[Originally written about 5 months ago in another forum] There’s a lot on my mind surrounding the state of things in the U.S and the song ‘One Day’, by Matisyahu, captures what I’m feeling…. But there’s another song I want to add to this that makes me feel the same way. It’s Wavin’ Flag by K’naan.
Matisyahu is “…an American Jewish reggae singer, rapper, beatboxer, and alternative rock musician…. Known for blending Orthodox Jewish themes with reggae, rock and hip hop beatboxing sounds….” K’naan is “…a Somali Canadian poet, rapper, singer, songwriter, and instrumentalist…. [his] sound is influenced by elements of Somali music and world music….”
Two people emerging from ethnic, religious, and/or political traditions historically at odds with each other, but singing, essentially, One Song or One Story. That’s because this Story exists outside of, above, the barriers we set up to divide ourselves.
K’naan sang a remixed version of his song for the 2010 World Cup. Soccer (or should I say, football) is the one sport that I think belongs to the world. And hearing this song within that context makes me feel what I long for – One World and One Race.
There’s one word that stands out to me as the essence of the song, which I’ll put in square brackets, because I’ve seen a variant when looking for the lyrics. I like this version:
Give me freedom, give me fire
Give me reason, take me higher
See the champions take the field now
[Unify] us, make us feel proud
In the streets our heads are liftin’
As we lose our inhibition
Celebration, it surrounds us
Every nation, all around us
During a layover on an international flight a while back, I remember walking through the Amsterdam airport and being shocked by the diversity of people – every race, it seemed, but my own. And they felt like my people.
The One Race I care about is Humanity. And the One Religion I want is Love. And there are people of every sort, independent of religion, nationality, political affiliation, or ethnicity, singing the same Song. Whatever happens in the world, no matter how bad things get, there will always be those who continue to sing this Song.
The Song I’m talking about is captured in a word that I hear in the faith tradition I was raised on, but it unfortunately closely resembles another one that’s politically and religiously charged. My use of this word has no relation to its controversial variant.
Zion is the word, and it refers at once to a condition of the heart, a people, and a place – Utopia or Utopian in more familiar terms. It refers to people “of one heart and one mind” with “no poor among them“, people who “had all things common.”
We live in something of a dystopian world. And even the same faith tradition that speaks of Zion also speaks of a dystopian condition preceding it. Eventually there will be a portion who decides to “beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.”
We can decide to be that people. But what crucible do we have to go through before we get there?
There’s no doubt that what happened to George Floyd was unjust and sickening and heartbreaking. Whatever that cop was driven by, racism or otherwise, it was wrong. And now (I hope) we have one man who has been brought to justice.
But, where are we now? Has racism decreased? Is the world now more peaceful than it was before? I have no answers for any of this, only an ever increasing preoccupation with some future ideal that I see no path to except by starting with myself.
I have a tendency to repeat the same things over and over again, as though the next time I say it, it will somehow express even better how profound my feelings are. I’ve shared this before, but I didn’t mention that the one person in it I have some physical description of was black and we were huddled in some dreary alleyway in downtown Seattle or some other big city.
This is a dream I had a while back and in it, it seemed we had just passed through some societal upheaval:
“…I was with a group of people of all sorts. We were all poor, but we lived in community (in harmony) with each other, we accepted each other, we were one with each other and we were at peace. We didn’t look clean-cut. We were poor and we seemed to be homeless. But we communed with each other and we sang together. We didn’t sing religious hymns necessarily, but songs of our common humanity. And we sang them in a rather reverent way, with feeling. These feelings were common to everyone who was there. I longed for this kind of commune when I woke up.“
Now an excerpt of those lyrics from One Day:
Sometimes I lay under the moon
and thank God I’m breathing
Then I pray, ‘Don’t take me soon,
’cause I am here for a reason’
…All my life I’ve been waiting for,
I’ve been praying for
For the people to say
That we don’t wanna fight no more,
there’ll be no more wars
And our children will play
…It’s not about win or lose,
’cause we all lose when they feed
On the souls of the innocent,
blood-drenched pavement
…We got to learn to stick together
Hate to be here alone
‘Cause the world is a place
That will eat you alive in one day
Said the world is a place
That you can’t survive without faith
…One day this all will change
Treat people the same
Stop with the violence
Down with the hate
One day we’ll all be free
And proud to be
Under the same sun
Singing songs of freedom…
A Friend To Humanity 
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