Considering Songs of my Youth and Considering Today
It has been years since I posted on this blog. I have other blogs and Facebook to express myself. However, my anger and angst over today's America has been channeled only into comments responding to other's remarks and on reading The Daily Kos newsletter and blog articles, and The Washington Post.
So maybe now I will find the time to add a few posts here. We will see. My thoughts are beginning to clarify into solid expressions.
Expression #1: VOTE!
Expression #2: Remember the song I grew up on while a military dependent attending base chapels.
- Jesus Loves the
- Little children.
- All the children
- Of the world.
- Red and yellow
- Black and white
- Jesus loves the
- Little children
- Of the world.
This song was usually sung with the song below. You can hear it today on YouTube.
Below is the refrain as it goes through my head when I remember it. The YouTube version is a more accurate rendition. I was glad to find it today when I was researching credits for the song.
- Jesus loves me
- This I know
- Cause the Bible Tells me so....
- Yes, Jesus loves me.
- Yes, Jesus loves me.
- The Bible tells me so.
From Wikipedia/Wikiwand: The song was written in 1859. Wikiwand tells the story behind the song beginning with the partial paragraph below.
"Jesus Loves Me" is a Christian hymn written by Anna Bartlett Warner (1827–1915). The lyrics first appeared as a poem in the context of an 1860 novel called Say and Seal, written by her older sister Susan Warner (1819–1885), in which the words were spoken as a comforting poem to a dying child."..."The tune was added in 1862 by William Batchelder Bradbury (1816–1868). Along with his tune, Bradbury added his own chorus "Yes, Jesus loves me, Yes, Jesus Loves me..."
Jesus Loves the Little Children can be heard on YouTube. Even today I cannot listen to it without crying. Nor can I sing it without a wobble in my voice.
The music for Jesus Loves the Little Children, ironically, was composed by George Frederick Root for "Tramp Tramp Tamp," a song of the US Civil War. Over the marching song melody, C. Herbert Woolston (1856-1927)wrote the children's song lyrics. It is considered a Christian Child's Prayer song. There are other lyrics and alternate versions collected over the years since Woolston's original lyrics.
Expression #3: How can a society raised on these songs be so divisive today? However, I am reminded of the song "Onward Christian Soldiers" when I consider the background to the song "Jesus Loves Me."
How can the same Christians sing "Jesus Loves the Little Children" and not seek justice for all no matter what the race or religion of the other?
Credits: Images are royalty from Bing and from Stockvault. The third image is (c)Valerie Coskrey, 2013, and represents a gate to a lovely future from a home full of love. It is the gate in my parent's backyard of one of the many yards of the many homes my parents lived in during their lifetime. These homes were filled with love, even during times of strife. Being children of a US Navy corpsman who retired my second year in college, we knew many backyards. This one is from Dad's retirement years and is of a home we all cherished.
