ONE TIN SOLDIER

"Listen children to a story that was written long ago,
'Bout a kingdom on a mountain and the valley folk below.
On the mountain was a treasure, buried deep beneath a stone,
And the valley people swore they'd have it for their very own.

Go ahead and hate your neighbour - go ahead and cheat a friend.
Do it in the name of Heaven - you can justify it in the end.
There won't be any trumpets blowin' - come the Judgement Day.
On the bloody morning after - One Tin Soldier rides away.

So the people of the valley sent a message up the hill,
Asking for the buried treasure - tons of gold for which they'd kill.
Came an answer from the kingdom - 'With our brothers we will share
All the secrets of our mountain - all the riches buried there'.

Go ahead and hate your neighbour - go ahead and cheat a friend.
Do it in the name of Heaven - you can justify it in the end.
There won't be any trumpets blowin' - come the Judgement Day.
On the bloody morning after - One Tin Soldier rides away.

Now the valley rose in anger - 'Mount your horses! Draw your swords!'
And they killed the mountain people - so they won their just reward.
Now they stood beside the treasure - on the mountain dark and red.
Turned the stone and looked beneath it ...
                   'PEACE ON EARTH' was all it said.

Go ahead and hate your neighbour - go ahead and cheat a friend.
Do it in the name of Heaven - you can justify it in the end.
There won't be any trumpets blowin' - come the Judgement Day.
On the bloody morning after - One Tin Soldier rides away."

                   - The Original Caste -
                        (Canada, 1969)


Maybe it's a little trite, but to me it says it all. Some things never change. Seems we're always tottering at the brink of war. Right now it does look like we're dangerously close to losing our balance again though.

There's a real cynical part of me that says war and hate are a NECESSARY part of the human condition, because without them we wouldn't know love and peace either. That would explain why it's ALWAYS been us, in every age and on every continent. The "Law of Polarity", so to speak.

But when I ponder that too deeply I feel like "BEAM ME UP SCOTTY"...

daylia