On my grandmother’s kitchen wall hung a small scroll with the quote, “I shall pass through this world but once. If, therefore, there be any kindness I can show, or any good thing I can do, let me do it now. Let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.” I met Jamie while performing Bernstein’s Mass, and she told me about a song she had written in honor of her parents the year her father died; it was performed in NYC on his public memorial Concert of Peace program “Remembering Leonard Bernstein.” Jamie graciously agreed to share her song with me, and allowed me to arrange and record it here. I am so glad she did.
lyrics
Every man and every woman drops to earth on an angel’s wing
Ripe with love and soft with mercy, full of God’s own song to sing.
Then we learn our mother’s sorrow; then we learn our father’s fear.
Schools of rage and bleeding nations, and our angels disappear.
We all ride down the river of time, and it’s easy to see every sin and every crime,
But the hard thing, the wise thing, to try (oh, yes) is kindness, kindness, kindness.
You can sell your life’s possessions, you can give away your gold,
You can spend a bitter winter walking barefoot in the cold;
But if you still hate your brother, if you aim a pointed spear,
Then you’ll never hear your angel when he whispers in your ear.
We all ride down the river of time, and it’s easy to see every sin and every crime,
But the hard thing, the wise thing, to try (oh, yes) is kindness, kindness, kindness.
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