I Remember Joe...and John

"I Remember Joe"
Oh, your golden lights of America
Joseph sought your prairies and your buffalo
And the humming of the rails down through Kansas
They brought Joseph in from Baltimore

The Cavalry, the Indians, and an Old Dan were his only friends
Then the Old Dan died and the Indians' plight
Made the Cavalry young Joe's enemy

Oh, the outlaws spilled the blood across the
Kansas plains back in the '70s
Joseph took a badge for America
To defend you from your fantasies
Joseph wore that badge across the Kansas prairies to save the railroads.
But the heroes that we made, well, they were ruthless soldiers who'd kill for gold.

With a broken heart for the frontier plains
Joseph sat a-rocking in his front-porch swing
That old tin badge is tarnished now
You know it was just a young man's dream.
And old man's tales are hard to reach when you
Don't believe in your American Dream.

The Indians, the buffalo and old Joe Mason
They died from memory.

Oh, your golden lights of America,
Joseph sought your prairies and your buffalo.
And the humming of the rails down through
Kansas, they brought Joseph in from Baltimore.

The Cavalry, the Indians, and an Old Dan...
Forsaken old man.
Oh, your golden lights of America.
(Nanci Griffith, from the original recording, "There's a Light Beyond These Woods" 1978)

Nanci Griffith is one of my favorite singer-songwriters. She has an exceptional gift of capturing the subtleties of the human experience. "I Remember Joe" is the first song on one of her early albums. It's a sad song but it's a sadness to which I am drawn.

I had a friend in high school who was kind of like this. His name was John. It still is...I just haven't seen him for a while. For a lot of reasons, John was sometimes tough to get along with--but mostly because he wasn't much for pretense. John was the kind of guy who just wouldn't go in for the usual things that people like to do in order to be accepted. He just hated pretense. And because there is so much pretense in people, it sometimes seemed like he actually hated people. He loved animals though. And he was immensely loyal to his friends. I count myself blessed because I was one of them.

It was an ongoing question that I never really understood. How could a guy who could be so compassionate to animals and so loyal to friends be so generally abrasive to most of the world around him? Looking back, I suspect that it has something to do with disappointment or, more aptly, disillusionment. In this world, if our eyes and heart are open, it doesn't take long to get dust and dirt in them. I suspect that John just learned a bit earlier than the rest of us that the worst of the world's dust and dirt comes from the attitudes and actions of people. Of course, it isn't all dust and dirt and there's more than one way to respond to our disillusionment but it's hard to blame the folks that turn their backs on all that pain and cruelty...

We all feel like that sometimes. We see something or run into something, maybe a stream of things that just turns everything sour. It can be hard to find cause to take another look or focus on something else. In this regard, I remember John. And I will never fault somebody for listening to sad music.

At the same time, I want to avoid those pits that don't seem to have an exit. And just like there is plenty of disillusionment around, there are also great signs of hope. There are blessings everywhere. And they will often come to us from the most unlikely places.

For example, did you see the race yesterday? Did you see the spirit of that horse coming from dead-last to win the Kentucky Derby? If you didn't, run a search. There are plenty of videos out there. The best part is the narration. The announcer doesn't even see Mine That Bird. The horse is well in the lead before he even acknowledges that he is coming on. Even the jockey is obviously shocked. He had been runnin' the horse down for being small. A $9500 horse winning the Kentucky Derby...Awesome.

This time of year, I always go back and reread the story of Secretariat. I watch again that amazing run at Belmont and listen to the people who were close to that horse. Of course, Secretariat was never a $9500 horse. But that doesn't matter. Here was one of God's creatures that was just not going to let the world take away his spirit. What a story. Of course, it's easy to like animals--especially the great ones. But even the unsung heroes--the ones living in our homes or trying to survive in the the natural patches still left in our suburbs--they can inspire us as well.

There's people like that too... We probably won't find them on television but they're out there...