And it triggered the landslide memory of this song from 1971. I remember its profound impact on me when I was just a pup, a budding Flower Child. I had been focused on racial injustice and Civil Right for Blacks, and had already served in VISTA in the Deep South. But I’d truly never even known about our treatment of Native Americans.
This song “blew my mind” as we said back then, and taught me a lot, and inspired me to action!
They took the whole Cherokee nation
Put us on this reservation
Took away our ways of life
The tomahawk and the bow and knife
Took away our native tongue
And taught their English to our young
And all the beads we made by hand
Are nowadays made in Japan
Cherokee people
Cherokee tribe
So proud to live
So proud to die
They took the whole Indian nation
Locked us on this reservation
Though I wear a shirt and tie
I’m still part redman deep inside
Cherokee people
Cherokee tribe
So proud to live
So proud to die
But maybe someday when they learn
Cherokee nation will return, will return
Will return, will return, will return
Choice number two for this week’s Song Lyric theme of Gratitude from Helen Espinosa has to be…
Thank U
by Alanis Morissette
Lyrics by Google Play
How ’bout getting off these antibiotics
How ’bout stopping eating when I’m full up
How ’bout them transparent dangling carrots
How ’bout that ever elusive kudo
Thank you India
Thank you terror
Thank you disillusionment
Thank you frailty
Thank you consequence
Thank you thank you silence
How ’bout me not blaming you for everything
How ’bout me enjoying the moment for once
How ’bout how good it feels to finally forgive you
How ’bout grieving it all one at a time
Thank you India
Thank you terror
Thank you disillusionment
Thank you frailty
Thank you consequence
Thank you thank you silence
The moment I let go of it was the moment
I got more than I could handle
The moment I jumped off of it
Was the moment I touched down
How ’bout no longer being masochistic
How ’bout remembering your divinity
How ’bout unabashedly bawling your eyes out How ’bout not equating death with stopping
Thank you India
Thank you providence
Thank you disillusionment
Thank you nothingness
Thank you clarity
Thank you thank you silence
Well, I think this is a great theme for this Thanksgiving week (and not at all “cheesy” Helen)!
I knew my song immediately…well, my first song anyway.
You know when that question shows up “If you could have ONE album to play while stranded on a desert island, which one would it be?” This comes from my choice. Don Henley’s Inside Job. His opus. His Therapy album. His masterpiece.
This song gave me great comfort when a 25 year long business (and friendship) partnership ended. I had to fight hard to not focus just on the loss, and move into gratitude.
I hope the video works. It is the only one I could find of Don Henley actually singing
A lot of things have happened
Since the last time we spoke
Some of them are funny
Some of ’em ain’t no joke
And I trust you will forgive me
If I lay it on the line
I always thought you were a friend of mine
Sometimes I think about you
I wonder how you’re doing now
And what you’re going through
The last time I saw you
We were playing with fire
We were loaded with passion
And a burning desire
For every breath, for every day of living
And this is my Thanksgiving
Now the trouble with you and me, my friend
Is the trouble with this nation
Too many blessings, too little appreciation
And I know that kind of notion¡ªwell, it just ain’t cool
So send me back to Sunday school
Because I’m tired of waiting for reason to arrive
It’s too long we’ve been living
These unexamined lives
I’ve got great expectations
I’ve got family and friends
I’ve got satisfying work
I’ve got a back that bends
For every breath, for every day of living
This is my Thanksgiving
Have you noticed that an angry man
Can only get so far
Until he reconciles the way he thinks things ought to be
With the way things are
Here in this fragmented world, I still believe
In learning how to give love, and how to receive it
And I would not be among those who abuse this privilege Sometimes you get the best light from a burning bridge
And I don’t mind saying that I still love it all
I wallowed in the springtime
Now I’m welcoming the fall
For every moment of joy
Every hour of fear
For every winding road that brought me here
For every breath, for every day of living
This is my Thanksgiving
For everyone who helped me start
And for everything that broke my heart
For every breath, for every day of living
This is my Thanksgiving
It’s not black and white photography but you’d never know it given the gray day that began our train trip last year from Seattle to San Diego. These are shots taken while passing under the Tacoma Narrows Bridge.