Circumventing a cyclone

 This is a long one.  You might not want to spend your time here.  Nonetheless, you may receive hope from reading this blog.  Our ship has been pushing ahead of a cyclone on the coast of Australia.  The wind is hard, heavy and haunting.  Seeing what seems like never ending grey skies, grey ocean and particularly nasty weather outside our only window, makes me stop and think.  Many people on this ship from other countries, have asked us what is going on in the U,S,.  A man in French Polynesia stopped us on a sidewalk and asked us this same question when we affirmed we are from the U.S.  He went on to say he left the U.S. fifty years ago after serving in Viet Nam but has been reading about the chaos.  

My thoughts have drifted to two songwriters during the stormy weather of these times, Linford Detweiler and Bob Dylan.  

Linford, of the band, Over the Rhine, wrote in their March newsletter, 

"Hello fellow travelers,  Annie Dillard wrote in Pilgrim At Tinker Creek about not wanting to miss the moment the grass turns green in the spring. It happens in the blink of an eye.

We’ve gotten some generous hints of spring on the farm to be sure, but today is chilly and windy. The sun peeks out occasionally, but it feels like winter isn’t going gently just yet. The tree swallows arrived last weekend from their long journeys, but they must have headed up the road to the nearby lake to lay low for awhile until things warm up again. 

Most of us are willing to accept the fact that life often cycles through periods of order, disorder and reorder. And if we’ve lived long enough, we come to accept the reality that the only constant in life is change. Knowing these sorts of truths doesn’t make it any easier when we’re navigating unsettling times, or periods of upheaval.

Many of you reading this have coalesced around our music over the years. What do you say we get together soon and make a holy ruckus? Whether the songs feel like voices crying in the wilderness, bits of praise for a mutilated world, or old friends reminiscing and dreaming outloud of something better, maybe we need music now more than ever. Something to give us a little jolt of beauty. Something to spark some fresh resolve, and to remind us that we’re a long way from dead in the water.

And maybe most importantly, just to remind us we’re not alone."

Bob Dylan's Blowin In the Wind became an anthem adopted by both the civil rights and anti-war movements.  NPR published an article in 2000 claiming that Blowin In the Wind still asks the hard questions.  I submit that claim is still true in 2025. The NPR article included, 

"But what does it mean, `The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind?' Dylan himself was cryptic about it, telling Sing Out! magazine in 1962, quote, "There ain't much I can say about this song, except the answer is blowin' in the wind. It ain't no book or movie or TV show or discussion group, man. It's in the wind." Writer David Hajdu says its ambivalence is part of the song's appeal.

"The song can be anything to anybody. It's critical and it's hard, this litany of questions about what's wrong with the world, OK; so if you're inclined, you know, to damn the establishment and the prevailing authority, there's your song. If you're of a more positive nature, well, this song provides an answer, too, or it hits--it leans toward an answer. `The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind.'"

"You can hear in this a yearning and a hope and a possibility and a sadness and sometimes a triumphal proclamation of determination. The answer is blowin' in the wind means we will find the answer. So it's a matter of interpretation and, frankly, I think Bobby was probably right and legitimate in not giving a specific interpretation."

Me, Randy, I believe the storm seems a bit less severe if we consider the wisdom of these two songwriters.  Here are the lyrics to the timeless Blowin In the Wind;

How many roads must a man walk down
Before you call him a man?
How many seas must a white dove sail
Before she sleeps in the sand?
Yes, and how many times must the cannonballs fly
Before they're forever banned?

The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind
The answer is blowin' in the wind

Yes, and how many years must a mountain exist
Before it is washed to the sea?
Yes, and how many years can some people exist
Before they're allowed to be free?
Yes, and how many times can a man turn his head
And pretend that he just doesn't see?

The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind
The answer is blowin' in the wind

Yes, and how many times must a man look up
Before he can see the sky?
Yes, and how many ears must one man have
Before he can hear people cry?
Yes, and how many deaths will it take 'til he knows
That too many people have died?

The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind
The answer is blowin' in the wind