Amy Lu's View

I wish I could come close to writing something that could appropriately honor John Prine on his death.

I’m not even all that familiar with his work. Chad is the official fan our household (he’s already got his John Prine song book out). I’m just a fan by proxy.

We did see him in concert just a few years ago and it was a terrific show. He was a wonderful performer– charming, energetic and present.

Of course I have no idea what he was really like as a person, but during that performance and in interviews he seemed like a kind, funny and wise person. I’m sure he was much more complicated than that, as we all are, but I think the self that came through in his music was real.

The John Prine song I know best is the one most people know best (self-declared casual fan), “Angel From Montgomery.”

“To believe in this living,

Is just a hard way to go.”

Angel From Montgomery, John Prine

It IS a hard way to go, especially when extremely talented people die during a pandemic when they likely had so much music to still share with the world.

And yes, so many people have died from or been seriously harmed by COVID-19 and social isolation, most of them not famous or acclaimed. And many more will, which is why we really need the music of John Prine now.

It may seem a weird connection, but I can’t think of the line “to believe in this living” without thinking about our Unitarian Universalist church community. The strength and inspiration to believe in this living while embracing that it’s a hard way to go is what I find as UU.

And our church might give Chad and me the opportunity to narcissistically indulge in performing the other John Prine song I love: “In Spite of Ourselves.”

This celebration of long-term love would be perfect for our upcoming 25th Anniversary… probably a little PG-13 for a Sunday Service, but maybe we can close an evening virtual coffee house with it.

“In spite of ourselves we’ll end up a-sittin’ on a rainbow.”

In Spite of Ourselves, John Prine

If we can learn it without killing each other.