This evening, weather permitting, Harpeth Rising will be playing at The Buttonwood Tree in Middletown, CT. Last June, I reviewed them on my blog. In December, I started a new job at Community Health Center, Inc. in Middletown as their social media manager. On December 26th, Fiona interviewed Jordana Greenberg of Harpeth Rising on Fiona’s Radio Show. Now, there is a winter advisory in effect. So, I will be up in Middletown today, hoping that Kim and Fiona will be able to join me to hear Harpeth Rising in concert in the evening.

The song by Harpeth Rising that I associate most strongly with is “Can’t Find The Revolution”. It talks about a woman who has sold her Harley Davidson because she’s got no time to ride. She’s trapped inside a swivel chair, pushing papers back in Silicon. Her boyfriend used to be a poet and a minstrel who is now pushing the assembly line. In the end, she quits her job, buys a Harley Davidson, gets back on the road, only to be told by old friends that she’s changed more than she knows.

As Joni Mitchell reminds us, something is lost and something is gained in living everyday. She also reminds us that we can’t return, we can only look behind from where we came.

I carry some of that searching for the revolution and longing for my words to make a difference. I can’t go back to my days of writing my poems in a little black book as I hitchhike across the country, because like the heroine of the song, I too, have changed more than I know. Yet it is a bit of a circle game, and perhaps, even though I sit in a swivel chair in Middletown, I’m not trapped. Perhaps, I’ve found my revolution, at least for now.

That old desire to use one’s words to make a difference, it feels like CHC is giving me that opportunity, to use social media to build healthier communities. There is that old quote attributed to Emma Goldman about how if she couldn’t dance, it wasn’t her revolution. How do we give people struggling with difficult situations the health and opportunity to dance?

Well, tonight, Harpeth Rising is going to play at the Buttonwood Tree. I’m don’t think it is a great venue for dancing, even though Harpeth Rising is the sort of music I would expect to see folks at Falcon Ridge Folk Festival get up and dance to, but I hope to be tapping my feet along to their music this evening.

No, I’m not going to go hitchhiking across the country any time soon. I’m not going to buy a Harley Davidson. I’ve changed more than I know. I can’t return. But there is something gained. It is a good job where I hope I can make a difference in people’s lives and it is a chance to listen to some great music.

I hope you find your revolution.