In an earlier post, I described what I call “Wisdom Catchers,” people who do with wisdom what “Song Catchers” do with songs.
A song catcher may intentionally seek out songs of a particular value, or simply recognize them as they come across them in their travels. They “catch” or collect and add to their repertoire songs that would otherwise fade into obscurity. Or they may catch songs that promote democracy, are amenable to group singing, help build community, or have some other desirable qualities.
Pete Seeger was a song catcher. But he also collected wisdom. Some witty, some practical, some spiritual, some fascinating. The wisdom Pete shared magnified the value of his songs, his activism, and everything else he did. One of his sources was Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Pearls of wisdom from MLK and other sources that Pete shared with me have landed in many of my songs.
A Small Pearl with Great Value
In October 2004, at the Beacon Sloop Club Pumpkin Festival in New York, a while after playing a few songs alongside Pete, I joined other performers for the “finale” - all of us singing a bunch of songs together to close the festival. A light rain was falling so most of the attendees had already left. I was disappointed that, for some reason I didn’t understand at the time, Pete did not join us.
As we sang to a small handful of people, I noticed in the distance someone wearing over his head a black plastic garbage bag turned into a makeshift raincoat. As I watched him walk the grounds picking up garbage, a sense of guilt arose in me. More than enough of us musicians were having fun while others were cleaning up. Sure, we created a pleasant atmosphere for the workers, but maybe they could use a little more help. So, I put down my guitar and went to volunteer.
Follow The Man in the Garbage Bag
I asked the festival organizer what I could do. She chuckled and said, “Go help the man in the garbage bag.” Puzzled by her joviality, I walked across the grass, approached the man in the garbage bag, and asked if he could use a hand. The man stood up, handed me a bag full of trash, and asked if I could bring it to the dumpster. It was Pete! What fortune! I readily obliged, thinking a little selfishly that I might earn a few “brownie points” for doing so.
When I returned and joined Pete, I asked why he was not singing in the finale. I still had the false impression that Pete was a musician first and a citizen second. I had not yet recognized that music was a tool Pete used to pursue a greater purpose. Pete looked me squarely in the eyes and shared a pearl of wisdom he attributed to Martin Luther King:
“Sometimes it’s better to start with something small that everybody can agree on.”
The statement is simple and profound. But its full implications were not immediately apparent. In usual Spook Handy fashion, it has taken me years of exploration to gain more than a morsel of insight from it.
In a certain sense, the Montgomery Bus Boycott was about a small thing - the very specific and absurd custom that a dignified older woman, or anybody else, should have to surrender their bus seat to a younger man, or anybody else, based strictly on the color of their skin. The boycott was narrowly focused on this one issue. It was not about integrating schools, water fountains, or lunch counters. It was not about equal pay for equal work.
Not everybody agrees with me, and I anticipate getting flack for saying this, but I see the Bus Boycott as the fulcrum of the Civil Rights Movement, and I believe it was successful largely because it was so limited in scope that in a certain way “everybody” did agree on it. Not 100% of the people, but I have read that even a majority of White northerners agreed on it. Enough to help the boycott become a major turning point in the movement.
After Pete said those words to me, I could not come up with a response. Besides, Pete didn’t wait for a response. He quickly turned and headed in the direction of more paper lying a few feet away. I followed him and asked if he had a bag he could spare. Pete reached under the garbage bag turned raincoat and pulled from his pocket a used, crumpled white plastic Krausers bag. He pointed out litter a distance away and said, “Somebody needs to clean that up.” So off I went.
A Small Victories to Celebrate
Back home, I looked up the words Pete told me and could not find them attributed to MLK or anybody else. A few weeks later, I asked my friend Danny Einbender if they had really come from MLK or if Pete had made them up. Danny assured me MLK said these words. He told me the full quote goes more like “start with something small everybody can agree on. This way we can start with a small victory to celebrate.”
While looking for this quote, I found a different quote from MLK:
“If I cannot do great things, I can do small things in a great way.”
These two pearls of wisdom are different, but close enough to be cousins. Both are simple, profound, and worth pondering.
For me, they have become “rules of thumb” - principles that can be applied to social movements and group organizing. They can be adapted to concert performances and public speaking. The second principle certainly applies to guitar playing and songwriting.
There must be something to these ideas. The Montgomery Bus Boycott was so successful that 69 years later, we still talk about what it taught us. Below is a fun, educational song Pete wrote that mentions the boycott. It’s called “Take It from Dr. King.”
- Keep the Flame Alive!