Mixed Moss

I love U2. They have some of the greatest songs. They came out with another sweet one called “Love & Peace Or Else”. My favorite line: “As you enter this world I pray you’ll depart with a wrinkled face and a brand new heart.” They are so dead-on about some things and I love their songs about peace. I believe that there is a time and a place for war– that is, there are some things more important than peace; if we were to give those things up in order to keep the peace, then we would be selling out. But, I don’t think we’ve seen those things be at risk in a long time. Still, it makes me sad to think about it this time of year.

When I was a little girl, I was in a children’s choir. The local news filmed us singing a song for the soldiers in Desert Storm– a version of “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” changed to “God Rest Ye Weary Sentinels”– and sent many, many copies of the video over to the soliders in the Gulf for Christmas. That experience has stuck with me. I can’t imagine how dreary it would be to be away at war over the holiday season. I mean whatever one thinks about the decision to engage in the conflict in Iraq, one can still support the soldiers themselves, who after all are just doing their job.

So what’s my Christmas Wish? Well what can I say? This isn’t Snoopy and the Red Baron; there is of course the story of Christmas, 1914, when a temporary truce was called in the trenches in Northern France and Belgium. (Read about it here: http://www.fylde.demon.co.uk/xmas.htm ) The world has changed since then and while I don’t mean to be pessimistic I am not one of those blindly progressive people who think that anything new must be better than what it replaces. Progress doesn’t ensure improvement, just as growth doesn’t guarantee health.

But I digress. The thing is, the majority of the people in Iraq do not celebrate Christmas, or Thanksgiving. So how can we expect them to observe/respect our special holidays by kindly refraining from blowing anyone up on them? No, I think the best I can pray for is that people are able to see or hear from their loved ones, and that each man and woman involved in the conflict can find some kind of inner peace this holiday season.

Which brings us to, quite possibly, my favorite U2 song of all.

Peace On Earth

Heaven on Earth, we need it now
I’m sick of all of this hanging around
Sick of sorrow, sick of the pain
I’m sick of hearing again and again
That there’s gonna be peace on Earth

Where I grew up there weren’t many trees
Where there was we’d tear them down
And use them on our enemies
They say that what you fear
Will surely overtake you
And you become a monster
So the monster will not break you

And it’s already gone too far
Who said that if you go in hard
You won’t get hurt?

Jesus can you take the time
To throw a drowning man a line
Peace on Earth
Tell the ones who hear no sound
Whose sons are living in the ground
Peace on Earth
No whos or whys
No one cries like a mother cries
For peace on Earth
She never got to say goodbye
To see the color in his eyes
Now he’s in the dirt
Peace on Earth

They’re reading names out over the radio
All the folks the rest of us won’t get to know
Sean and Julia, Gareth, Ann and Breda
Their lives are bigger than any big idea

Jesus can you take the time
To throw a drowning man a line
Peace on Earth
To tell the ones who hear no sound
Whose sons are living in the ground
Peace on Earth
Jesus in that song you wrote
The words are sticking in my throat
Peace on Earth
Hear it every Christmas time
But hope and history won’t rhyme
So what’s it worth
This peace on Earth

Peace on Earth
Peace on Earth
Peace on Earth

This entry was posted on Friday, November 19th, 2004 at 1:23 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.