the Happy, Hopeful Blues
Mon Nov 06, 2006 at 10:46:03 PM PDT
I played the jack 'gainst the queen and it made the dealer sing.
Jack o'Diamonds is in my ear. Corey Harris' guitar reminds me, like never before, that hope is here. Not on the way. but here, right in this tiny room in Tokyo. Wednesday at 7am we'll gather at our most active activists' place to watch returns, then head off to work.
hope is rising.
And hope is there in Montana. Jag said so, and you know it is true:-)
And hope is just rising in places where it had gone underground. People muttered "I must be crazy" to themselves, for 5, 6, 30 long years. Then they'd shake off the doubt and move into the long and short of everyday living.
That takes time. It's hard to keep up. And you so want to trust. After all, we're Americans, aren't we?
But we have to be the patriots we already are. It just takes a step, because, oh, the sisters and brothers who'll gather around you, happy warriors, infused with the very best of the fife and the drum and the blues, and the qawwali and the Scottish march. And, in the place we get our human power from, there's Muddy Waters, and the smile on Jimi's face is only rivaled by the smile on Lady Day's as she holds hands with Jefferson and Thomas Paine has fallen into a computer in awed wonder, and Barbara Jordan smiles a secret smile because she knew we could do it, and Martin and Coretta hold hands with all the joy of their youth and Martin tells El Hajj Malik El-Shabazz (Malcom X), who is hugging his Betty, a good joke and they both laugh. What I'm learning is that the joy in blues is digging down deep into the worst kind of trouble and finding a song down there, and in that song, finding the beat you need to take that next step. So, then, see, you use that beat, and that step, as an open door, where you can see all the best that is in you, and when that little light shines in the darkness, others will come, and you can move the world together.
We can move the world together.
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