You asked for it, and here it is, with a bonus video on the jump (read more)! — Editors
Ha Ha – the joke’s on us. When you look at a news cycle that’s dominated by music video award scandals, by health care discussions driven by big money manipulation of small-minded politics (gee, I thought it was supposed to be about healthcare); by the murder of a pretty college girl whose tragic death will receive ten thousand times the coverage of a child dying of malnutrition every 6 seconds throughout the day, week and year; by deep division over whether it’s proper for an American President to speak to American school kids: by the demonization of immigrants by a nation of immigrants…And by the total absence of any mention of billions wasted, terrorism stoked and American and Afghan casualties in a war that offers nothing to win
When you look at a day that is our every day, in a time when words mean less than pictures, when volume trumps knowledge, when holding someone’s attention for 30 seconds is considered a success… When you… I’m sorry, I had an important conclusion but was interrupted by an email from a former friend about the Speaker of the House being the spawn of aliens and goats…
When you look at the new normal, sometimes you just have to laugh and hope that a few deep guffaws will recharge your spirits. With that in mind, I introduce the following evidence: a silly music video made by a 76-year-old man on a bus. Fifty years on the bus, for the past twenty he’s sung across America to support small farmers, to promote peace (and a U.S. Department of Peace to help us gain it), to reduce America’s dependence on imported oil, to support American Indians in their search for justice and equality, to decriminalize “herbs and flowers” as he puts it, to commemorate the heroes of 9/11, to remind us in the deepest parts of our hearts what it truly means to be an American who believes in freedom for all. Fortunate to have been his friend for thirty years (and his sometime co-conspirator), I can only conclude that Willie Nelson is made of something we could all use a great deal more of — laughter and love.
Today I bring you laughter. Check back another time for the love. With that, I offer you Willie Nelson and his home-made music video, Shoeshine Man!
Willie Nelson and Turk Pipkin are co-authors of the NY Times bestseller, The Tao of Willie.