One of the TV shows I watch with regularity is Austin City Limits, a PBS show featuring live music. A couple of weeks ago, the featured performer was Cindi Lauper. Although many years have passed since I first heard her sing, she still puts on a good show. One song in particular caught my attention for what it has to say today as we face a future less certain than we have typically known in the past. The song was True Colors. Here she is performing it:
The opening stanza seemed especially appropriate in view of the recent presidential campaign in the US.
You with the sad eyes
Don’t be discouraged
Oh I realize
Its hard to take courage
In a world full of people
You can lose sight of it all
And the darkness inside you
Can make you feel so small
But I see your true colors
Shining through
For obvious reasons, the song was adopted by the LGBT community as an unofficial theme song. The song, however, applies to all of us in one way or another. One of the things about this last election cycle is that we had the opportunity to observe other people’s “true colors,” and they weren’t always beautiful. I had, perhaps, been living with the illusion that we—humans—had been making progress, moving generally in the direction of sweetness and light in Matthew Arnold’s sense of “beauty and intelligence, the two key components of an excellent culture.”
As the election cycle progressed, my confidence in individual and social progress slowed, stopped, and went into reverse. We had, I thought, been making progress in achieving greater racial parity and harmony, greater acceptance of those in the LGBT community, better strategies for eliminating poverty, and more affordable health care. My sense was that other challenges we faced, primarily global warming and military and religious conflicts, we would be able to examine and address our problems in logical ways. As a well-know politician would say, “Wrong!” Although it is too early to predict what the next year or so might bring, it is not too early to say that we currently seem to be moving in the wrong direction.
I say seem because, if you are in a maze, you sometimes need to backtrack and take a different route to continue making progress. If you have ever hiked in the wilderness or driven rural roads, you know what I mean: not all trails or roads end up going where you want to be. The shortest route from Point A to Point B may be a straight line, but a straight line won’t always get you to Point B. We have been here before, of course. History is replete with examples of progress that turns out to have been a false promise. At one time, coal was considered a wonderful resource for heating homes. By the eighteenth century, during coal was being recognized as producing harmful pollutants (see Hard Times, by Charles Dickens). Oil was supposed to rescue us from the “filth” of coal. At this point, we seem to have reached a dead end with oil, and now need to change directions again.
“True Colors” applies to all. In Lauper’s song, “true colors” are assumed to be good. That isn’t always the case, however. A person’s true colors are shown by his or her behavior, and actions speak louder than words. We are wise to pay closer attention to what people do than to what they say.
Here are the rest if the lyrics for “True Colors”:
I see your true colors
And that’s why I love you
So don’t be afraid to let them show
Your true colors
True colors are beautiful
Like a rainbow
Show me a smile then
Don’t be unhappy, can’t remember
When I last saw you laughing
If this world makes you crazy
And you’ve taken all you can bear
You call me up
Because you know I’ll be there
And I’ll see your true colors
Shining through
I see your true colors
And that’s why I love you
So don’t be afraid to let them show
Your true colors
True colors are beautiful
Like a rainbow
If this world makes you crazy
And you’ve taken all you can bear
You call me up
Because you know I’ll be there
And I’ll see your true colors
Shining through
I see your true colors
And that’s why I love you
So don’t be afraid to let them show
Your true colors
True colors
True colors
Shining through
I see your true colors
And that’s why I love you
So don’t be afraid to let them show
Your true colors
True colors are beautiful
Like a rainbow
Song writers: Billy Steinberg / Tom Kelly
My sense is that the song offers good advice for what we can do when things aren’t going our way: call a friend (or send an email or text message). Spend time with those you love and trust. Although there is some sense that ignorance is bliss, our principal focus should be on programs that offer hope. A little news helps us keep track of where we are, but it is tempting to focus too much on bad news and relatively easy to fall into despair. That, however, is not a good strategy. Letting our true colors show by being “present” and not being afraid has a much better chance of proving desirable outcomes. If we are afraid, “they,” the bullies, have won. You may have noticed how much of our current literature and movies have been dystopian.
It’s hard to say, of course, whether those who produce dystopian literature (both books and films) were anticipating what was to come or creating a future that matched their vision. Humans seem to be the only species on the planet that has the ability to imagine a future different from the past and present. That puts us in the position of choosing what kind of future we want for ourselves, our children, and those who will follow. My sense is that if we can’t envision and work for a future that is better for everyone, we may well be domed to ride the Snowpiercer train through the next several generations.
I don’t know about you, but I’m hoping for something better than that. Ignorance is not bliss. The more we know, the better able we are to navigate uncharted territory, and we are, once again, going into uncharted territory.
