About Me

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Recent retiree--35 year's experience teaching reading, English, adult basic education and volunteer leadership skills. Started this blog to exchange ideas and commentary with friends and others having an interest in joining the discussions. Greatest life accomplishments include: 1.organized my 3rd grade class to check out library books for me to get around librarian's weekly limit--Amazon.com, the Mullins Elementary 3rd Grade Class of 1956 is still waiting for "thank you" notes; 2. volunteered in the Peace Corps, island of St. Kitts, West Indies; 3.taught adults to read, earn their GEDs., and speak English as a second language; 4. bought a border collie puppy for $6, got evicted rather than give him up, and began a life-long love affair with all things "Dog"; 5. joined a physical fitness boot camp in my mid-50s--don't mess with someone who's been doing regulation pushups in wet grass at 5:30 a.m.; 6. walked across Northern England with best friend Sally--over 80 miles from the Irish to North Seas; and 7. travelled to many foreign countries for pleasure and work.

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Let's Get Together


One love, one heart
Let's get together and feel all right
Hear the children crying(one love)
Hear the children crying (one heart)
Sayin', "Give thanks and praise
to the Lord and feel all right."
Sayin', "Let's get together and feel all right."


Here's a little Wednesday gift for all of you that I happened upon yesterday. Picture this: a musician sits on his doorstep in Livorno, Italy and begins playing Bob Marley's One Love on his guitar. He's joined by a young woman in Tel Aviv, Israel. Then she's joined by musicians in the Congo, then more in South Africa, India and France. Each musician used the instruments of his country, but all were in perfect harmony. Which is the purpose of Playing for Change: Peace Through Music, the non-profit organization which connects musicians from all over the world to promote the belief that music has the power to break down barriers and build peace and understanding among people of all races, creeds, and economic standings. One Love is the perfect message:



Here's one of the most powerful verses:

Let's get together to fight this Holy Armageddon
So when the Man comes there will be no, no doom
Have pity on those whose chances grow thinner
There ain't no hiding place from the Father of Creation.


I was just blown away when I heard this, especially when the video featured the collages of the musicians playing in perfect harmony on different continents. So powerful. Just a warning: you're going to want to sing along and even dance a bit, so be careful where you play this! To learn more go to Playing for Change .

(Image credit for Bob Marley: art.com)

7 comments:

Jan n Jer said...

Thanx Faye...that was a great video. Why can't we all..."Just give Peace a Chance"!!!!!

KittyHawk said...

I like everything about this - the music, the musicians, the message,...

Faye said...

janis--exactly, people of good will taking baby steps for a common good. This non-profit reminded me of Greg Mortenson's work in the Middle East(Three Cups of Tea) for that reason.

kittyhawk--you probably saw this already on Very Short List? I open them every day so won't miss little jewels like this. I checked other Playing for Change videos out on YouTube and especially loved the New Orleans street musicians and performances of "Stand By Me" and "No More War".

Gattina said...

unfortunately Bob Marley's songs are mostly played for hash smokers, they love to sit around and listen to his songs. I have quite bad souvenirs of Marley's music !

Faye said...

gattina--I missed out on the hash smoking appeal of Bob Marley. :-) I did live in the West Indies for three years in the early 70s and remember the people really loving his reggae music, especially the young men. They walked the streets with transistor radios up to their ears listening to reggae. We danced to it. I don't remember so much of the militant Rastifarian stuff though. As for "One Love", the message is hard to discount. Anything this positive that promotes peace and understanding, I'm for it.

Mariposa said...

Love that song!

Faye said...

mariposa--you're back! Have been very concerned about you with all the extreme weather and storms in your part of the world.