Pete Seeger is dead.  I’ve been telling myself for years that I ought to write him a letter, telling him what his music has meant to me and my family, but I never did.  Now it’s too late.  This is what I wanted to say:

Thank you.  Thank you for bringing light and joy into a world that often seems so dark and grim.  Something about the way you put notes and words together has kept faith, hope, and love alive in us for over half a century.  What’s more: you weren’t content to simply entertain us; you invited us to enter into the song ourselves.  When we hear your songs, we hear them in our own voices.  They have become ours because you gave them away.  We will keep the faith by keeping the songs.  We will teach them to our children.  We will write our own.  We will lift up our hearts and voices until the Beloved Community has become a reality on this earth.  And in the end, when that day comes, you will be there and your voice will be heard in ours.  So long, Pete.  You leave us as you found us: singing, singing, singing…