bye bye mary

peter, paul, and mary were fixtures in my house growing up. i remember listening to "leaving on a jet plane" and crying. i think my concept of romantic love was built on the foundation of their 'wedding song', "where is love". and i everytime i hear "if i had a hammer" i feel those revolutionary feelings. i believe i have a hammer of justice, a bell of freedom, and a song to sing! i feel like i carry my hammer, bell and song to work and church daily and i use them at home and in my neighborhood too. there music inspired and helped to form me.

i am sad that mary died today.

cheryl didn't understand. i found out at my kitchen table when i was supposed to be writing something for work, but instead was looking at the news while she read to me experts from "rolling stone". when i read the news, i immediately started singing "if i had a hammer" and i could feel all those same feelings. after singing through a number of their song a capella i decided just to download the best of peter, paul, and mary (oh the trappings of iTunes) and listened through most of the album.

cheryl who originally was mocking me for being the child of hippies realized she too was influenced by these artists. we sang, out loud, "puff the magic dragon" and reminisced about how we knew puff was green and that the song had nothing to do with pot.

today we lost a beautiful revolutionary. a woman who helped shape our planet and define a movement. thankfully, she inspired so many of us. and gratefully many of us were so young when she was inspiring that we still have many years to implement her passionate ideals.

i am going to dedicate the video below to mary. i love this song too. it has been a theme song for the summer. isabel and i danced around their livingroom when i was in columbus, ga in may. we cut loose, made up new dance moves, and pretty much decided we were going on... when i hear this song, i think of that feeling of dancing with isabel. no inhibitions, spazzing out, moving all of my limbs and all of my core. totally cut loose. and it feels free and awesome. my guess is mary feels someting like that now.

anyway, i am pretty sure mary would have approved of our dance. the music isn't really her genre, but . . .
here is to you mary

Gnarls Barkley - Going On from now8p on Vimeo.

i am pretty sure these are the words:

i've seen it with my own eyes
how were gettin' otherwise
without the luxury of leavin'

the touch and feeling for free is
untangible techinically
something you got to believe in

connect the cause and effect
one foot in front of the next
this is the start of a journey.

and my mind is already gone
and though there are other unknowns
somehow this doesn't concern me.

and you can stand right there if you want

but i'm going on
and i'm prepared to go it alone
i'm going on
to place in the sune that's nice and warm
i'm going on

and i am sure they'll have a place for you too

anyone that needs what they want
and doesn't want what they need
i want nothing to do with

and to do what i want
and to do what i please
is first on my to-do list

but every once in a while
i think about her smile
one of the few things i do miss

but baby i've got to go
baby i've got to know
baby i've got to prove it

and i'll see you when you get there

but i'm going on
and i'm prepared to go it alone
i'm going on
may my love lift you up to the place you belong
i'm going on
and i promise i'll be waiting for you