Still having pneumonia, and therefore too tired, this time you’ll have to do the work of the lyrics analysis: watching the video while it’s playing, but with keeping this hint in mind about what you’re hearing with the lyrics:
- Listen for the words “in line” and look at the images flashing on your screen. There are a couple of occasions, toward the beginning and toward the end. watch for the lines in the cemetery, on the flag, with the marching… Then put those scenes together, knowing that the last scene with those words are entirely wrought with prompt eagerness concerning the first scenes when those words occur, enthusiasm with trepidation, sure, but the greatest love ever, the willingness to, yes, lay down one’s life for one’s friends, one’s fellow Americans. Yep.
- Having gotten that far, listen for the words about the age one is when one is born, perhaps when one lays down one’s life and when one is born into the next life. It reminds me of President Reagan’s comment on the youngsters buried in Arlington National Cemetery (November 11, 1985):
- “It is, in a way, an odd thing to honor those who died in defense of our country, in defense of us, in wars far away. The imagination plays a trick. We see these soldiers in our mind as old and wise. We see them as something like the Founding Fathers, grave and gray haired. But most of them were boys when they died, and they gave up two lives — the one they were living and the one they would have lived. When they died, they gave up their chance to be husbands and fathers and grandfathers. They gave up their chance to be revered old men. They gave up everything for our country, for us.”
I watched a video with Coffey explaining how the words came to him, all at once. Respect for that. That bespeaks solidarity though he’s not a veteran. As expected, he partners with https://militarywarriors.org/
ARISE! LET US BE GOING! 