In 2017 a study was done to determine what the first thoughts were when people woke up in the morning. According to Brooke Nelson in thehealthy.com, research found that “most Americans think first of money and work when they wake up – 56% of men and 48% of women, respectively.” Since I have very little of either, I am not surprised that my first thoughts almost every morning are lyrics to songs. Different songs every day.
During today’s 40-minute morning walk I began to sing (in my head) the song I woke up to a half hour before I started walking: the first verse and chorus of The Wreck of the John B as I remembered from The Kingston Trio recording in 1958. When Pretty reads this, she will be stunned that I remembered a verse and chorus of any song but I find I am more apt to remember words to songs in my childhood than any newer ones. Old age reminder. But why this song today?
So hoist up the John B’s sail
See how the main sail sets
Call for the Captain ashore
Let me go home, let me go home
I want to go home,
Well I feel so broke up
I want to go home.
A Category 4 hurricane named Ida crashing against the Louisiana coast from the Gulf of Mexico, the remains of 13 American soldiers killed this past week in Afghanistan returned to the United States today, an undetermined number of Afghan refugees airlifted out of Kabul since last Sunday, and a pandemic that rises like a Phoenix to threaten every home – these are the current crises swirling in my brain. I believe I hear the voices of those who need a Captain ashore to help them when the homes they once knew are lost in an irreversible wreck.
The disasters in my life have usually been of my own making through broken relationships, wrong choices, cloudy thinking, faulty judgment. Home for me has been shaped by geography and redefined by time, but regardless of life’s experiences I also needed a Captain ashore that always came in the form of the persons who gave me safe harbors.
My hope as I go to sleep tonight is the song I woke up with this morning. Hoist up the John B.’s sails, see how the main sail sets, call for the Captain ashore, let me go home – may we all find Captains on new shores to lead us safely home.
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Stay safe, stay sane, please get vaccinated and please stay tuned.
I'll Call It Like I See It 