Feest Isolation Days – 2 November
Monday! A lot has happened since Friday. And a lot more is bound to happen by the end of the week. Here, after a leak from Cabinet, the newspapers announced Lockdown. Boris’s hand was forced and he appeared on television on Saturday to tell us all about his U turn…an England wide lockdown begins from Thursday. There will be plenty of time to talk about that later.
This is election week in the States and there can be nothing more fitting to start this week than to share the following with you.
My darling American friend Annie sends all sorts of things to an email group that she set up after she realised she wasn’t in touch with old friends as much as she wanted to be. Typical Annie, now my inbox is flooded with all sorts most days. This offering, however, is perhaps one of the finest.
It’s called the President Sang Amazing Grace and this version is sung by an American woman Meklit who grew up in Ethiopia and now lives in San Francisco. To my friends out in San Fran…if you see her about to play anywhere get tickets!
Here she is….
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=the+president+sang+amazing+grace+meklit&ie=UTF-8&oe=
The woman who wrote the song, Zoe Mulford also sang it. You can listen to her here. Her comments before she sings are worth your time.
Obama was attending the memorial service for Reverend and State Senator Clementa Pinckney, one of the nine people murdered in church by the gunman of the song, when he sang Amazing Grace. He told his aides before he arrived at the service that he had been to too many of these memorial services and there were no words left. He said depending on how things felt, he’d sing Amazing Grace which might capture something he wanted for people.
Jeff Scher, who animated a video featuring the Mulford song, said of Obama, “Somehow Barack Obama, with his humble singing voice, turned grief into grace. With humility, compassion, and a two-hundred-year-old hymn, he made us feel that the evil deeds of a sick individual could not shake the bonds of our common humanity.” He said the performance expressed the emotions of “what it was like to be an American on that day— to have a great leader lift us up from despair.”
I fervently hope that the White House and America can be returned to a place where Amazing Grace resides. It is time. Let’s see what the week brings.
Stay safe and enjoy!
With love
Kathy x