“You got to think about that day, an’ then the nex’ day. Jus’ take ever’ day.” John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath

I was on my stationary bike a couple of mornings ago. In my race to nowhere in particular, I am always accompanied by my music, transmitted directly into my cavernous skull by a ratty, time tattered headset. Slipping in between my inescapable thoughts of this otherworldly epidemic we are all uncomfortably living with, Pete Seeger embraced my heart with an acoustic rendition of We Shall Overcome, a folk classic with a long history.

I kept on peddling at the same, uninterrupted speed, kind of like body dialysis, but I relocated my full attention to the song’s inspired, hopeful lyrics. I thought about how it became the galvanizing message of the civil rights movement in the Sixties. It inspired millions of people with the promise of a brighter day. Dr. King was the maestro, the voice and personification of the time.

I don’t know why, but my thoughts moved over to think about Seeger and the cocoon for his creativity, the hard scrabble times of the Dust Bowl. Times of great pain and suffering have a short life span in our memories, once they have faded off into the distance of too many yesterdays. Woody Guthrie and Seeger gave voice to a very difficult chapter in our history, a melodic reminder of time gone by.

Unlike today, the enemy was impossible to ignore, as pitch black clouds of granular dirt swallowed up entire swaths of the plains. During the Thirties, farmers over-planted their land with crops like wheat and corn, sucking the life out of the earth, leaving it parched, vulnerable to drought. Winds blew across the wrinkled face of the land. Caravans of people grabbed up what little they had and made their way west. Folk music became the voice of these people and Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, chronicled the times. Hope was hard to come by, as the Depression gripped this young country.

In 2020, this new enemy is invisible and running from it has only last place finishers. While the antidotes are polar opposites, I am not sure the same can be said of their cause. Both times, the consequences of our actions were not considered. While the Dust Bowl was a natural disaster, exacerbated by overtaxing the land, it occurred within the context of the Great Depression. The bubble of financial deception, drown everyone in a sea of greed. Today’s virus was first dealt with politically, losing precious time, while protecting the prowess of ego driven, heads of state and their hollow posturing.

Back then, there seemed to be more empathy for one another. The underdog took on heroic proportions. It was a time that gave birth to unions. The government felt a growing responsibility for the well being of its citizens. FDR, a product of the same royalty, leaning on all of us today, couldn’t escape the pain of the people, regardless of his imperfections. He rose to embrace his myth, the same mantle of greatness that caused Lincoln to become far more than he ever imagined.

Today, the landscape has changed physically and we have traveled far from those less complicated times. There were thousands and thousands of small stories, some people believing in possibility, even when being faced with incredible adversity. I looked at so many photographs of that time. People had nothing. They were dirty. Food was a luxury. Schools were buried in dust. Faces had blank stares, looking off into nowhere. Today, sitting here on Kauai, I can’t imagine what that must have been like for so many.

In the short few minutes that song was being sung, my imagination traveled across time. I thought about that incredibly difficult episode in our past and where we find ourselves today. Seemingly overnight, everything has changed, a disaster with a different face has swept across the world. We are all sharing this crisis, but there are no caravans, easy to feel alone. We are flooded with too much information and too many personal agendas, making it difficult to trust, adding to the feelings of isolation.

When those clouds of dust began to engulf the land, it was too late. With this virus, we had months to act, not to stop it, but to dramatically mitigate its impact. Our government failed us all miserably and there are no excuses. Personally, I am appalled at our politeness and civility, especially with the orange faced buffoon. If this was a reality show, it would be hilarious, but it is not, it is lethal. Our government is corrupt, intoxicated with power, serving the masters of money. You and I are being mistreated. The voices of the caring have no pulpit and we need to build one. We do it by coming together. This technology that has help split us apart, can bring us back, metaphorically locking our arms, singing, We Shall Overcome.

I suspect many of you have extra time on your hands these days. Sit quietly for a few minutes. Try and relax your monkey mind. Close your eyes and let Pete Seeger sing to you of hope.

https://archive.org/details/RainbowQuest1414