Just a Song Sunday: We Shall Overcome

I'm not going to sugar coat it - this has been a rough week for me. I have had to take a break from news, from friends who have very passionate views about everything and often in direct conflict with each other, and from social media of all sorts. I took a break. I looked at my email, but that was it, from Thursday evening until Saturday afternoon.

What did I find?

Two days was not enough to have a hiatus. The rhetoric from all sides was just as vehement, just as nasty, and just as jarring as it would have been earlier had I been part of the discussion. I am to the point where I am hiding people from my newsfeed without qualms. I think it's time to weed out my friend list. I just don't want to read the nasty stuff that people say about groups of "others." There are no others. There is just us.

This week, which started with a celebration of the birth of a man who changed things for others and ended with marches celebrating the strength of ordinary people, has not been filled with happiness for all.

I have a song that goes through my head when civil thoughts start to intrude in my life. It is an anthem from the civil rights movement of the last century. I love the song, We Shall Overcome. It embodies my hope for us all - unity, not that we shall all conform to one thought, but that there will be a place where we can agree to disagree without being mean to each other.

For me, this song embodies my greatest wish for humanity. That we make the decision and actively strive to embody that decision to respect everyone on the planet - especially those who act in a way that is contrary to our own beliefs.

Isn't it amazing that a song can come to represent an idea, a movement, a period of history, change? 

This is the power of music. This song isn't just a song. It's a hope, a prayer, and a quest.