Every rung goes higher and higher

Every rung goes higher and higher August 12, 2017

Today’s protest anthem and Saturday open thread comes courtesy of Bruce Springsteen & the Seeger Sessions Band.

The lyrics of “Jacob’s Ladder” involve indefensibly creative exegesis in the service of excellent hermeneutics. Like the Apostle Paul, I’m a fan of that.

Those lyrics also make this an extremely useful song for anyone living in a country where authoritarian racist thugs, Neo-Nazis and neo-klansmen are taking to the streets, encouraged and winked at by their president. Singing isn’t the only needed response to that, or the most important one, but it can be powerful, useful, and effective. Songs like “Jacob’s Ladder” and “We Shall Overcome” and “I Shall Not Be Moved” offer simple, repetitive lyrics that allow everyone to join in confidently on verse after verse after verse. That let’s us sing loud and long. And something tells me we’re going to need to sing together very loud and very long if we’re going to change anything for the better.

Anyway, here’s an open thread to discuss singing, or justice, or Charlottesville, or how much you hate the new fonts, or whatever.


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