The Sankofa Bird's Implications

I am on my way

I am on my way

I am on my way back to where I started

I had the pleasure of attending Bonnaroo this year.  I’ve never been hugely into the ‘music scene,’ but have thoroughly enjoyed dipping my toes into the water over the past year or two.

One of my good friends led me to a favorite Bonnaroo discovery, which was ‘The Head and the Heart.’  Today, while embracing this new-found love, I was reflecting on the general theme of the folksy, nostalgic ‘Down in the Valley’ and found myself mentally withdrawing to a course in African American Religion with Professor Ivory.

I-Man (aka Professor Ivory) emphasized the theme of time in African American Religion, particularly the concept of time in which ‘We walk backwards into the future…’

This summer has been full of family visitors which unfurled conversations between Charlie and I on our past, our history and how it affects our future.  I’ve also been led to reflect on our pre-marital counseling, which was invaluable – mainly because we spent a huge amount of time talking about our family histories and the remnants from them which we carry into our future together.

I’m prone to agree with I-Man and resonate with the theme that we do always carry our past with us, and we’d be well-served to ‘keep an eye on it’ and be aware of how the traits of our parents, grandparents, sibilings and our formative experiences are constantly feeding into our perceptions of future encounters.

But what of the core concept in ‘Down in the Valley’?  Are we all just ‘on our way back to where we started?’  Is everything fully cyclical, or is there some breakaway from our past? 

Of course we’re not going to take the exact path as those in our past.  Families and individuals are always shifting and moving in different directions.  I’m inclined to believe, though, that we’re moving more in the direction of our past than we realize.  Of course the manifestation of ‘moving into our past’ could look at face value to be very different than that of our predecessors.  But, if we dig deep enough, I bet we’d find that we’re chasing things that are similar to/ (or perhaps completely different) than our family, but that’s very motivated by what we inherited from them.

Anyway, I’d definitely say you should listen to ‘Down in the Valley.’  The sweet melancholy, impeccable harmonies and nostalgic themes will linger in the back of your mind; if we share any similar musical taste you’ll be totally okay with it.

In the words of Spock/{I-Man} ‘Live long and prosper {SCHOLARS}!’