What Inspires Me? Woody Guthrie "Keeping the Hoping Machine Going"
Happy Brand New Year! 2023. Time for fresh starts! New beginnings! Resolutions! Did I hear a GROAN????
Call me a hypocrite because every-single-other year I have written a post about making resolutions, their value, how important goals are yada-yada. . . but. . .
I hate making resolutions!
Not because I don’t have resolve. I absolutely do. Along with a mean followthrough…and I am not talking tennis!
"Hey hey, Woody Guthrie, I wrote you a song..." when Bob Dylan was a boy, he went to meet his hero. This PB by Gary Golio and Mark Burkhardt tells the story.
The problem is that coming up with that list of resolutions takes so dang long, wheedling it out to the important few, even longer—and when I’m finished my list of resolutions is always soooooo boring.
Which brings me to Woodie Guthrie
You might call it Back to the Future because I am talking the Woodie Guthrie circa January 1943. When he was on the road, seeing America and writing, strumming, singing songs, telling it like it was—with hopes for how it could be.
On January 1st, 1943, Woodie drafted and illustrated a 33-item list of resolutions.
An inspired heartful list with resolutions he felt worth fighting to keep—Number 33 is exactly that:
“Wake up and Fight.”
A few others touched me especially, including:
“Keep Hoping Machine Running”
“Dream Big”
“Write a song a day.”
“Dance Better.”
Don’t take my word for it! Go on and read for yourself (I’ve included the list below along with a link to the Town and Country article in which it was unearthed. Who knows a few items on the list might be just the reminder you need to encourage you to resolve that this will be a great great year!
Keeping our hoping machines running . . . now that’s inspiring!
Here’s to YOU and 2023, too!
And hearty thanks to @clarenashme for bring the article in Town and Country to my attention. Click the hyperlink to read it in its entirety.
Suggestion: And, if you have not yet visited the Woodie Guthrie Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma—add it to your list. It is amazing! And right next door is the Bob Dylan Center!
