Morning Has Broken

Morning has Broken is a song by Cat Stevens also known as Yusuf Islam.  He wrote this beautiful song many years ago.  The song was a hit when I was a young girl.  He wrote many beautiful songs, such as Wild World, Moonshadow and The Peace Train.

After a near drowning accident in 1977 he converted from Cat Stevens to Yusuf Islam and started practicing Islam.  That conversion didn't change the beauty and meanings of his song, but it did change his career and his marketability.  Why?

I think after 9/11 the American consciousness changed.  Religion became far too important in this country and started to bleed it's way into everything. It makes sense in a way, we had to blame somebody and it was easy to blame the religion of Islam because 19 young men were inspired by Osama bin Laden to fly planes into buildings.  Our fear kept us in an us against them national fervor for years.  We became a country of warriors and cheerleaders.

I am not downplaying the importance of 9/11 and the affects and consequences of that day.  It was a human tragedy played out on television.  In the months that followed we seemed to form a great distrust of anybody with an Islamic name. As a whole, we were a frightened and shaken country suffering from the anxiety of seeing tall skyscrapers coming down to earth with thousands of people in them.  I understand that.

Returning to Cat Stevens, music is the message good or bad.  Music can inspire us beyond the realm of race, religion and age.  Cat Stevens wrote a whole catalog of songs both before and after his conversion but clearly his religion changed the business of selling his records in a profound way.

When I listen to his songs, I hear messages of peace, of the moon, of the morning.  I don't hear the voices of those 19 men on that fateful day.  He wasn't the only artist who was affected adversely by their personal beliefs, The Dixie Chicks also were blacklisted because they had the audacity touspeak out against President Bush while on foreign soil, their cds were burned in the streets.

It's time to heal and find the connectedness of peace not the divisiveness of war.  I have included a Youtube video so you can hear this beautiful song and remember a day when religion of any sort didn't really seem to matter as long as you were in worship somewhere.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ESHjYat9rk 

God bless, namaste, peace, etc.