Ashokan Farewell

Since Armistice Day has morphed into Veteran's Day in the United States, and because I was so inspired by a viewing of a poignant episode of Ken Burn's documentary, The Civil War tonight, I thought I would post a video of Jay Unger and Molly Mason's "Ashokan Farewell", that Burns used as the theme song, for what turned out to be his best work ever. The American Civil War was the bloodiest war in all of our history. Tens of thousands died in battles that lasted only a few hours, as they marched headlong into each other's field of fire. It was absolute insanity, but as Ken Burns showed in his award winning documentary, it inspired the absolute best from some of the most insignificant people. People with only an elementary school education, wrote some of the most beautiful and eloquent letters back home to their loved ones. Listening to them, makes one aware of how much better those with scant little education in those days wrote, than many today with multiple university degrees. Listen to the music in this video. It is both beautiful and haunting at the same time, and a perfect tribute to all of those poor souls on both sides, who gave their lives in this horrible war.

Melissa XX