Alexandersmap

    Tag: Phil Ochs

    • Raising a Voice in a Storm

      We’ve somehow arrived at a place where a lot of people seem to take issue with other people. Where people in power want to grab a lot more for themselves to stroke their egos. Where grabbing as much as possible now is more important than saving things for later. And I wonder at the strangeness of it all. For I view the world in just the opposite way. And I think that most people do as well.

      And yet the angry voices prevail. What do we make of it? And how do we turn things back towards collaboration and generosity? Back to where it felt we were not all that long ago.

      I believe the key is to raise our voice more often. I never was much for raising my voice and questioning the logic of some unusually vocal outlier. Too confrontational. But the problem is we have too many people just keeping their mouths shut and letting things be. And that’s when the people on the angry edges get their voice heard. That’s when the development edges out the forest. That’s when extremists storm the capital and pretend it wasn’t what you saw when it fails.

      Can’t be singing louder than the guns, while I’m gone
      So I guess I’ll have to do it while I’m here
      – Phil Ochs, When I’m Gone

      Maybe it was hearing this song again, thinking about the battles for peace and equality 50 years ago that have never been fully resolved, that has me thinking this way. Maybe it’s being sick and tired of all the violence and twisted logic parroted back to me from people sipping the poison a little too much. But I’ve about had it with passively listening to people justify what I believe to be wrong.

      We’re all taught to be polite, to not make a fuss about things. But others break this unspoken rule all the time to advance their interests. At some point you’ve got to rise up and speak for what is right. We have to speak up to save what is left of the planet and humanity. While it’s here.

    • I Guess I’ll Have to Do It While I’m Here

      And I won’t feel the flowing of the time when I’m gone
      All the pleasures of love will not be mine when I’m gone
      My pen won’t pour a lyric line when I’m gone
      So I guess I’ll have to do it while I’m here.
      – Phil Ochs, When I’m Gone

      It’s that time of year—the mad shift towards Christmas and New Years Eve and all that represents for us. There’s a natural and sometimes confusing triangulation of planning for the future, wrapping up the present and reflecting on what’s done and gone. I’d suggest that listening to this 55 year-old Phil Ochs folk song is a great way to pause and reflect on what might be prioritized from this moment onward.

      Ochs would end up committing suicide a decade after singing this song, with a family friend commenting in a New York Times obituary that “Mainly, the words weren’t coming to him anymore.” We all have our timeline and our perceived value to the world, the demons caught up with Ochs before he could climb back out of the darkness. The word “prescient” is used a lot when When I’m Gone is introduced, usually dropped right before telling people of Ochs suicide, as if it isn’t prescient for all of us.

      That’s the relentless message in this smooth folksy song: Stop waiting and do it while you’re here. For we’ll all be gone soon enough. Plan for the future, as we must, but live now.