Songs of Pain and Hope

(Hewson, Evans, Clayton, Mullen)

Is it getting better
Or do you feel the same?
Will it make it easier on you now
You got someone to blame?

You say, one love, one life
When it’s one need in the night
One love, we get to share it
Leaves you, baby, if you don’t care for it

Did I disappoint you
Or leave a bad taste in your mouth?
You act like you never had love
And you want me to go without

Well, it’s too late tonight
To drag the past out into the light
We’re one, but we’re not the same
We get to carry each other, carry each other

Have you come here for forgiveness?
Have you come to raise the dead?
Have you come here to play Jesus?
To the lepers in your head

Did I ask too much? More than a lot
You gave me nothing, now it’s all I got
We’re one but we’re not the same
Well, we hurt each other then we do it again

You say love is a temple, love a higher law
Love is a temple, love the higher law
You ask me to enter but then you make me crawl
And I can’t be holdin’ on to what you got
When all you got is hurt

One love, one blood
One life, you got to do what you should
One life with each other
Sisters, brothers

One life but we’re not the same
We get to carry each other, carry each other
One

This Friday marks the end of my commitment as an Assistant District Attorney to the City of Philadelphia and Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.  I am proud to have served with the other 299 of my brother and sister ADAs under the leadership of the Honorable Lynne Abraham, a capable, honorable, and phenomenal leader in the war against crime.

My DA Chief, a hero in his own right, and I have been discussing the Charge of the Light Brigade.  I spent the first 12 years of my life in a Commonwealth country so I was raised with quite a bit of British military history.  That and Smarties, Ovaltine, Horlivka, Bovril, Marmite, and a lot of harsh discipline. 

We are hardcore like that.  

Anyways, the Light Brigade was the cream of the British army.  Approximately 600 in strength, they were well trained and they, like the great Maryland Terrapins, wore red.

Like many instances I’ve experienced, they were given a vague order that was not only misinterpreted but also not clarified.  They were supposed to capture retreating cannon but ended up charging directly at entrenched artillery instead.  They rode for about a mile and a half facing fire from three sides.  All they were armed with were their sabers.  

Somehow, some of them made it to the cannons where they encountered the fierce Russian Cossack calvary.  And the Light Brigade were the ones to strike fear instead of the other way around.  More than decimated and badly wounded, they fought on.

Almost all of them died or were incapacitated.  But when the news of the suicidal screwups of screwups reached home, it was immortalized in paintings and Tennyson’s enduring poem.

A friend of mine told me how the goalie on his lacrosse team made incredible save after save and how that inspired the team to play better on offense.

When the Russians asked captured Brigade members how much alcohol they had consumed before the attack, they were astonished to hear the answer – none.

Courage goes a long way.

In everything.

And God save the King and the Commonwealth.

The worship band is often considered hot stuff at church.  Visible, performing, talented.  I played on several, but haven’t for decades, decided that I no longer wanted to be on stage.

Memorably, however, I did coach a bunch of junior high kids to form one.  All wanted to play on the varsity version, but they were too inexperienced.  So having some formal band experience, I got voluntold to mentor them.

We were awful at the start.  Barely passable at each instrument, we were so out of tune and sync.  At times. someone would play a different section of a song when the rest was playing another.  Once, half the band was playing a completely different song than the other half.  There was anger, tears, and frustration.  Some were mine.  One time, I got so upset, I wanted to quit on the spot.

Then we got good. I still remember the night when we led worship, it all clicked.  Even I was surprised.  I taught them what my band teacher taught me – the band is as strong as its weakest member (that was once me).

One of the guitar players ended up making an album.  The other became a pastor.  The pianist went to MIT – I went to her wedding.

To this day, one of my sign-in names is jhdogz (the underdogs), in memory of them.