Joseph Stalin Part 2

The Joseph Stalin song (aka "Just Like Me" by Jeffrey Martin) acknowledged the dignity we owe to every person with penetrating humor. It is the most recent addition to my campfire songs.

"Orders" by Bruce Cockburn takes it a step father with somber determination. It entered my campfire lexicon after I heard it a couple years ago. Give it a listen:

The just, the merciful, the cruel
The stumbling well-intentioned fool
The deft, the oaf, the witless pawn
The golden one life smiles upon
The squalling infant in mid-squall
The neighbors fighting down the hall
The list is long - as I recall
Our orders said to love them all

The cynic and the crooked priest
The woman wise, the sullen beast
The enemy outside the gate
The friend who leaves it all to fate
The drunk who tags the bathroom stall
The proud boy headed to his fall,
The list is long - as I recall
Our orders said to love them all

The pastor preaching shades of hate
The self-inflating head of state
The black and blue, the starved for bread
The dread, the red, the better dead
The sweet, the vile, the small, the tall
The one who rises to the call
The list is long - as I recall
Our orders said to love them all

The one who lets his demons win
The one we think we’re better than
A challenge great - as I recall
Our orders said to love them all

What Jeffrey Martin did with comic wit, Cockburn amps up with grim resolve. Let's admit it, sometimes we need a good dose of earnest commitment and power from above to love others as we'd be loved... which are our orders.

Cockburn's 38th album is perhaps his sweetest.
Pure light and joy burst from this release.

But don't let the soberness of this song scare you away from the his latest album where it resides. "O Sun O Moon" contains songs of pure joy and light as well. That sacramental joy permeates Cockburn's impressive collection of 38 releases since the early 70's. And that is why over a dozen of his songs are in my campfire lexicon.

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