With thanks to Led Zeppelin

This week has been a mixture of looking to the past, the present and, a little, the future. I came across the YouTube video of Heart singing “Stairway to Heaven” for the remaining members of Led Zeppelin at the Kennedy Center Awards back in 2012. Watching Robert Plant and Jimmy Page I felt almost as if I was in their minds, the eyes, the moisture, Page looking at Plant, remembering. I am their age, I was young as they were back in 1975, I listened to “Stairway” and while the music just suffused me, I confess I didn’t understand what the lyrics meant. Still unsure but listening to them now I think of that lady thinking she could buy her way into heaven. A parable for today? But, mostly, watching that YouTube reminded me of a time when I was young. And now I am not but I am still here, still healthy, still feeling so much. And for that I am thankful. (Sunday morning, being thankful for Led Zeppelin, what a funny thing.)

And this week my heart ached for the children of Gaza. Every time I thought to complain because of rising prices and the lies in our government I thought of Gaza. I had a vision: what if instead of armed soldiers coming across the border, there was an army of Israeli aid workers. Instead of being armed with guns and rockets, their own arms were filled with food packages, with medical supplies, with, as the soldiers who liberated the Netherlands after WW2, sweets and treats for children who have done no wrong. To those children, and to their parents who had tried to keep them safe for so long, those soldiers were their saviors. The world still needs saviors and we need to celebrate such “saving.” Salvation comes from the word salve and nowadays salve means balm, soothing, applying salve.

Finally, I watched an Irish film this week. “The Last Rifleman.” A 92 year old Irishman, who was part of the landing force on D-Day, determines he will return to Normandy for the 75th anniversary of D-Day. I started this post by thinking about the past and, watching the film, I was once again drawn to the stories I grew up with, taught by a generation so formed by WW2 and its aftermath. In the end life is about not only survival but it’s about love and awareness and caring. I turned to my husband at the end of the film and said that there was not one character in this film who was ‘bad’. The film is filled with caring and love even if the underlying theme was such tragedy.

I recommend it. It reminded me that life is about not giving up and it’s about believing. It’s a good way to start another week.

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