Oh What a World

Men reading fashion magazines
Oh what a world
It seems we live in
Straight men...
Oh what a world
We live in

Why am I always on a plane or a fast train
Oh what a world my parents gave me
Always travelin'
but not in love

Still I think I'm doin' fine
Wouldn't it be a lovely headline
“Life is Beautiful”
On a New York Times

- From the song entitled
Oh What a World (“Want One”, 2003)
by Rufus Wainwright

We Need Change

When you're feeling down and out
Wondering what this world's about
I know a place that has the answer.

It's a place where no one dies.
It's a land where no one cries.
And good vibrations always
Greet you.

How I love when my thoughts run
To the land of make believe.
Where everything is fun
Forever.

Children always gather around
Mother Goose and all her rhyme
They fill the air with sounds
Of laughter.

People dancing
Their hearts are filled
With all the reasons why.
You and I should learn the way
Of the land of make believe
And make this world of ours
Much brighter.

I once asked the Wizard of Oz
For the secret of his land
He said, "Just take a look around here."
Seven dwarves and Little Boy Blue, 
Uncle Remus and Snow White, too.
(Now, just between us, 
That's what's known as integration.)

Jack and Jill are hard at work
Helping children dream awhile, 
And Snoopy's making smiles
For grown-ups.

All the elves are making toys
They are rich with all the joys
Of seeing happy kids
At Christmas.

We are waiting
To help you find
The dream made just for you.

In a few words let's just say
That in answer to your quiz
"Imagination is
The secret."

Hear the music of the band
It was written in our land
For what's a song but someone's
Dream? 

In your world there was a King
He once said, "I have a dream,"
Now there's a man who new
The secret.

Dreams are really
The thoughts that you
Have hidden in your heart.

When you start a brand new day
Let your heart show you the way
And make a dream or two
Come true.

How I love when my thoughts run
To the land of make believe
Where everything is fun

Forever.

-  From the 1973 Live Album, Land of Make Believe,

Chuck Mangione Quartet 

with the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra 

& Esther Satterfield, vocalist

Thoughts and Prayers

"More Tears Are Shed Over Answered Prayers Than Unanswered Ones"

- The epigraph to Truman Capote's last (unfinished and untitled) work

Sweet Dreams

"We are such stuff, as dreams are made of,
And our little life is rounded,
With a sleep."

-From William Shakespeare’s The Tempest

Pretty is What Changes

"Changing
It keeps changing
I see towers where there were trees.
Going, all the stillness,
the solitude, Georgie!
Sundays disappearing, all the time,
when things were beautiful.

All things are beautiful, Mother.
All trees, all towers, beautiful.
That tower beautiful, Mother.
See? A perfect tree.
Pretty isn't beautiful, Mother.
Pretty is what changes.
What the eye arranges
is what is beautiful!"

- Lyrics from Sunday in the Park with George

by Stephen Sondheim, 1984

The Red Cross

-Digital Composition by Randal E. Culbreth, 2008

On Over Achievement

"They sicken of the calm, who knew the storm."

-Dorothy Parker, 'Fair Weather,' Sunset Gun, 1928

Get Real

"Daylight falls and I'm lost in the big parade.
Hold my hand, darling, I'm afraid of the daylight.
Shade is dark.
Cool and languid for life or love.
Safe in shadows; never stark as the daylight.

When I was just knee high,
My Momma told me, never try,
To be someone that I am not.
Yet over time I had forgot,
The wandering child, so lost at play:
He's found himself but he can't find his way,
In the daylight.

Life is short, and there's no turning back the time.
Fragrant meadows and rocks to climb in the daylight.
In my mind, there's a corner I need to turn.
Lessons lived is a lesson learned in the daylight.

I miss the forest shade,
You took me there, the promise I made,
To never leave the dark so deep.
Safe and soothing, yet I fear,
As I recall and now reflect,
I see it's safer to connect,
To the daylight."

Lyrics from Daylight by Alison Krauss & Union Station

from the album Home on the Highways

In How We Speak

"Brave men tell the truth, 
A wise man's tools are analogies and puzzles,
A woman holds her tongue,
Knowing silence will speak for her."

From "Remind Me" by Royksopp (2007)

Live to Love

"There was a boy
A very strange enchanted boy
They say he wandered very far, very far
Over land and sea
A little shy and sad of eye
But very wise was he

And then one day
A magic day he passed my way
And while we spoke of many things
Fools and kings
This he said to me
'The greatest thing you'll ever learn
Is just to love and be loved in return'"

-Nature Boy by Nat King Cole (Greatest Hits, 1948)