As I've often told my students, we all make mistakes, but we can learn from them.
It wasn't only the city, but we ourselves at the ballot box, who allowed this hospital debacle, by a close vote.
Still, we can, we MUST go forward and live and learn.
Forget blame games. Too late for that now.
We must endure, rise, and deal with whatEVER comes our way.
This may be the toughest month of all for so many people. And yet...in the midst of it all...
We can, no we MUST still smile, and even laugh, and even sing...
Here's a little song about all this, for whatever it may be worth to you...
“The Beautiful Blue River Belle”
Dedicated to the memory of so many…
In the beautiful Hamlet of Lakewood, in picturesque nineteen ought five.
Doc Graber, he planned his hospital, to keep all of Lakewood alive.
In nineteen ought seven it opened. For a time, all went well.
The place and its patients all gathered
By the beautiful Blue River Belle.
By and by, more construction developed, just in time to stop Spanish flu,
A big hospital was completed, a bright vision for Lakewood, and you.
They’d moved an old graveyard for “progress”, seemed like they’d moved Heaven and Hell,
And they bulldozed the past for the future, and they covered up Blue River Belle.
But graveyards and rivers are funny. It seems they just don’t go away.
See, graves are a part of our future, and rivers are put there to stay!
Once again the grave’s spirits are speaking, with stories no one can yet tell.
Once again too, a river is running, called the beautiful Blue River Belle!
And now, the spring floods are returning, and Blue River Belle, she did rise.
Once again now our hearts are all yearning, for a hospital sight for sore eyes.
Some said to look to the future. Some said that all would be well.
But mosquitoes are the ones who most treasure, the beautiful Blue River Belle!
Still, every new day brings tomorrow, and every new song brings a dream,
Yes, we all make mistakes we can ponder, but regrets will not let us redeem.
If we learn from the past and the present, there is still hope that all will be well.
As we all sail the ship of the future, on the beautiful Blue River Belle!
Thanks Jim, for daring to brighten our day.
Back to the banjo
