Brotherhood and Bluegrass

Brotherhood. Its a word with a significant amount of power behind it. Fraternities, organizations, they all have it. I got my first experience with this thing called brotherhood in Boy Scouts. The few friends I have now who went through scouts with me are ones I will never forget. We learned a lot togther. We experienced some things that some people will never get to. We laughed together and we grew up together. When I first got adopted into the fire service, I wasn't fully aware of the brotherhood between emergency service workers. Not just firefighter to firefighter, but EMTs, cops, any one else that puts their lives as well as their innocence on the line to save the lives others. 9/11 hit us all. America received a taste of our brotherhood. They saw how firefighters, EMTs, and cops all over the country grieved when 400+ emergency workers perished working to save those in need.

The brotherhood I most refer to whenever I bring the subject up is that between men. People helping people. That's what it's all about. It should be natural. It should be instinct. It should be instinctual to help some one when they need it. Helping someone pick up their spilled groceries from a torn bag, helping someone grieve when they lost a loved one, helping someone get back on their feet after a tornado destroyed their home. The brotherhood of man is a powerful symbol when it shows its face. When Katrina hit, hundreds if not thousands of volunteers flocked to the Gulf Coast to see what they could do to help. Those that didn't go down sent whatever they could to help whomever would benifit from it. We see the brotherhood of man in the news rise righteously above the stories of sorrow and violence when we hear about stories of towns picking up after storms, people sending care pacakges to those stuck in the middle east, to people flocking to far away countries to help in the midst of a natural disaster. It's damned amazing the how big the human heart can be; how big a man's love for his brother can be. It's always a wonderful site (at least to me) to see someone help someone else they've never met. It's one of the greatest feelings in the world to laugh and smile with someone you've never met; someone, somehow who managed to tred on to a path in life that led to an intersection with yours allowing you and him to share a moment and laugh. How insignificant what ever it is you are laughing at is, it doesn't matter. You and another human being, someone you've never met, sharing a moment of happiness together. That's brotherhood. The brotherhood of man. Now I challenge myself every day to do something for someone else. Sometimes, my path crosses that of another soul. Sometimes it doesn't. But damn if it doesn't feel good the seldom times it does.

I can't stand country. I truly can't. For reasons I won't get into, at least in this post, I despise country (Newer Country I guess I could say...). I had explained this to someone before. I don't remember who but they had asked me why I loved bluegrass so much. Bluegrass takes me to a time well before that of mine. It takes me back to a time when times were tough and spirits were tested. It takes me back to a time when the glory of God was celebrated and people were thankful with what little they had. Bluegrass tells stories of men turned wrong in the face of hardships and the struggle of those working to the breaking point just to survive. I love the stores some bluegrass and folk songs tell. When times get tough for me, I usually find a bluegrass song that will lift my spirits and keep trudging on. One such song is I Hear Them All by Old Crow Medicine Show. Anyways, brotherhood, bluegrass, that's a lot of thinking for one night....