Hymn by Hymn
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STLT#175, We Celebrate the Web of Life
Sometimes a hymn sits next to our principles, or waves from across the room at them, or bumps into them in the hallway as they’re rushing to a committee meeting, or left a cryptic email, or BS’d its way through an essay about them in an ethics class. Sometimes a hymn is a principle, embodied.… Continue reading
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STLT#174, O Earth, You Are Surpassing Fair
Remember back when the news was bad and I was singing happy cheerful hope-filled hymns? It was hard; I struggled to get past my own fears and anger and see the message those songs at those times held for me. Well, what goes around comes around, I suppose. Yesterday, I spent the day in Boston… Continue reading
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STLT#173, In the Branches of the Forest
This is our happy, light Hymn. Not. A short post today, as I am traveling and typing this on my phone. I will say that the tune was deceptively harder than I expected – the intervals didn’t flow gracefully for me, and were at times discordant. Maybe that’s the point. This lyric is clearly not… Continue reading
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STLT#172, Siph’ Amandla
This is another freedom song from South Africa, from during the time of apartheid. It’s got energy and power and a sense of urgency that is compelling and captivating. And while it isn’t the only thing that makes liberation happen, song does remain a powerful tool in the activist toolbox. From the songs of enslaved Africans,… Continue reading
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STLT#171, N’kosi Sikelel’ i Afrika
I started this post thinking it was random thought day here at the Far Fringe, but as I write, I realize I do have some thoughts, largely because what I have learned about the song. So here goes: First, it’s helpful to know what this song is and where it’s from. It was written in… Continue reading
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STLT#170, We Are a Gentle, Angry People
The downside of this spiritual practice is that it demands attention even on days when attention is hard to give. And more often than not, it is demanding the exact kind of attention I want to hide from on that particular day. This song, written by Holly Near in the wake of the Harvey Milk… Continue reading
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STLT#169, We Shall Overcome
My first instinct this morning was to talk around the history of this song to get to a discussion of grammar – namely the meaning that shifts when we go from singing ‘we will overcome’ to ‘we shall overcome’… there’s something there, but god help me I just can’t be bothered to dig in. And… Continue reading
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STLT#168, One More Step
A few short thoughts today. First, composer Joyce Poley is one of the sweetest people I have ever met and very much wrote this before we had an awareness of ableist language. But despite how sweet she is, she wrote one of the most annoying earworms we have. Sadly, it mostly gets played as an oom-pa-pa… Continue reading
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STLT#167, Nothing but Peace Is Enough
Today we get to the first of several pieces by Jim Scott, a prolific UU songwriter and performer. It’s interesting to me that while some of his songs are full on hymns (Gather the Spirit, The Oneness of Everything, etc.) we also get some short pieces that are the choruses of longer songs. That’s the… Continue reading
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STLT#166, Years Are Coming
Yesterday (and elsewhere) I talked about how the first line of a song wasn’t always or necessarily the title of a song, and the use of such can be frustrating or misleading. I’m thinking it may be a good thing that the original title of this piece, by Universalist minister Adin Ballou, “Reign of Christian… Continue reading
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