In the summer of 1968 I had a job with the New York State Education Department. I worked in a unit that administered professional licensing exams. This included exams for doctors, nurses and architects among others and it involved traveling to New York City for several days at a time. How lucky I was, to be 20 years old and getting to stay in NYC and explore the city in a time when the US was in a massive "upheaval"; what with LBJ still in the White House, Bobby Kennedy getting shot, and the Viet Nam War worsening with every newscast. 256 Viet Cong captured. An age of angst and alienation.How lucky I was to be working with another art student, my age, with many of the same interests and concerns about where this nation was heading. We would go all over the city, down to the Village, art museums, jazz performances, restaurants...and Broadway plays. The highlight was when we went to see "Hair", billed as the "American Tribal Love-Rock Musical", and that it was! I remember feeling very excited about the message of the show, but in many ways, not really knowing exactly what it was, but that it was messed up!
Some of the lyrics had a profound affect on me, causing me to be at the same time, melancholy and exhilarated. Man! A spokes piece for our generation!
In listening to the music even today, I get a lot of the same feelings. And, here it is almost 40 years later....what has changed? At a point in my life after I have had many opportunities to look back and evaluate, why do I sometimes feel caught up in that same exact moment from way back? We are circular. Life is circular. Life is good. Life sucks. It's all of the above.
We starve; look; at one another, short of breathwalking proudly in our winter coats
Wearing smells from laboratories
Facing a dying nation
Of moving paper fantasy
Listening for the new told lies
With supreme visions of lonely tunes.
Somewhere
inside something there is a rush of
greatness
Who knows what stands in front of
Our lives
I fashion my future on films in space
Silence tells me secretly
Everything; Everything...
Singing; our space songs on a spider web sitar
Life is around you and in you...
Let the sunshine in...
1 comment:
Great post, and very moving...I can relate to being moved by something even when we don't understand why...sometimes the sens of something is more powerful than the actuality of it. And recognizing that life ebbbs and flows and sometimes repeats it's cycle is a powerful notion when going through rough times...knowing you will enter out into joy again on the other side as is the nature of life. Let the sunshine in indeed...thank you for being a ray of light yourself!
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