Especially when you learn that today is Pete Seeger’s 86th birthday?

Him: Protest singer, labor organizer, environmentalist, educator, world music champion, humanitarian. Activist, writer, idealist.

His songs: “Turn, Turn, Turn.” “All Mixed Up.” “If I Had a Hammer.” “Where Have All the Flowers Gone?” “Guantanamera.” “Waist Deep in the Big Muddy.” “We Shall Overcome.”

I had the great fortune to hear Pete sing just days after September 11th. He had been scheduled to come to Wesleyan that week for a series honoring folk and protest music (I will call it folk music, even if the organizers — and Pete himself — refused to) and he made the trip during a week when reasonable people were cancelling events left and right.

But what Pete realized (as did the sell-out crowd at Crowell) was that in the aftermath of tremendous tragedy and confusion and of loss and anger that we needed to come together even more than ever.

A spry fellow, he sang a few songs. But the majority he made us sing, darting up and down the aisles of the theater to hand out lyrics sheets and song books.

If you believe that music can heal wounds and change the world, then Pete is one of the most powerful healers out there. His legacy is unequaled.

SAILING DOWN MY GOLDEN RIVER

Sailing down my golden river
Sun and water all my own
Yet I was never alone.
Sun and water, old life-givers
I’ll have them where’er I roam
And I was not far from home.

Sunlight glancing on the water
Life and death are all my own
And I was never alone.
Life to raise my sons and daughters
Golden sparkles in the foam
And I was not far from home.

Sailing down this winding highway
Travellers from near and far
Yet I was never alone.
Exploring all the little by-ways
Sighting all the distant stars
Yet I was not far from home.

Sailing down my golden river
Sun and water all my own
Yet I was never alone.
Sun and water, old life-givers
I’ll have them where’er I roam
And I was not far from home.