(it tolls for thee)

Have you ever noticed that when someone prefaces a statement with "I don't mean to sound racist..." or "I'm not a racist..." the statement is almost always, in fact, quite racist?

I heard a fascinating segment on NPR today where two regular reporters were interviewing people from diverse ethnic/cultural backgrounds about the election and the impact of race upon this particular election.

It's worth a listen if you have the time - if for no other reason than to take in something that is sure to make you think and hits upon some core issues and emotions that still exist within American culture as a whole.

It makes me hopeful such conversations can continue and that such discussion of how culture binds and breaks us may keep evolving and deepening over time.

Future Echoes

Putumayo World Music Hour today played songs from mountain regions of the world currently being affected by climate change. In one of the spots they highlighted, the snow-capped mountaintops are expected to disappear within the next 20 years (the snow, that is).

It made me realize that one aspect of preparation for the coming changes (be they mild or dire - because goodness knows, there are still naysayers out there) is taking stock of what will be lost. The areas that will change permanently within our lifetimes, and possibly those of our immediate descendants, may forever alter our experience of unique and special areas of this planet.

Not that we can all just pack up and go trampling around in each endangered area... but perhaps it's worthwhile to be mindful of the spots likely to feel the greatest impact in terms of physical changes to the local landscape and lifestyle.

Whole cultures may change in the wake of extreme environmental transformation... and one day those archived songs, poems, films, books, etc. may be our best way of reconnecting with what once was.

Collectors of Culture

Morning Edition did a piece on a band from Quebec in honor of the city's 400-year anniversary this week. The band is called Le Vent du Nord, and they specialize in collecting and re-interpretting traditional Quebecois music in order to preserve their cultural history in the form of song.

I was particularly taken with how the fiddle music and traditional foot stomping combine to create a driving, pulsing, impossible-to-ignore rhythm that makes your heart pick up and your mouth start to edge upward.

It's beautiful music, throaty and soulful... and as a lover of history, oral traditions, and cultural continua, I found their mission quite inspiring and reassuring.

If you happen to follow the NPR link, I highly recommend listening to Le vieux cheval - it's an excellent example of what the group seems to do best. Magnifique!