I was conversing with brillig a few days ago, and we talked briefly about movies. Perhaps not surprisingly, my favorite love song comes from a movie. My feelings about the movie match my feelings about the song.
More below!
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In ways it is an unusual song, in that the love being sung so proudly forth isn’t a song of romantic love. Earlier in the movie, frankly, it’s hard to imagine that the progression could ever lead to such a thing. It was released in 1967. I was 14.
Our hero takes a job as a teacher while he waits for the engineering job he has prepared for. He gets a position at a school of misfits, from difficult backgrounds. The difficulties are compounded by the fact that all of this children are white, where he is black.
He has advantages, of a fine education, of deep intelligence, of unshakable integrity and dignity. Confident in himself, he is nonetheless challenged by the students, and he doesn’t make it more than a few weeks before they get so deeply under his skin that he explodes in class. But it is an aha moment for him, after he dashes out for some relief and clarity, and he finds the approach that will see him through.
Even though it is a temporary ‘gig’ for him, and he knows his time with them will be limited, he never compromises his commitment to his task. He cares. He cares about making a difference. He cares about helping, even though the students have never experienced that. He takes them into the answer pages of life.
After a semester with them, his regimen of dignity and respect win the day, and their eyes are opened to a broader world of opportunity and gratifying self-identity. Unbeknownst to them, he gets a reply to a job application, and his future seems set as an engineer.
Their time at the school is at an end, and they are graduating and leaving. But they are leaving a man who introduced them to themselves, who showed them a better way. And they want to tell him. So one sings this song, as a parting gift.
Those schoolgirl days
Of telling tales and biting nails are gone
But in my mind
I know they will still live on and on
But how do you thank someone
Who has taken you from crayons to perfume?
It isn't easy, but I'll try
If you wanted the sky
I would write across the sky in letters
That would soar a thousand feet high
"To Sir, with love"
The time has come
For closing books and long last looks must end
And as I leave
I know that I am leaving my best friend
A friend who taught me right from wrong
And weak from strong, that's a lot to learn
What, what can I give you in return?
If you wanted the moon
I would try to make a start
But I would rather you let me give my heart
To Sir, with love
(Lyrics from genius.com.)
I remember watching that the first time, the young human beings honoring a unique man in their lives. I cried at the impact he had in their lives, at the fact of their appreciation of it. At what it means for us, of what could be in our world. Indeed, of what is, in some places.
I certainly have nothing against romantic love, and the songs that express it. Some of the finest love I have ever experienced has been of that sort. But this is a special love in its own right, perhaps less luminous to start, but with a lingering glow. Less brittle, less volatile. But with potentially limitless application. It touched me. It touches me still.
Please share a love song that you love, below!
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