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On my morning walks this week, I've been captivated by "Take Me to the Mountain," a song by the singer-songwriter, musical producer, and social activist Jennifer Berezan. I wanted to write about the song, which I learned about in a yoga class, both to deepen my experience of the music and to invite others who may be unfamiliar with Berezan's work to give the song a listen.
The song is about holding onto the promise of the 1960s while letting go of a belief in its inevitable realization. It's about keeping alive the dreams of our youth, for ourselves and for the world, while bowing to life's humbling complexity and to the stubbornness of injustice. It's about never giving up on the promised land while knowing that the path to get there may be only dimly lit.
I'm moved by this song because it beautifully brings together two qualities that often are seen as separate: a love for the limitless light of youth and an embrace of the more bounded wisdom of elderhood. I also am drawn to the song because it speaks to my personal history.
Although I'm older than Berezan, we are close enough in age to have experienced the late 1960s as a momentous time of change, of both personal seeking and social transformation. To quote from the musical "Hair," which I had the chance to see on Broadway in 1968, the consciousness of the 60s was about the "dawning of the age of Aquarius...when the moon is in the Seventh House... and peace will guide the planets and love will steer the star." In the social and political realm, this was a period when Martin Luther King could proclaim with utter confidence that "we shall overcome because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice."
What Berezan does in "Take Me to the Mountain," with the caressing tones of her guitar and a singing style that seems to blend folk, blues, and pop, is to honor the 1960s child in her heart while acknowledging how ill-matched with the world her heart's pure vision proved to be. Her young-person's faith in a progressively unfolding future gave way to a more sober acceptance of life's unpredictability, as expressed in her first two verses:
I was born in ‘61, seemed the world had just begun
there were a million things that you could put your faith in
And I was raised on Hermann Hesse, women’s rights, left politics
and Bob Dylan before he got religion
We knew that we could make it right, change this world overnight
we sang and we marched and we believed
But years they come and years they go where you’ll end up nobody knows
Now sometimes I feel like I can hardly breathe
Yet Berezan's breath-arresting encounters with life's harsh disappointments as an adult did not extinguish the spark of aliveness or mute the call of justice from the days when her whole future lay ahead of her. Her singing as a seasoned elder was a prayer to climb the mountain where a better world was within reach, the same mountain of meaning, humanity, and inspiration that awakened and animated her as a young person:
And oh...take me to the mountain
Sing me an old song and remind me what it means
Cause I’ll always be a child of that history
Weaving the future out of yesterday’s dreams
Well I was just a child back then, in ‘71 I was just 10
but there was something in those winds of change that moved me
Voices echoed cross the land in a language I could understand
and like some lightning bolt they burned right through me
I especially liked the line about weaving the future out of yesterday's dreams. It was an eloquent reminder that if we touch into the richness of our soul's past longings, we have more to work with when imagining our futures than if we push away the past as yesterday's news.
In the final verse, Berezan drew a metaphoric comparison that seemed just right to me. She contrasted her youthful vision of life as a linear road to the promised land with a more reflective image of life as a rambling river. Yet, the lyric suggests, flowing down this river is not an aimless movement. It's a day-to-day commitment to stay centered in our truth even as the river curves beyond our knowing.
I used to believe that life’s a road you’re traveling
a straight shot down until you reach the promised land
But lately I've come to see that life’s a river rambling
each day you wake and try to do the best you can
As I listen to Jennifer Berezan's hopeful song on my walk to the summit of my neighborhood hill, I catch a glimpse of the foothills of the Coastal Range, the gentle mountains that hug the Pacific Coast, about 60 miles west of my home. Her music transports me to the forested mountains that bless this space. And I feel the promise of a better world that hit like lightning in younger days but continues to stir, though with a softer touch, in my elder years.
I was not previously familiar with Jennifer Berezan, but had to listen after reading your insightful post. What a deeply moving song and I love her voice!
I’ve recently been feeling like I’ve become a bit jaded and weary of fighting for a better world that just doesn’t seem within reach like it did when I was younger. And I feel guilty for not fighting as hard as I used to, but this song and your insight have perked me up a bit and given me a new perspective to ponder.
As always, thank you for sharing Glen!
Thanks for introducing Jennifer Berezan to me. I love that she lets the song slowly unfold. The poignant lyrics. Her soulful voice. The lengthy interludes between the verses invite deep reflection.
Your interpretation is right on. I appreciate her ability to recall our youthful enthusiasm while reflecting on the persistence and difficulty overcoming injustice all these years hence.
Thanks for your outstanding posting, Glen.