Sometimes writing a song is a good way to work through pain. And singing a song is a good way to remember another person's pain.

Mahler wrote a gripping song cycle (I'm guessing 10 songs) on children's deaths--Kindertotenleider (sp?), and one of my favorite classical songs is Shubert's Erlkoenig, words by Goethe, about a distraught father galloping through the dark woods to get his sick child safely home. He finally arrives at his door only to find his child dead in his arms.

Perhaps we need more songs about painful subjects, particularly ones we can choose to avoid. I would much rather sing about either Birmingham bombing than have to read about--or experience--it happening again. Not that the one will necessarily exclude the other--just that it is one step along the way to make all such bombings obsolete.

Here's hoping!

David