United by the things that really matter

I'm listening to guitarist Dean Magraw and it occured to me that he sounds like home. Home, in the sense of Minnesota, for me (he conjures images of the progressive/organic general store where I saw him perform, and firewood, falling snow on soft pine needled ground, stretching Norway pines, bright blue lakes, and a hike with old friends)--but it got me thinking about music in general and why it's been such an important aspect/integration throughout humanity. Music is an extension of our human experience. I associated Magraw's playing with a few simple goodnesses--and maybe these good things are what draw our unjust mess, and beautiful diversity, of human existance together in similar experience.
Through my time at school so far I've meandered through democratization, the Cold War, colonization, geopolitics, 'Third World' development, Africa, gender, resistance movements...the realities of students from so many lives and ways of living...the communal musical experience of hand drumming...the heartening experience of successful activism and of participating in and encouraging bettering the world...the breathtaking splendor of New England early morning hikes, climbs, and skies, the stunning comfort of winter moonlit walks through snow covered evergreens, the envigorating escape of a quick heave into my favorite climbing tree...religion, politics, civil rights, and the passion of Martin Luther King, Jr. and so many activists...theological debates and philosophical arguments...
and at least at this premature time in my human experience my reflection is that with learning comes both a heightened awareness of how little I know and a deeper understanding of some basic premises. No human life should ever be considered expendable, because what we have--all this beauty, all this pain--is so amazing that to deny it to one person is to deny a part of it to all of us. Every human deserves the simple rights to enough food, clean water, a place or realm to call home, and fellowship with other humans. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, perhaps? I can spew theories and realities and problems and solutions...but at the end of the day, what gives me hope and reason to breath is a dream that one day, the "simple" things--the natural environment and our natural companionship and community--can be enjoyed by all.