this land is your land, this land is my land
from california to the new york island
from the redwood forest, to the gulf stream waters
this land was made for you and me
~woody guthrie
reason #9761 i know that i have found the right man to spend my life with: he has counted exactly how many redwood trees are growing on this land.
lest anyone come to the false conclusion that this post is unpolitical, since i kicked it off with a woody guthrie folk song, i will share one more frederick douglass quote with you as we honor black history month:
“in thinking of america, i sometimes find myself admiring her bright blue sky — her grand old woods — her fertile fields — her beautiful rivers — her mighty lakes, and star-crowned mountains. but my rapture is soon checked, my joy is soon turned to mourning. when i remember that all is cursed with the infernal actions of slaveholding, robbery and wrong, — when i remember that with the waters of her noblest rivers, the tears of my brethren are borne to the ocean, disregarded and forgotten, and that her most fertile fields drink daily of the warm blood of my outraged sisters, i am filled with unutterable loathing.”
-frederick douglass
Well, thanks for that. Pull me in with heart flutters about beauty and love then push me in the mudhole. You’ve got a way MB. 😉
mud is cleansing, though. we can be like the lotus and grow up out of the mud, stronger for having pushed our roots down into it and reached for the sky to bloom and grow… there, feel better? 😉
Yes, I feel much better. Even though America is not perfect, I believe it is like that lotus flower. It has come out of the mud of slavery; although some of our petals have some residue from the mud, most the petals are beautiful and have risen above. I think Fredrick would be proud.
yes! i agree. i think, to follow the metaphor, it is important that we acknowledge what kind of substrate our roots are growing in, and not pretend it’s made of something that isn’t mud. but yes, i think we have all the potential to bloom into something beautiful.