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Harry Chapin: It's got to be the going

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Of all of Harry Chapin's songs, Greyhound has remained the most meaningful to me. The song ends with the line: "It's got to be the going, not the getting there, that's good." I first heard those words as a college student. At the time, I probably understood them as encouragement to enjoy college instead of treating it as simply four years on the way to a diploma. Looking back, I realize I have spent much of my life learning just how true that lyric is. When I was in high school, concerts were a luxury I simply couldn't afford. Before I went to college, I had attended only one. That changed when I became involved with the Student Activities Board in college. We brought performers to campus, and students could attend the concerts for free. Those concerts opened up an entirely new world for me. I was captivated by the energy of a live performance, by hearing musicians whose records I had played come alive on stage, and by sharing that experience with hundreds of ...
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e e cumming: i thank you god

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  I thank you, God  ( choral arrangement of the e. e. cummings poem ) ( poem text ) This song has stayed with me for more than fifty years. Chorus was an important part of my life in high school and college. I was not the strongest singer, but that was never the point. I loved being one voice in a larger community—hearing the harmony fill the auditorium, feeling the music resonate, and knowing that each person contributed something essential to the whole. This piece was especially meaningful because it celebrates the beauty and majesty of the natural world while expressing gratitude to a higher power for making it possible. Even today, when I sing it, it reminds me to pause and appreciate both creation and the privilege of being part of something larger than myself. My mother had introduced me to many of her favorite poets while I was growing up, nurturing a love of poetry that has stayed with me throughout my life. Because I was constantly singing this piece around the house,...
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Photos by Margaret Thayer, Stuttgart, Arkansas, 1950s

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 In my family's collection of photos are two of a baby in a crib with a blonde-haired doll. I am trying to confirm that these are pictures of my brother Charles Thomas Waggoner ("Charlie") born in December of 1951. I had sent the photo to Charlie, but he didn't remember it. The evidence I have to confirm this. The photos are in our family collection, which gives credence to the baby being in the family. I remember my brother Bob (born in 1954) teasing Charlie that his pictures were taking with a girl doll. The slats on the crib are pretty far apart, the crib pad has a circus theme, the baby is wearing a cotton or linen gown, the baby has short socks on, and it is photographed with a doll propped up in bed. These are all common to photos of babies taken during the height of the baby boom in the 1950s. Margie Payer was a sophomore at Stuttgart High School when my parents were seniors and she is in their 1947 senior yearbook. According to her obituary , she spent her car...
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