Exuberence in a Sometimes Crappy World

Earlier this evening I was listening to music on the radio (www.krtu.org- San Antonio's only Jazz station) and they were playing great swing music in the 8 o'clock hour and in the 9 o'clock hour some rare recordings of Duke Ellington at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1959.

First, I love jazz and swing music. Swing was my grandparents' music and when I was a kid I thought of it as happy music. One time my father and I were in the car listening to swing music on the radio and my father said he was always amazed that such happy exuberant music came out of the era that it did (the Depression in the 1930's followed by World War Two in the 1940's). I always thought it was a response to what was happening at the time, a celebration of life and love despite the pain and war and suffering going in the world. And this is needed now more than ever (it's been just a day since the Boston Marathon bombing as I write this).

At first in the face of tragedy and suffering I want to cry and mourn and rail at the unfair ugliness in the world. Then I think of all the 'helpers' as Mr. Rogers called them (a quote of his circulated on Facebook yesterday: "When I was a young child and saw bad things on the news my mother always told me to look for the helpers. There are always people helping."). Then I think of all the kind and generous people in Boston who donated blood, took in the runners who had no place to go, the clergy who comforted the wounded and their families, the medical professionals working around the clock to take care of the wounded, and the people who set up message boards online for people to check on family members in Boston. There is so much more good in the world than bad and I think that's an important thing to remember.

I was so glad I found the music tonight because it put a smile on my face and reminded me people will laugh and love and dance and sing in the face of pain and suffering. We need to embrace the exuberance of jazz and swing music and remember to swing on.

I know I will.

Shameless plug here: I became a member of KRTU as they are not funded by advertising or corporate sponsorship- they are one of only 50 FCC-licensed jazz stations in the United States and one of two in Texas. They stream over the Internet and are on FM 91.7 here in San Antonio. I've been listening to the station for over twenty years (started listening back in high school and I used to hate when they had to power down after 10 pm because I played hell with the reception after that unless it was a calm clear night- glad they don't have to do that anymore). Membership gets you into their events free and you can get some nice gifts, too. Here's a pic of the tote bag I got for joining: