– Wayne Michael DeHart

With me, every step, every day, every night  . . .

 

You did not dedicate this book to the likes of me.

Nevertheless, it guided my path, made me strong, brought me home.

Already familiar with its contents from the hardcover copy I had at home, I picked up an abused paperback copy from  a “freebie bin” at  Oakland Army Base while being processed for my assignment to what I would soon know as just, “The Nam.” I read it on the plane ride over, and I read it again on the plane ride back. The former with apprehension, the latter with gratitude. Sometimes in our journey, we bless the unintended. As you did for me. I do believe Mimi ¹ would have smiled at that, all these years later. The law of unintended consequences is a coin toss. I called “heads”, and you flipped the coin. Neither of us saw how it landed, nor did we want to.

On page 148, in a two-sentence chapter entitled, “Fourteen Old Bums”: you wrote “In the balcony of Madison Square Garden in New York City fourteen old bums filled up a row at the circus. In the middle of the Hungarian balancing act, someone treated them all to ice creams.”

On page 191, the closing page, you offered, “Only you and I can help the sun rise each coming morning. If we don’t, it may drench itself out in sorrow . . . It’s up to you.”

Ice cream and sunrise. Daybreak and heartache. Faith and fear. 365 days.

A tip of that weathered hat and profound thanks to you, Ms. Baez – then, now and ’til the sunset of my days.

¹ Mimi Farina, sister of Joan Baez. Joan wrote “Sweet Sir Galahad” in 1969, the first song she ever authored without a co-writer, as a tribute to Mimi ‘s spirited activism, and as an observation of a progression from lost love to newfound love. She performed the song later that same year at Max Yasgur’s dairy farm in Bethel, NY – a/k/a “Woodstock.”

/|\

Joan singing “Sweet Sir Galahad” in 1969:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDHgJVJ0cZA

And again in 1969, at Woodstock:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MoAMJf26ACM

-Judy Collins (L) Joan Baez, Joan’s sister  Mimi Farina (R)