Gulf Shores

Gulf Shores
Photographer Patricia Gulick

Wednesday, April 12, 2017

4/12/17 RMB Helen Reddy 2017



4/12/17 RMB Helen Reddy 2017


Dear Rita Mae Brown,

There is something about a song that can transport you back decades in an instant. For a few moments, melody streams into our core so deep that its ending opens a gap in thought from there to here and all that has transpired between then and now floods forward to fill the void.

Helen Reddy and her many songs, but most especially I am Woman, provided the soundtrack of my youth. I sit now, near my mid-fifties, and hear her again, now in her mid-seventies, still performing to the crowd, this time at the Los Angeles Women’s March on January 21st, 2017. For any fan of hers, I encourage googling Helen Reddy on YouTube, treasures await there.

What hope I held there in my childhood, and the inspiration that song gave me, awakens. I was young, unaware of inequality, although already touched by it. With her words, came my awareness. The vast difference in our society between yesteryear and today reminds me of our progress, while simultaneously emphasizing the extremely slow pace at which we evolve.

Regarding peace, equality, respect, and understanding, we remain embryos, with a long, long way to go.


Sing on,
Loraine

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