The Kitchen Sink
An occasional piece of paper
April 5, 2009
Vol. 12 no. 14

Everything But...
           Is there anyone who is not stirred musically by a march? John Philip Souza and Edward Elgar do not allow you to sit passively. Certain musical competitions do not allow performing a march because it would unfairly influence the emotions of the judges. Marches are naturally intended for parades. Remember when the Riders won the Grey Cup, the parade was held in -30 temperatures? I can’t recall the music, and I can’t figure out why!
          The marches recorded in the histories of the world are seldom very musical. Yes, there was the 1963 March on Washington in which Martin Luther King, Jr., had a dream and music and singing kept ringing in people’s ears for years. Marches, however, are often under duress and not all that voluntary. The Israelites made their exodus from Egypt and wandered for forty years in the Sinai wilderness until they finally arrived at the Promised Land. Centuries later in utter defeat, the leaders of Israel were marched off into exile in Babylon, and when Cyrus the Great of Persia defeated Babylon and freed the exiles, they marched home gleefully in a second Exodus.
          The forced Expulsion of the Acadians and the Trail of Tears of the Cherokee from the South to Oklahoma were tragic marches in which it was never intended that all or even many should survive. The Long March of Mao and the Red Chinese, 1934-35, is now a fabled event, the precursor of a revolution that would change their world and ours.
          A march happened today into Jerusalem, palms and coats on the road to soften the walk for a donkey, and Hosannas singing spontaneously. Was Jesus’ march an invitation to death, or the anticipation of life?