Sing a Joyful Song

I love Celtic music. The jigs, the reels, indeed all the dances are a joy. Not to mention the musicians who play the fiddles, the mandolins and guitars, the accordions, whistles and more. But the lyrics of the songs are so depressing. They speak, for the most part, of death, separation, exile, hardship, rebellion, oppression and war. And they speak of and were written in times long past. But they are still sung today with much the same fervour, romanticizing and perpetuating the sorrow, rage and despair of an earlier age.

There are, of course a few songs that are joyful, very few. Yes horrible things have happened over the course of humanity’s existence on this planet. Some are natural; some are due to human failing. Yet, even those whose ancestors suffered centuries ago, or more recently, are better off than they might have been had their forbearers not been displaced or mistreated. In this country of ours, we are all displaced people. Everyone is here because someone long ago, or not so long ago, left somewhere else, due to poverty, war, persecution, environmental issues or social injustice.

Even the first people to inhabit what is now known as the Americas came from elsewhere. We are all immigrants and immigrants continue to arrive here and will always do so. But none of us own this land. We are merely caretakers of it. We have a responsibility to it,
and to each other. Let us sing joyful songs, full of hope for the present and the future. Let us find reason to be grateful that we now live here. As imperfect as it may be, or we think it is, it is far better than so many other places in this troubled world.