Touchstones

Recorded live in concert at All Souls Congregation in New London, CT on March 30, 2002 and January 17, 2004.

This album began as a concert in March of 2002 which was partly a response to the events of 9/11/01 and my own quandary in trying to understand them, but also a reponse to my discomfort with this country's reaction to those events. For many Americans that day seemed to have been a total surprise, a shattering event for their world view. For others who had been listening to the despair of less privileged peoples around the globe, and the anger of some with different beliefs, the shock was still enormous, but not entirely without explanation. Hatred, as evident in those terribly destructive acts, it seems to me, is not a natural sentiment of humankind, but one most often born of fear and misunderstanding. From the dawn of humankind, battles have been fought over food and land, but most destructively over differences of belief.

In struggling to find answers, I have turned to songs that offer insight through stories of strength in the face of adversity and suggest avenues toward healing and transformation. Within these songs I find some real hope of peace and reconciliation among the divided peoples of this world, between the poor and the wealthy, between nations whose boundaries have been defined and redefined down through the ages, between those who think they are right and those who are not so sure, between those of all faiths, including disbelievers, and between those with power and those without. With these thoughts in mind, I invite you to share these "touchstones," songs that reflect my own belief in looking to the heart, and conscience, for answers.