truth, goodness, beauty, and justice

"We are better than this."

That is the insistent, persistent, consistent thought that I have, when I hear something bad.  In the news, or whatever.

I just think -- "we are better than this."

By "we" -- do I mean -- Americans?
Yes.
Do I mean all-humans-on-the-planet?
That, too.

And for some reason there's a connecting thought-thread which leads to
Gene Kelly dancing and singing, "Singing in the Rain"
and
Tina Turner dancing and singing, "Proud Mary"
and
Fleetwood Mac
and
others...those moments, glimpses, those knock-down-drag-out-undeniable times when you see God working through somebody or something to
make us feel good
help us make things better
inspire us
lift our spirits --
or
I don't know
I can't articulate it, the feeling...

yesterday when I was reviewing the listener Comments I had copied from You Tube, written by people who were listening to the Jim Croce album, I got to this one Comment & thought, that person is on the same Idea-Chain as me -- feeling like somehow art leads us, or helps us, to a higher "plane" of existence -- it makes things better -- he wrote:

"OUTSTANDING Talent I would have loved to have seen how High we would have risen had he survived..... 5 stars!"

See, that guy's on the same track...as if the music (or the beautiful picture, or the beautiful moment...) can help us toward being better...("we are better than this!!") -- to celebrate pleasantness, civility, beauty of moment & experience...

He wrote, "I would have loved to have seen how High we would have risen had he survived..."

he was writing about Jim Croce -- take out the name Jim Croce, and plug-in President Kennedy - ! (smile -- all due respect) -- throughout the remainder of the 60s, you heard people say Things would have gone better, if he had lived -- Kennedy would not have got us into Vietnam, etc. ...

the You Tube comment person felt that way about Jim Croce -- "how High we would have risen" ...(??)  Would we all be a better society, and world, if singer-songwriter Jim Croce had not died in an airplane accident...?

maybe some people would say that's far-fetched, but not really...
he was saying that by making the music and sharing it with us, Croce improved the world, lifted the human experience.
Thank you.
You're welcome.

Like -- while you're listening to the music, your life is improved, and then even after the song is over and you have to go do something else, the improvement lasts and continues -- it makes everything better....

(I just have to keep typing until I get some kind of handle on what I am talking about. ...)
But I heard it -- read it -- in that Comment on You Tube. 
How much better life (civilization / society...) would have been, had Jim Croce lived.
Skeptics might scoff,
but seriously Everything that makes Anything better is worth it.

(One thing -- I would not want to hear President Kennedy sing "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown" -- all due respect -- and I think JFK would be the first to agree ... let everybody do the thing they can do, to contribute...)

My father used to say, "Truth, Goodness, Beauty, and Justice" as the basis, for how to measure things, and how to aim our efforts....  Now, I don't know if Jim Croce recordings were exactly what he had in mind...but -- I say, Whatever Works. 
It's a "big tent"...

he got a tattoo on his arm that say, 'baby'
he got another one that just say, 'hey'
but every Sunday afternoon he is a dirt track demon
in a '57 Chevrolet...

-30-