8/11/7 - Unsung Heroes

Unsung Heroes

8/11/7

I must admit I do have some “unsung” heroes besides John Denver and Bucky Fuller that I’d like to mention who are still in this dimension.  Many I met at Windstar Symposiums in the 1980’s and 1990’s.  Some of them I’d like to mention that I’ve been especially impressed with are: Tom Crum, author of two must-read books, The Magic of Conflict and Journey to Center.  He was my Aikido instructor, co-founder of the Windstar Foundation and was John Denver’s bodyguard.  I also met Al Gore and first heard his “inconvenient truth” about global warming in the early 1990’s when he wasn’t a “real politician”—one who polarizes.  Also, I met and talked with Jerry Jampolski who wrote the classic book, Love is Letting Go of Fear.  Others I’ve met and talked with are Brother David-Stendl-Rast, John Robbins (the Natural Ice-cream Man), David Brower (Friends of the Earth), Whoppi Goldberg (she’s not exactly my hero but I think she’s hilarious) and Matthew Fox author of The Coming of the Cosmic Christ. 

But the one person I felt the most privileged to have met (besides John Denver) is Kenny Loggins.  He and his new wife (who was pregnant at the time) were presenters at the 1995 Windstar Symposium.  His message was so powerful that I can still remember its essence today.  I’ll paraphrase it below:

 

Our future is today!  What we do today, at this very moment in time, creates our future.  Because there really is no tomorrow—there’s only today!  It’s not just about not polluting our planet and conserving our energy resources.  It’s about enjoying life in this moment—in all our relationships—with the planet, with our children, with ourselves.  It’s about relationships and how we relate to one another.  That’s the important thing here!

 

He then talked about his new Leap of Faith album and some of the inspiration for his songs.  He’d just gone through a painful divorce after meeting his new wife who was previously his massage therapist (now there’s a story I can relate to).  But he was dedicated to living his truth about love.  He then sang the title song “Leap of Faith” which I really could relate to:

He opened the door and walked away

Sometimes the simplest step is all it takes

And from the mountain he could watch it all burn

Welcome friend to the point of no return

Once in a life you can find a time to see

Then you get to take it down, turn around

Temporary sanity

And then the mountain disappears without a trace

And all it took

Was a sudden Leap of Faith

Homeward

Let your spirit rise

Darlin’ I’m waiting for you

Homeward

One step at a time

Homeward

Watchin’ like a child

When will I reach the ocean

I’m filled with mixed emotions

I’ll wait for you

Highway one

And the fog rolled back to sea

He was overcome

By how it happened all so easily

And as he stood there

With the moonlight on her face

He was stunned

By a sudden Leap of Faith

Darlin’ I’m waiting for you

Homeward

One step at a time

Homeward

Watchin’ like a child

When will I reach the ocean

Movin’ in slow motion now

You know it’s the truth

You’ve done all a man can do

Homeward

Let your spirit rise

Homeward

One step at a time

Homeward

Watchin’ like a child

But my favorite song on the Leap of Faith album has to be “Conviction of the Heart.”  I mean the title says it all.  He prefaced the song by saying, “It’s not about global warming or polluting our air and our water.  It’s about our children…and their children…and their children’s children.  They deserve a future.”  Then he brought his cute, little 3-year-old daughter up to the mike to express herself, “One with the earth, with the sky, one with everything in life.” 

If you have Kenny’s Leap of Faith album, plug it in while you view pictures of your own family (or mine which are in the photo gallery), and think to yourself—what am I doing today, right now, to assure that my children and my children’s children (and perhaps me if I am eternal) have a safe, healthy planet to live on.  In reality, it is my children and your children, and our children’s children who are the unsung heroes who must deal with the mess that we’ve made of our planet.  It is to them this song is sung.

Conviction of the Heart

Where are the dreams that we once had?

This is the time to bring them back

What were the promises

Caught on the tips of our tongues?

Do we forget or forgive?

There’s a whole other life

Waiting to be lived when

One day we’re brave enough

To talk with Conviction of the Heart

And down your streets I’ve walked alone

As if my feet were not my own

Such is the path I chose

Doors I have opened and closed

I’m tired of living this lie

Fooling myself

Believing we’re right when

I’ve never given love

With any Conviction of the heart

CHORUS

One

With the earth

With the sky

One with everything in life

I believe

We’ll survive

If we only try

How long must we all wait to change

This world bound in chains

That we live in?

To know what it is to forgive

And be forgiven

It’s been too many years of taking now

Isn’t it time to stop somehow?

Air that’s too angry to breath

Water our children can’t drink

You’ve heard it hundreds of times

You say you’re aware

Believe and you care, but

Do you care enough?

Where’s your Conviction of the Heart?