New Day: 100 years!

So I was sitting here in my northwest North Carolina home, on a forested mountainside with sun shining through tall trees. (Thank God for trees!) Awakening from a good night’s sleep, sun shining in, I walked my way downstairs, cranked up the generator and called it (the beginning of) a day, another day of post-storm recovery,  here in the Blue Ridge.

Having survived the storm, having gotten through, as John Lennon had sung, another “day in the life.” I ascended our little stairway to heaven on earth . . . found my way upstairs and, as as Paul McCartney had sung it back in the day, “drank  a cup” of yesterday’s coffee.  So far, so good. With electrons now flowing through the temporary power setup, I tuned into NPR and heard a radio presentation about former President Jimmy Carter, who turns 100 today. Being a writer, I couldn’t resist the idea to reflect on the life that has transpired since good ole boy Jimmy took the helm after the disaster course our nation had traversed after the adventures of post-Watergate America:  Nixon in, then Nixon out, Ford in and then, and then, wait for it, Jimmy Carter in.  For this born’n’bred southerner, the news of Carter in the Oval was like a breath of fresh air.  I understand that, four years later, when Reagan achieved that office, the Republicans called in “morning in America.” Because, y’know, all the Watergate and post Watergate blah blah had blown over. Yeah, I know, he was the guy who arrested protesters back in California and now he was in charge of the whole kit’n’kaboodle.  Ok. So life goes on. I get it. But as Carter was, as Gladys Knight had sung it, taking the “midnight train” (back to) Georgia and Reagan was taking the helm, it just so happened that we were in an international crisis, because the Iranians were holding 444 Americans hostage in the American embassy in Tehran. (or was it 444 days that they had been held?) Anyway. . . I mean, those Iranians are still making trouble. . . but that’s another wild goose chase through time. (Don’t go there.) As I was saying. . .Just as Carter was leaving and Reagan was taking the mantle of Presidency, I assembled some friends and had them accompany me to sing this song, which I called “December ’79”. Actually the song was more about the ancient rivalry between the Jews and the Arabs in the middle east, but I used the moment in time to make a statement about how events in the ancient lands reflect an arc of history, and an ark of deliverance for those of mankind who are willing to turn to the Almighty to get through life, instead of just, you know, slogging through on their own strength. So I named the song “December ’79,” but just a few years ago I renamed it “We’ve Got a Song to Sing.”  The message therein is based upon the state of grace that Jimmy Carter had spoken of when he talked about being “born again,” which phrase had been lifted from chapter 3 of the biblical book of John, where a wise man Nicodemus was drawing wisdom from the Well as he was conversing with Jesus.  Remembering Carter today on his 100th birthday, I decided to toss up this old song that I had recorded, “with a little help from me friends,” back in the day. If you care to listen, you can hear it on:   “We got a Song to Sing"     http://www.careyrowland.com