#14. You Can’t Be Forever Blessed
But’s It’s Alright. It’s Alright.
I'm a fan of protest music, and with *gestures broadly* all of this stuff going on, I've been thinking about it a lot. And while there are certainly times for the more overt ones (Eve of Destruction, Ohio, or Fortunate Son, for example) the one that I've been listening to is a lot more mellow. Tired.
American Tune, by Paul Simon, is a song that is haunting in its defeatedness. But--that's not it. It's not defeatist. It's just tired.
The tune, to begin with, is an old one--there's actually a hymn we sing in church to this tune, which always makes me smile. So, with that background, this ain't exactly War Pigs.
And I don't know a soul who's not been battered
I don't have a friend who feels at ease
I don't know a dream that's not been shattered
Or driven to its knees
But it's alright, it's alright
For we lived so well so long
Still, when I think of the
Road we're traveling on
I wonder what's gone wrong
I can't help it, I wonder what has gone wrong
This is not the protest song of the person on the front lines, not the protest song of the soldier. This is the protest song of the working man who is just dealing with one thing after another. It's the song of someone who is has this, that, and the other thing to deal with, and all of them are in some peril or another, and for some reason, even though the country is shaking, you still have to clock in to work every morning.
Look, I'm not one to say which protest song fits your situation more--maybe it's For What It's Worth, or maybe it's I Ain't Marching Anymore. I'm just saying that I've been listening to American Tune a lot and, in a way, it gives me a little hope. After all, every verse ends with some version of "It's alright, it's alright."
(I don't take that to mean that everything actually is alright. It's the kind of "I'm alright. Everything's fine." you say as you sit down at the end of a long hard day and say that at least you get to sleep a little while before you face the world again.)
Oh, but I'm alright, I'm alright
I'm just weary to my bones
Folks, maybe it's that it's 8:00pm at the end of a workday, when *again, gestures broadly* all of this stuff is going on. But I'm weary to my bones.
Oh, and it's alright, it's alright, it's alright
You can't be forever blessed
Still, tomorrow's going to be another working day
And I'm trying to get some rest
That's all I'm trying to get some rest
(Wait--I'm not going to leave you on ENTIRELY a down note. In the middle of the song, Paul Simon takes goes into bit of a reverie:
And I dreamed I was dying
I dreamed that my soul rose unexpectedly
And looking back down at me
Smiled reassuringly
And I dreamed I was flying
And high up above my eyes could clearly see
The Statue of Liberty
Sailing away to sea
I like that in his dream his soul rose (implying heaven) and smiled down on him (implying that, in the long run, things are going to be okay). And the Statue of Liberty is still clear to see, even though it may be in the distance.
Anyway, if you haven't listened to it lately, here's a video.
Bits and Bobs from the News
#1. You see this thing? It's what they call a Giant Radio Galaxy, and astronomers have recently published that they've found fifteen more of these things. What are they? The biggest known structures in the universe. This thing, with the catchy name of ASKAP J0107–2347, is 12.4 million light years across. How big is that? Well if you laid a bunch of Milky Ways end-to-end, it would take 117 Milky Ways to make this giant galaxy.
#2. In the Olympics, divers try to make the smallest splash, but in the Maori traditional Manu Jumping, they try to make the biggest splash. And, because science is weird, scientists have figured out--thanks to Maori researchers--the best way to make a splash: it's to land in the pool butt-first, with your body in a V shape. Why are scientists studying this? Well, they say that it's because it helps with aerospace mechanics, but I think they just were screwing around at the pool on grant money.
#3. I try to cover all kinds of interesting news here, and it's very rare that there's interesting history news, because history is old and therefore not news. BUT: History.com has this great article about seven of the weirdest weapons that were used/tested during World War Two. Did you know that they tried to strap bombs to thousands of bats and set them loose on Japanese cities? Or shoot airplanes down with air cannons? Or build large (very large) floating airbase in the North Sea out of wood pulp and ice? Read about it here! https://www.history.com/articles/weird-weapons-world-war-ii
#4. There may not be history news, but there is archaeology news. Archaeologists have been tracing the beginnings of mankind's relationship with fire. They have figured out (because they are smarties) that humans figured out fire 400,000 years ago, but that we started off just smoking meat, not cooking it. (They figured this out because the oldest fire remains don't have cooked bones.) Anyway, we had barbeque first! (Not really. Probably like jerky or something.)
Distractions and Diversions
This video is restored and colorized footage from over the battlefields of World War One, in 1919--a year after the war ended. It was filmed by Jacques Trolley de Prévaux, a French Navy officer and a pioneer of French Naval Aviation. Very cool.
One of my favorite channels is The Trek Planner, which I've featured here before. But in this video he goes to my old stomping grounds, Chaco Canyon. When I was serving my LDS mission, I lived 15 miles from Chaco, and visited frequently. It is a criminally unsung feature of American archaeology. Most people, if you don't live in the southwest, probably have no idea that there's a huge "city" (it's not really a city) (or is it?) with buildings four stories tall and hundreds of rooms. It's so neat!
SciShow takes on the subject of platypuses, with their duck bills and their mammals-laying-eggs thing, and their venomous spikes, and their electromagnetism-under-water thing. But they make the argument that in the grand scheme of mammalian evolution, a platypus isn't weird: humans are weird.
That's all for this week. To learn more about me, visit my website.
Still, tomorrow's going to be another working day
And I'm trying to get some rest
That's all I'm trying to get some rest
