Hurricanes, Fires, Floods, Destruction and Loss...Finding Hope in Despair

It has been almost a year since I wrote "Edge of a Hurricane" (see blog post here about the song's inspiration). I had no idea how potent a metaphor "hurricane" would be for this past year. I think of those on the gulf coast and Caribbean--especially Puerto Rico and other hard-hit islands who have lost everything to raging wind and rain. There are the fires that raged all summer in the northwest and now sweeping through northern California like a holocaust. The terror of shootings at a concert in Las Vegas. The level of vitriol, scapegoating, and demagoguery in our political language and government. The specter of nuclear war in tinder-box regions of our world. In a perilous time when we should be coming together to try to solve the existential threats of climate change, nuclear war, ever-increasing violence and drug-use in our communities, rising poverty and crippling health care costs--we, unfortunately, seem most adept at belittling, humiliating and destroying each other--at "blowing things up". It is hard not to despair--not to give in to cynicism. When hate is on the rise, that is when it is most important to love. When everything is lost--that's when we need to hope. When war threatens, we need to work even harder for peace. I offer this song as a prayer to all those who are suffering and a challenge to all of humankind not to give up on the best in all of us.

Thanks to Wes Cobb who recorded this live performance at Midwood Guitar Studio in Charlotte for "Songs on Central" on October 5, 2017.