Maybe it is me, but I have never seen so much anger, so much hatred on display as I have in our current political campaign. I am reminded of the lines written by Roger Hammerstein for that wonderful play and movie South Pacific. They went…
“You’ve got to be taught to hate and fear
You’ve got to be taught from year to year.
It’s got to be drummed in your dear little ear.
You’ve got to be carefully taught”
I recently discovered a biography of Oscar Hammerstein by Hugh Fordin which has been gathering dust on a shelf upstairs in my music room. Mr. Hammerstein wrote a second verse that did not appear in that play.Few people have ever heard this verse. I think we need his message more than ever today.
“Love is quite different, it grows by itself
It can grow like a weed on a mountain of stone
You don’t have to feed it or put fat on its bones.
It can live on a smile or the note of a song
It may stop for a while but it stumbles along
Stumbles along with its banners unfurled
The joy and the beauty; the hope of the world.”
Let’s all give love a try now.
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