Fair warning: this is a collage of worries about the present and future as well as memories of (largely) disappointing history.
And yet what I keep coming back to (quite literally in the choruses) is that we really have no choice other than to be resilient and to keep moving forward.
© 2020, Steven E. Cutts
A Studio C Recording
with Jason Byrd adding the electric guitar track
and with invaluable digital engineering assistance from Jim Robeson
It should come as no surprise: these days I find myself discouraged.
In an era of unrest, we’re perilously perched up on a narrow ledge.
It’s “a world gone wrong.” We can say once more that “these are times that try men’s souls.”
Decency and honesty lie scattered like torn and lifeless autumn leaves.
Our bright promise has been compromised and squandered by profit-driven corporate thieves.
Instead of rallying ‘round and joining hands, our default is now to hate. “What fools these mortals be.”
All we can do is carry on. It’s all we’ve ever done.
We make it through the night and greet the sun together.
I was born in ‘fifty-two – in a golden age, with the blessings of the post-war boom.
With equality within our grasp, we dreamed that we could bind up all the nation’s wounds.
And just because it would be hard, we set our sights on being first to touch the Moon.
We dared to think prosperity would cure all ills,
And good intent would balance human faults. But still
We stumbled on the road to justice, sailed the winds of war;
Our Blue Skies were no bluer than they’d ever been before.
All we could do was carry on. It’s all we’d ever done.
We’d make it through the night and greet the sun together.
It’s looking more and more like a bleak, full-blown catastrophe is looming large
With the ever-growing possibility that Paradise was never ours.
For the better or the worse, the only certainty is in the here and now.
All we can do is carry on. It’s all we’ve ever done.
We’ll make it through the night and greet the sun together.