Peter, Paul, and Mary

Much like Mike, my brain is slowly shutting down. Right now, I am supposed to be transcribing some notes I've made about Ottoman Turkish historiography for a thesis I'm working on which attempts to reconcile the abundance of Byzantine accounts of the fall of Constantinople in 1453 with the dirth of Ottoman accounts on the same subject.

Hurray for esotericism.

Unlike Mike, who is working diligently and saving his thoughts to be better worked out when his brain has a slightly freer moment, I am exploiting the ramblings of my brain right now as a way to procrastinate just a little bit more.

I had heard many time throughout my years in NFTY that the music of Debbie Friedman, Jeff Klepper, Danny Freelander, and others were all inspired by the music of their time, especially Peter, Paul, and Mary. Only today, right now, at 11:02 PM EDT in the Emory University library, surrounded by chattering students, clicking keys, and the obscure writings of modern Turcologists do I really realize where all of this music comes from.

It's the simplicity. A guitar. A few voices singing together, save for the sparing harmony and background repetition. The words and melodies are simple. The topics are the concerns of the teenager and the young adult: leaving someone on a jet plane, determining one's future direction on roads, sharing lands, a prayer to God, and a silly magic dragon.

All of it music that makes everything feel so good, so natural, so divine to sing with friends.

How quickly we forget that these feelings are what NFTY is actually about! How quickly we become obsessed with themes and policy and rules of order and boards and whether or not we can take political stances or if we're praying the "right" way or at least the "right now" way! How quickly we forget that 75% of our membership - whatever that number may or may not be according to how we may or may not come up with said number - how quickly we forget that so many of our members come to sing, share, find which people they want to continue walking down roads with, and even to dream about dragons living by the sea!

All too quickly indeed.

ALS

-30-