Carrying It On . . . Into the New Year

I can think of no better song to start the new year with than Buffy Sainte-Marie’s rousing anthem, “Carry It On,” the closing track from her 2015 award-winning album, Power in the Blood, and a song that’s actually a reworked version of her 1976 recording “Look At the Facts.”

About “Carry It On,” Buffy said the following in a July 2015 interview:

I’m just pointing out that we live in this incredible world and yet, because of human boneheadedness, we are under threat of shooting ourselves in the foot. It’s not something to be afraid of. It’s something just to step up to. You know, it’s like doing the dishes; you’ve got to do it all the time or it piles up on you. I know that it's down home and folksy, but that’s kind of my attitude to the world. I’m not a combatant, at all. I’m really into alternative ways of looking at things. It comes naturally to me to do so and then to try to pass that on to people who are being advertised to death and conned in every which way. Buy this, buy that. Life is simpler than that. . . . It isn’t money that makes the world go around. I really believe that. That is the corporate hallucination by which we are controlled. It’s not as if we have to get up in arms and go and fight the world. No. You don’t. No, no. Stay calm and decolonize.

Amen, sister!

As I’ve noted previously, one way I “stay calm and decolonize” is through my endeavors here at The Wild Reed, endeavrs which I hope plant, in the words of Buffy, “good seeds” – seeds that contain the potential to encourage, give hope, and, yes, at times challenge and critique, though always in an informed, respectful and loving way.

I’m going to carry these seeds on into 2021; I’m going to keep planting them. And in the words of Buffy, I’m going to keep “saying, playing and praying” as I “carry it on.”

And what exactly is this “it"?

I see it as the passionate embodiment of hope, awareness and love in a world dominated by political and economic systems that far too often heap contempt on such qualities and their embodiment by individuals and communities.

So . . . yes, despite the many disappointments, uncertainties, and challenges that will no doubt follow us into 2021, I remain inspired by Buffy and so many others, past and present, to keep doing that human-being magic of “carrying it on.”

Hold your head up
Lift the top of your mind
Put your eyes on the Earth
Lift your heart to your own home planet

What do you see?
What is your attitude –
Are you here to improve or damn it?

Look right now
and you will see we’re only here
by the skin of our teeth as it is
so take heart and take care
of your link with life and . . .

Oh, carry it on – we’re saying
Oh, carry it on – keep playing
Oh, carry it on – and praying
Oh, carry it on

It ain’t money that makes the world go round
That’s only temporary confusion
It ain’t governments that make the people strong
It’s the opposite illusion

Look right now
and you will see they’re only here
by the skin of their teeth as it is
so take heart and take care
of your link with life

Oh, carry it on – keep saying
Oh, carry it on – and playing
Oh, carry it on – and praying
Oh, carry it on

Look right now
and you will see we’re only here
by the skin of our teeth as it is
so take heart and take care
of your link with life
. . . it's beautiful!

If you’ve got the sense to take care
of your source of perfection
Mother Nature, she’s the daughter of God
and the source of all protection

Look right now
and you will see she’s only here
by the skin of her teeth as it is
so take heart and take care
of your link with life

Oh, carry it on – keep saying
Oh, carry it on – and playing
Oh, carry it on – keep on praying
Oh, carry it on

For The Wild Reed’s special series of posts leading-up to the November 10, 2017 release of Buffy’s latest album, Medicine Songs, see:
• For Acclaimed Songwriter, Activist and Humanitarian Buffy Sainte-Marie, the World is Always Ripening
• Buffy Sainte-Marie: “I’m Creative Anywhere”
• Buffy Sainte-Marie Headlines SummerStage Festival in NYC’s Central Park
• Buffy Sainte-Marie, “One of the Best Performers Out Touring Today”
• The Music of Buffy Sainte-Marie: “Uprooting the Sources of Disenfranchisement”
• Buffy Sainte-Marie: “Things Do Change and Things Do Get Better”
• Buffy Sainte-Marie’s Medicine Songs

For The Wild Reed’s special series of posts leading-up to the May 12, 2015 release of Buffy’s award-winning album, Power in the Blood, see:
• Buffy Sainte-Marie and That “Human-Being Magic”
• Buffy Sainte-Marie’s Lesson from the Cutting Edge: “Go Where You Must to Grow”
• Buffy Sainte-Marie: “Sometimes You Have to Be Content to Plant Good Seeds and Be Patient”
• Buffy Sainte-Marie’s Power in the Blood


For more of Buffy Sainte-Marie at The Wild Reed, see:
• A Music Legend Visits the North Country: Buffy Sainte-Marie in Minnesota and Wisconsin – August 2016
• Two Exceptional Singers Take a Chance on the “Spirit of the Wind”
• Photo of the Day – January 21, 2017
• Buffy Sainte-Marie Wins 2015 Polaris Music Prize
• Congratulations, Buffy
• Happy Birthday, Buffy! (2016)
• Happy Birthday, Buffy! (2018)
• Happy Birthday, Buffy! (2019)
• Happy Birthday, Buffy! (2020)
• Actually, There’s No Question About It
• For Buffy Sainte-Marie, a Well-Deserved Honor
• Buffy Sainte-Marie: Singing It and Praying It; Living It and Saying It
• Buffy Sainte-Marie: Still Singing with Spirit, Joy, and Passion
• Something Special for Indigenous Peoples Day
• Buffy Sainte-Marie: “The Big Ones Get Away”

Buffy-related Off-site Links:
Buffy the Truth Sayer: An Interview with Buffy Sainte-Marie – Mandy Nolan (The Echo, February 13, 2020).
Buffy Sainte-Marie Named As the Recipient of the Allan Slaight Humanitarian Spirit Award – Ian Courtney (Encore, February 14, 2020).
Buffy Sainte-Marie's Authorized Biography Serves As a “Map Of Hope” – Scott Simon and Ian Stewart (NPR News, September 29, 2018).
Buffy Sainte-Marie Tells Her Life Story, Her Way – Sue Carter (The Star, September 29, 2018)
Buffy Sainte-Marie, Jess Moskaluke, and The Dead South Lead Saskatchewan Artists Nominated for Junos – Spencer Leigh (The Independent, January 9, 2018).
Buffy Sainte-Marie: “I Constantly Ask Myself, Where Are the Great Protest Songs of Today?” – Regina Leader-Post, (February 6, 2018).
Music as Medicine: Buffy Sainte-Marie Talks Politics, Sex Scandals and Her Brand New Album – Rosanna Deerchild (CBC Radio's Unreserved, November 19, 2017)
Buffy Sainte-Marie Takes a Stand with Medicine Songs – ET Canada (November 30, 2017).
Buffy Sainte-Marie Makes Music for a New Generation of Activists – Tom Power (CBC Radio, November 17, 2017).
The Unbreakable Buffy Sainte-Marie: A Candid Conversation with the Resilient Songwriter and Activist – Whitney Phaneuf (Acoustic Guitar, January 18, 2017).
What Does Buffy Sainte-Marie Believe? – CBC Radio (December 30, 2016).

Image 1: The Prayer Tree – January 1, 2021. (Photo: Michael J. Bayly)
Image 2: Buffy Sainte-Marie in concert at Big Top Chautauqua, Bayfield, WI – August 27, 2016. (Photo: Michael J. Bayly)