Songs for Mourning and for Hoping - Intercollegiate Studies Institute

Songs for Mourning and for Hoping

Edmund Burke observed that “Society is a partnership not only between those who are living, but between those who are living, those who are dead, and those who are to be born.”

As conservatives, we look back, not to romanticize the past, but to learn from it. There’s a moral sanity to mourning the many good things we have lost, from a thriving marriage culture to bowler hats for gentlemen.

And we also look forward to the tasks ahead. We defend and preserve good things for the generations to come. Above all, we must be conservatives of hope, of the Empty Tomb on Easter morning, knowing that all the world’s ills can be redeemed.

And music helps us both to mourn and to find hope. In that spirit, I offer two of my favorites.

For mourning, the Irish folk classic “The Parting Glass.”

And for hope, the Glee Club of Morehouse College’s rendition of “We Shall Overcome.”

Care to recommend any music that has helped you in a similar vein?

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