This song’s message is about being a supporting figure and trusting the rest of your community. Much of solstice has a message about being a heroic figure and taking absolute responsibility because no one else will. There’s a contrast here that should be addressed, if both themes are present.
This is not to say that both themes shouldn’t be present. They are both important themes! And neither is wrong. It’s just not quite clear how to fit them together.
Part of the answer is that we don’t trust in the compassion of the universe, but we do trust the other people in this room. The arc of history bends toward four kelvin iron dust but together we can bend it toward justice if our wrench is long enough. (If you use that concept in a speech, consider mixing fewer metaphors.)
Another part of the answer is that sometimes the most heroic act is to be a good sidekick. Being a hero is about having something to protect, and when a true hero sees someone else doing better, they drop their project and find a way to help. (Unless there’s a specific reason not to, like redundancy…)
That brings in the entire modesty debate, and the idea of becoming a well-functioning gear. This could get complicated.
It’s still an important song and an important message. Insofar as heroic vs. modest responsibility is a tradeoff, our memeplex is probably erring on the heroic side. Just proceed carefully.
The song is purchasable in many forms from Sassafrass’s bandcamp.
The Boston group has a simplified melody that is a better fit for group singing.
Our new world is so close.
Mars has treasures we’re only just starting to find.
Frozen mountains and crimson dust waiting for footprints that will not be mine.
A hundred years to run the first tests
another to raise the first dome.
The moon, then Mars, then Titan next,
a life time to touch each new home.
And I want it so much.
Close my eyes, I can taste the Mars dust in the air.
In the darkness the space stations shimmer in orbits that I will not share.
But I’ll teach the student
Who’ll manage the fact’ry
That tempers the steel that makes colonies strong.
And I’ll write the program that runs the computer
That charts out the stars where our rockets belong.
It will never get easy to wake from my dream
When the future I dream of is so far away.
But I am willing to sacrifice
something I don’t have For something I won’t have
but somebody will someday.
And it feels like a waste.
All this working and waiting and battling time,
And all for a kingdom that all of my efforts will never make mine,
But brick by brick the Pyramids rose,
With most hidden under the sand,
So life by life the project grows
In ways I might not understand.
I am voyaging too,
We will need the foundation as much as the dome for those worlds to come true,
And I’ll clerk the office that handles the funding
That raises the tower that watches the sky.
And I’ll staff the bookstore that carries the journal
That sparks the idea that makes solar sails fly.
It takes so many sailors to conquer an ocean
And so many more when it’s light-years away,
But I am willing to sacrifice
Something I don’t have for something I won’t have
But somebody will someday.
It’s so easy to run.
Hide away in my books, games and fantasy plans,
Let them call me a coward who can’t face reality’s grownup demands,
But if I love my fantasy worlds
It’s not fantasy love that I feel.
And so much more I feel for this
The world that created them,
World we create with them,
One chance to make them all real.
And I know we won’t stop.
We’ve planned too many wonders for one little star.
Though often the present may seem too complacent to take us that far.
But I’ll tell the story and I’ll draw the picture
And I’ll sing the anthem that banishes doubt,
And host the convention that summons the family
That carries the fire that never burns out
There are so many chances to give up the journey,
Especially when it’s so easy to stay,
But I am willing to sacrifice
Something I don’t have for something I won’t have
And not only me,
But we are willing to sacrifice
Something we don’t have for something we won’t have
So somebody will,
So somebody will someday.
