There Is No Courage…Without Fear

‘John Prine, Who Chronicled the Human Condition in Song, Dies at 73,’ said the New York Times article headline.

‘The unassuming Prine never had a hit single or a blockbuster album.  But he built a devoted following, won several Grammys and overcame two bouts of cancer to record and tour into his 70s.’

‘Other musicians revered him and covered him and covered many of his songs, which wrung wry, universal truths from everyday life.  Johnny Cash, in his memoir, named Prine as one of his key songwriting inspirations.  Bob Dylan, in a 2009 interview, said ‘Prine’s stuff is pure Proustian existentialism…and he writes beautiful songs.  Rolling Stone once called him, ‘the Mark Twain of American songwriting.’   CNN

We look for a clean and concise answer.  We seek a rationale and logical construct to place this hideous disease into.  Some say for us to follow the science.  Other tell us to look to Jesus.  Why can’t we do both?

I have heard many accuse the media or the news reporters as those  who are to blame.  They contend that our worries and fears are being produced by the coverage of our 2020 pandemic.  Could it be that if we adopt the ostrich’s philosophy and hide our head in the sand…we will finally emerge and the hoax will be over?  It has been said that a recession is when you are observing others being laid-off from their jobs…and it is a Depression when it is you that is being laid-off.

The disease is real for the countless nurses and doctors and medical professionals who are risking their lives…and are afraid…and are courageous…as they actively submit to what one called a, ‘suicide mission,’ each time they begin a work-shift!

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I shopped at our local, Aldi’s grocer, today.  I wondered if the brave staff of the little store…wondered why they were now essential employees…when not long ago…many considered them, the least among us?  Smiles were on their young faces…and fear was in their eyes…

The janitors have always been those who were seen and not heard. Quietly they labor to make the world that they have been assigned…a better place.  They rejoice when one of their clients recognizes them…or compliments them…or sees them…as human…and a colleague.  At Southern Illinois University @ Carbondale, the janitors are essential to the recruitment and retention of our precious students.  Without SIUC’s janitors…it would not survive…and now more than ever…

We will come out on the other side of this pandemic…and it will not  be the famous and the powerful…the politicians and potentates…or the anointed heirs of the earth…by virtue of their bank account.

We will survive because of the courage of…the little people!

We loved John Prine…he sang about us…he wrote elegant lyrics  about the little guy and the little gal.  John saw us…and we saw him…