The Ripple Effect

     Happy Earth Day everyone!  I hope you do some small thing today and everyday to improve the planet and the lives of everything on it.  Soon you will see it ripple from your life into the lives of others.
     Last night, on Earth Day Eve, John Denver was made the first inductee into the Colorado Music Hall of Fame, along with Red Rocks Amphitheater.  We were fortunate enough to get tickets to this event to honor Colorado's adopted son.  His 1st and 2nd wives, his 3 children, and his band were there.  We heard his music played and sung by the likes of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, John Oates (of Hall and Oates), Lee Ann Womack, the Boulder Philharmonic Orchestra, Olivia Newton John (who was also the emcee), and many, many more.  The governor, the mayor, and a congressman were there.... also an astronaut representing NASA who brought video of John at NASA. 
     This was a very special evening for Dean and I.  John's music was interwoven throughout our young adult lives.  We used his music (along with that of Simon and Garfunkle, and Peter, Paul, and Mary) to "indoctrinate" our kids about how to advocate for all that is good in the world, and to hopefully instill in them a sense of wonder.  I think it must have worked...they are wonderful caring adults with their heads on straight, feet firmly planted on terra firma. 
       We were living in the DC area in the early 1970s and had a lot of commute time.  I remember the very first time I heard "Sunshine on my Shoulders" and "Take me Home Country Roads", sitting in the car (a red Gremlin) at a stop light, windows down (no air conditioning), radio blaring.  He blew me away! I was transported back home to the country roads of Nebraska, I was relaxing in the sun by a lake, I was happy.
      I remember frequently seeing a hippy-looking flower-child type van in our subdivision back then emblazoned with "Mountain Mama".  He was a phenomenon effecting everyone.  
     We got to see him live in concert one time in the mid-1970's.  Bill and Taffy Danoff (Starland Vocal Band) opened for him.  It was great.  I had always hoped to see him again live in concert, but his premature death in a private plane crash in 1997 made that impossible.  I will always regret not hearing him one more time.
     He loved the planet, the animals and people on it, flying, the ocean, and his children.  He counted Jacques Cousteau as one of his friends.  He referred to the planet as "Spaceship Earth".  Although human, he was a hero.

"There are no passengers on spaceship Earth.  We are all crew."  Marshall McLuhan

"Each time a person stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others...he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance."  Robert F. Kennedy

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world.  Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."  Margaret Mead

Right on.