{"id":538,"date":"2006-08-01T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2006-08-01T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/chatteringmind\/2006\/08\/kumbaya-rip.html"},"modified":"2006-08-01T12:00:00","modified_gmt":"2006-08-01T12:00:00","slug":"kumbaya-rip","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/chatteringmind\/2006\/08\/kumbaya-rip.html","title":{"rendered":"Kumbaya R.I.P."},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"\"<\/a>You know your kids are in a lefty summer day camp when the music teacher turns to the gathered parents at the final concert and says, “Now we’re going to sing a song that I learned in Cuba<\/em>.” <\/p>\n

After the Cuban number, the kids sang a truly gorgeous hymn by Jewel<\/a> called “Hands.” It made us cry. And I daresay any right-wing Republican would be surprised to see sandal-wearing liberals standing in a barn in Western Massachusetts sniffling to a song that contained so many references to faith. We asked our son afterward if the teacher had questioned the kids directly about God, to see if anybody had a problem with the lyrics. And our nine-year-old son, awakening to a moment that suddenly made sense to him, said “Actually, she did ask<\/em>, and nobody had a problem with that.”<\/p>\n

Here are the lyrics. But you might get a better feel of the song by listening to its clip on Amazon.com<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Hands
By Jewel<\/p>\n

If I could tell the world just one thing,
It would be that we’re all OK.
and not to worry ’cause worry is wasteful,
and useless in times like these.<\/p>\n

I won’t be made useless.
I won’t be idle with despair.
I will gather myself around my faith,
For light does the darkness most fear.<\/p>\n

My hands are small, I know
But they’re not yours, they are my own
But they’re not yours, they are my own
and I am never broken!<\/p>\n

We’ll fight, not out of spite,
For someone must stand up for what’s right.
‘Cause where there’s a man who has no voice,
There ours shall go singing.<\/p>\n

In the end only kindness matters
I will get down on my knees, and I will pray
I will get down on my knees, and I will pray<\/p>\n

We are God’s eyes,
God’s hands,
God’s mind.
We are God’s eyes,
God’s hands,
God’s heart.
We are God’s eyes,
God’s hands,
God’s eyes.
We are God’s hands.
We are God’s hands.<\/p>\n

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You know your kids are in a lefty summer day camp when the music teacher turns to the gathered parents at the final concert and says, “Now we’re going to sing a song that I learned in Cuba.” After the Cuban number, the kids sang a truly gorgeous hymn by Jewel called “Hands.” It made…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":374,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nKumbaya R.I.P. - Chattering Mind<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/chatteringmind\/2006\/08\/kumbaya-rip.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Kumbaya R.I.P. - 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