While my last post was about songs that make you cry tears of sadness, today’s is about one specific oldie that often evokes tears of appreciation and/or hope, “What a Wonderful World”— one of President Barack Obama‘s favorite songs and therefore one of his choices for the grand opening of the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago last week.
Theme of Hope
Toward the end of Obama’s speech at the event, he explained the origins of Martin Luther King, Jr.‘s famous quote, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.” It actually originated with ideas expressed many years earlier by Reverend Theodore Parker (1810-1860) while addressing the challenging cause of abolitionism. Parker had offered a “defiant call not to abandon hope or give way to fear, but to stay true to our better selves and true to one another. And to keep fighting to fulfill the promise of this nation, even in the face of cruelty and bitter disappointment. Even in the face of impossible odds.”
Michelle Obama‘s speech, widely reviewed as both moving and powerful, wrapped on “hope is all we have.”
“…(H)ope is the essential spark that lights the fire of change. But hope is a choice. Whether or not we use our voices to speak up is a choice. Voting is a choice. Being a decent human being is a choice. Believing that we still hold the power to build a country that reflects us all is a choice.”
“What a Wonderful World”
The lyrics:
I see trees of green
Red roses too
I see them bloom
For me and you
And I think to myself
What a wonderful world
I see skies of blue
And clouds of white
The bright blessed day
The dark sacred night
And I think to myself
What a wonderful world
The colors of the rainbow
So pretty in the sky
Are also on the faces
Of people going by
I see friends shaking hands
Saying, “How do you do?”
They’re really saying
I love you
I hear babies cry
I watch them grow
They’ll learn much more
Than I’ll ever know
And I think to myself
What a wonderful world
Yes, I think to myself
What a wonderful world
Ooh, yes
Also desiring to convey hope amidst an era of political upheaval, songwriters Bob Thiele (1922-1996) and George David Weiss (1921-2010) repeated the title’s phrase throughout their song “to emphasize the fact that even though there is much hatred and violence within the world, it is still beautiful and there is always the chance for us to stop the pain and make life peaceful again. It’s telling us to always hope for the best because it’s not an impossible dream” (The Story Behind).
Listen to the words. Awareness on a regular basis of such things as nature’s beauty, love and friendship, and the wonders of growing up exemplify some of the ways we can offset today’s worries and issues.
Three Versions of “It’s a Wonderful World”
The 1967 original was by Louis Armstrong (1901-1971):
Below Jon Batiste, with the National Symphony Orchestra, performs his reimagined cover, a “mournful elegy” (Genius.com):
Chosen by President Obama to sing it at the Obama Center opening, Christina Aguilera put her own rousing spin on it:
