I Will Lay Me Down

Today the lady minister read from John 15:

This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.

She spoke about how the passage reminded her of the refrain in Paul Simon's Bridge Over Troubled Water:

Like a bridge over troubled water
I will lay me down
Like a bridge over troubled water
I will lay me down

Good music, like humor, is subjective. I watched the troubled '60's on TV but mostly read about it in newspapers from insular (literally!) Hawaii. Bridge Over Troubled Water, issued in 1970, marked a hopeful end to that decade with its lyrics of friendship and self-sacrifice.

(Note: the song would not have resonated through the years without Art Garfunkel's soaring tenor, which increases in intensity toward the climactic third verse.)

Where are the Simon and Garfunkel who will inspire us today? None appear on the horizon, but have faith, dear friends, have faith.