bnewman: (guitar)
Ben Newman ([personal profile] bnewman) wrote in [community profile] bn_songbook2022-03-06 05:55 pm

Shehecheyani

This song began as a riff on the traditional Jewish prayer known as shehecheyanu, which thanks G-d for enabling us to reach this point in time, and is typically recited at special occasions.  It then opened out into a philosophical musing on what that means — the timeline that brought me here and now stretches back into the forgotten past, and contains a lot of bad along with the good.  What does it mean to stand at the growing end of such a timeline, look back, and give thanks?

lyrics and music by Benjamin Newman

listen to this song

/ G D C - / / G D Em C / G - D - /
 
G-d of my ancestors, I give thanks
That You have brought me here today
By Your grace, I've come to this time and place
By a long and winding way
 
/ G D Em C / G C D - / 1st / C - D - /
 
Laughter and tears line a road of many years
That has made me who I am
And I owe even more to all the ones who came before
Right back to when it all began
 
/ G D C G / / C D Em C / - D G - /
 
So I give thanks for history because that's how I've come to be
I'm a child of Abraham, and Adam, and the chimpanzee
And the breath divine traces one unbroken line
Weaving through life's winding vine from them to me
 
G-d, when I praise You it's not because
I believe You have a plan
It's because I know it's all made up as You go
And even so, here I stand
 
There doesn't have to be a reason why You've brought me to this season
To give me reason to be glad
For I come of generations of species, tribes and nations
Who gave thanks for what they had
 
So I cultivate an attitude of unreasonable gratitude
For in the vastness of space and time, my longitude and latitude
Are one new green limb, be it trembling and slim
On a tree whose roots run dimly back to You
 
G-d, I'm sure if things had not been as they were
I would not be here at all
But for each good thing, there's been so much suffering
I'm not sure how I should feel
 
Can I thank You when, for every smiling friend
Who stands here to celebrate
There are many more who've been treated cruel and sore
By the tangled threads of fate?
 
In each eventuality, we can try to find morality
But this story's not a fable with a moral, just reality
There's no meaning shown, I guess we'll have to make our own
And when we do, we're not alone, 'cause there You'll be
 
G-d, I know I cannot repay
The full burden of my birth
Who can count the cost, or weight the gain against the loss?
Can we truly know our worth?
 
I can hardly lift the first part of all the gifts
That I carry in my heart
Help me do my best to bless as I've been blessed
I just want to do my part
 
So I take responsibility, in my hubris and humility
To do right by humanity to the best of my ability
Where compassion thrives, Your realm reliably arrives
We make the meaning in our lives, You make us free

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