(Read the earlier posting today, below, first to understand what the heck I'm about to talk about....)

Below I wrote about my enthusiasm for 60's folk musicians, Peter, Paul, and Mary-- how they influenced me and how their music still stands up today, etc.

However I should add that as I've watched them on TV in recent years (as on PBS specials) I feel a little put off. It's not just that the quality of their singing has declined, which is true, but also that I detect an increased 60's-based "peace and love" sentimentality that, frankly, was and is not based on reality. The penny finally dropped for most of those hippies who famously put flowers in the gun barrels of National Guardsmen, etc. To wit, that human nature being what it is, just wishing it were so and singing dreamily about it won't make you more enlightened or loving. You first need a rebirth--something I too had to learn in another context.

PP&M's music then and now was identified with a certain brand of politics. There was benefit to it, such as on the day in 1963 they sang "If I Had a Hammer" before a vast crowd at the March on Washington. But generally PP&M's politics were something I ignored, and ignore, in order to appreciate their mastery of the craft. It's one of those "lovely" elements in God's creation well worth contemplating and celebrating.