Pete Seeger wrote “To My Old Brown Earth” in 1958 for a friend’s funeral. The song deeply resonated with me as a reminder of mortality and life’s “purpose” or contribution. I ripped part of the title (as is done in the folk tradition!) as a sort of pen name for sharing my observations and research as I continue to evaluate what it is that I can hand back to the earth besides a bunch of waste.
Once upon a time, wasn’t singing a part of everyday life as much as talking, physical exercise, and religion? Our distant ancestors, wherever they were in this world, sang while pounding grain, paddling canoes, or walking long journeys. Can we begin to make our lives once more all of a piece? Finding the right songs and singing them over and over is a way to start. And when one person taps out a beat, while another leads into the melody, or when three people discover a harmony they never knew existed, or a crowd joins in on a chorus as though to raise the ceiling a few feet higher, then they also know there is hope for the world. – Pete Seeger
I did a partial digital revival of Touraine Old Style Italic to make the graphic above, illustrating the key lyrics.