Today I woke up to find - somehow - that the UK has signed up to five more years of neo-fascists waging war on the poor, the weak and the different.
Life has been bleak time after time in these situations.
It made me think there was no hope.
That humanity was dead. And humans were doomed. You deserve the government you vote for.
No more NHS. Sanctions for being ill or daring to be poor.
Money rushing to the top.
Suspicion, fear, the destruction of society and the elevation of selfishness to a godlike level called 'ambition.'
And all this was true.
But then I put Elbow's ace first album on and recalled one of the several times I've seen them live. This one was possibly the best of the lot.
It was in the Masque Theatre, Liverpool as part of some kind of Back to the Bars type event. Packed out - the band was huge by then - and Guy Garvey kept trying to start singing Newborn.
Listen to it.
It's a really confessional love song, Tender. Self-searching.
But he couldn't because the scouse crowd was making him laugh so much. It gives me shivers thinking about the sheer love in that room.
That love, that shared vibe of possibility, of sound and music and emotion and fellowship. Of nothing but the present moment, the next cadence, the shared energy of pure human connection.
It is deeply poignant at the same time; to acknowledge that shared moment is to stand outside it and, by doing so, to destroy it.
It transcends all language; these rhythms amplify and caress the heartbeats of all in attendance. At times like that, I think I understood religion more than ever before; it is implausible that people, with their failings, their farts and their falls, could ever create such beauty.
But it is true.
So there must be hope. There truly must be.
Venceremos.
I needed to read that today Shoo, thank you x
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