I heard a story on NPR this morning about a young kid getting busted in Philadelpia for singing in the park after nine p.m. Scott Simon, the host of the program, introduces the kid, he tells his story (not much of a story - he was singing in the park!) and he asks the kid to sing the song that got him in the hoosegow. It was Sam Cooke's song, "A Change is Gonna Come." Undoubtably one of the greatest songs ever written - beautiful, powerful, hearfelt. Cooke's version takes my breath away everytime I hear it (and I've heard it many times). So, I'm sipping a little "turkish brew" sitting listening to the radio, and this kid starts singing. He's got a beautiful voice, an echo of Cooke's, and well, I can't help it, it just comes over me in a flash and the tears just pour out. I guess maybe I really am a softy at heart. There's such beauty and sadness in that lyric, that melody. And well, there's hope too. And really, that's the clincher. Even in the middle of the pain, the darkness, the hardness, there's a shining hope that won't die. A young kid, singing a song of change, of hope, a song written long ago and he brings it alive, the fire, the flame, the passion lives. Not a bad way to begin a day, to live a life.
