so that those who live after may have clean earth to till. What weather they shall have is not ours to rule.”
*There is a version played as the background music in Mad Men you can find on YouTube. I can't tell what is happening - perhaps a planned affair that is being reconsidered? But the camera work is wonderful, and the mood of reflectiveness and sorrow captured well.
Thanks. I had forgotten that.... Had been worrying about the event planned for Portsmouth and the prospect of it leading to a spike in cases...
ReplyDeleteOther variants of Gandalf's advice that we were indoctrinated in for years in British schools: "England expects every man to do his duty" or "the boy stood on the burning deck, whence all but he had fled.." or the hagiography of "The Lady with the Lamp (Florence Nightingale) in the ghastly stupid carnage of the Crimean war (and the birth of professional nursing): , not to mention "Jerusalem" which isn't ONLY the soundtrack to "Chariots of Fire". The favourite hymn by William Blake of most Brits when I was growing up there, probably still is....
"And did those feet in ancient time
Walk upon England's mountains green:
And was the holy Lamb of God,
On England's pleasant pastures seen!
And did the Countenance Divine,
Shine forth upon our clouded hills?
And was Jerusalem builded here,
Among these dark Satanic Mills?
Bring me my Bow of burning gold:
Bring me my arrows of desire:
Bring me my Spear: O clouds unfold!
Bring me my Chariot of fire!
I will not cease from Mental Fight,
Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand:
Till we have built Jerusalem,
In England's green & pleasant Land."
Related, Eric Liddell whose early athletic and spiritual fortitude so thrilled many of us in the film C of F, followed a path Gandalf might have been describing: as a missionary in increasingly anguished China in the 30s and 40s, and death in a Japanese camp.
We just finished watching Gettysburg, and I was reminded of how many relatively little things steered the course of the big battle, and given the defeatism in the North, might have changed the outcome of the war if something had happened just a little differently. For want of a nail and all that.
ReplyDeletePerhaps God gives us the challenge that every era, and every year, is critical for history; gives us the honor of letting our choices be significant, whether we see the result or not.
I know this round from a long time ago, but can't remember the context. Probably a folk music recording, Jean Ritchie, someone like that. Not Don McLean, certainly, nor Peter, Paul & Mary, who also recorded it. I believe at the time I thought they were saying "for these were young" instead of "for Thee, Zion." I didn't connect it with the 137th Psalm.
ReplyDeleteRetriever, I just love "Jerusalem."
"Each election, we are told this is the most important in our lifetime," That kind of reminds me of a phrase I've grown to hate in this pandemic, especially used as the opening line in so many obnoxious radio and TV commercials: "In these uncertain times...." I think: Tell me, when exactly was life certain? No choices, no risks, no dangers, no "two roads traveled"?
ReplyDeleteEach election, we are told this is the most important in our lifetime...
ReplyDeleteWell, as somebody one said, 'Elections have consequences.'
In 2000 and 2016 the Democrats seemed to decide their command of the big battalions of media and culture made elections irrelevant, and both times they quite rapidly reversed course upon losing.
You know why the 60s and 70s didn't save the world? We just didn't sing loud enough, that's why. And those acoustic guitars we strummed at the Be-Ins just couldn't be heard over the noise of the polluting traffic. Now you know.
ReplyDeleteI'd like you to know I've barely had this round out of my head for days now.
ReplyDelete