No Kings (a song for Saturday) (Jesse Wells)

[nilram]

A friend was decrying the lack of folk songs today like were in the civil rights movement, but this one from Jesse is really quite singable.

[usonian]

1. I gotta learn guitar.

Well, I tried.

🎸 Lyrics are free for any folk musician to use!! 🎸

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10114619

[red dog 1]

3. Nice lyrics!

I've had guitars off & on since the seventies, and I still can't play very well.

My first guitar was a '60s vintage Harmony Sovereign acoustic guitar that was too big for me, so I sold it to William Randolph Hearst II for $100.
(He was a good friend and a very good guitar player)

[usonian]

5. Thanks!

Don't beat yourself up. I've idiotically parted with things way more valuable. I've made up for it by being a person of integrity, so I'm going to heaven.

Problem is, I'm Buddhist.

I guess I'll have to make do and enjoy the ride.

[red dog 1]

6. Reminds me of a Zen Buddhist joke I heard a while back.

Three Zen students were talking, and one Zen student said, "My teacher is the best. He can go days without eating."
The second Zen student said, "My teacher has so much self-control, he can go days without sleep."
The third Zen student said, "My teacher is so wise that he eats when he's hungry and sleeps when he's tired."

[usonian]

8. Yes, there's no enlightenment outside of daily life.

Live it fully. Live it well.

Jack Kornfeld told a story about someone who had a marvelous experience on a retreat. And returned home to laundry. It was entitled "After Enlightenment, the Laundry" (He wrote a book After Ecstasy, the Laundry)

I dabbled in Zen but found that teachings based on the Lotus Sutra tightly integrated practice with daily life. The damn laundry IS enlightenment.

That said, some Zen koans are great. A few got me to where I am, and I'm grateful. 🪷

[red dog 1]

2. K&R

Thanks for sharing this, nilram

He reminds me of a young Bob Dylan:

No Kings Protest Locations
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10664672

[nilram]

4. Thanks

You’re not the first to compare him to Dylan. So many great songs. This one is especially easy to sing along to.

[red dog 1]

7. I tried to find the video of the 1963 March on Washington where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. introduces Bob Dylan,

and he sings "Blowin' in the Wind" to hundreds of thousands of people at the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

(Thanks for posting that Jesse Welles song...I hadn't heard of him before)