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December 15, 2006
everything in Common
I took a little stroll on the Boston Common yesterday morning, as I was early for my temp job. The early morning light combined with the slight mist was quite magical. I walked over to find the Christmas tree and my ears perked up at the sound of "Alas, and did my Savior bleed" ringing off the Park Street Church's bells. I doubted that anyone else on the Common knew the hymn besides myself, although I could have been wrong. Then the bells broke into "Beneath the Cross of Jesus," a more familiar hymn, I would say. I felt like breaking into song, like Mary and Zechariah did in their time. Our preacher on Sunday asked us if there were ever times in our lives when we wanted to break out into song, like in a musical. This was one of those times.
When I spotted the Christmas tree, I saw a large menorah standing close by. Directly across the street was St. Paul's church, with their huge banner celebrating diversity. This is exactly what the public square is about, I thought, allowing room for different religions and viewpoints and traditions. "Principled pluralism" as my dad would say. Strangely enough, however, it seemed to me that the bells at Park Street Church were the dominant theme of the Common. Perhaps symbolic of Christ's reign over all the earth? "He rules the world with truth and grace."
On a different note, I am currently reading Bob Dylan's Chronicles: Volume I. One interesting story: Dylan used to visit Woody Guthrie on a regular basis when Guthrie was in the hospital. At one point Guthrie told Dylan to go to his house and retrieve a box of songs and poems he had written that were never set to melodies. Dylan could have them if he wanted. So Dylan made the trek down to Coney Island to get the songs, even wading through an entire swamp to get too Guthrie's house. He was supposed to talk to Guthrie's wife, but she wasn't home and the babysitter wasn't sure if she should let Dylan in. However, Guthrie's son recognized him and let him in, but he didn't know anything about the box of songs. So, not wanting to be a bother, Dylan left and waded back through the swamp.
He writes: "Forty years later, these lyrics would fall into the hands of Billy Bragg and the group Wilco and they would put melodies to them, bring them to full life and record them...These performers probably weren't even born when I had made that trip out to Brooklyn."
So a babysitter determined who would put melodies to Woody Guthrie's last songs. Kinda funny how history plays itself out sometimes.
| By heiders | 10:57 AM
Comments
If Bob Dylan ever came to MY door, I would let him in...
:)
Posted by: funke at December 21, 2006 11:24 AM
