Just finished watching a PBS special about 50 years ofPeter Paul and Mary and got thinking about all those years behind me. Mary, of course, died in 2009 but Peter and Paul are still going strong.

Then I thought of the "In Memoriam" box on the front page and how many of them I knew and then... I began thinking of all the friends and family who are gone. THEN I was reminded of the fact that there are more miles on my odometer than are left on my warranty and got to thinking about what I'd like to say to you all after I shuffle off this mortal coil, what all of those gone people might want to say to all of us.

Mind you, I don't plan on leaving for another 50 or so years... more if I can swing it, but these words from Peter Yarrow at Mary Travers memorial seem to fit.

You have asked me why the days fly by so quickly
And why each one feels no different from the last?
And you say that you are fearful for the future
And you have grown suspicious of the past

And you wonder if the dreams we shared together
Have abandoned us or we abandoned them
And you cast about and try to find new meaning
So that you can feel that closeness once again

Carry on my sweet survivor
Carry on my lonely friend
Don't give up on the dream and don't you let it end

Carry on my sweet survivor
Though you know that something's gone
For everything that matters, carry on

You remember when you felt each person mattered
When we all had to care for all was lost
But now you see believers turn to cynics
And you wonder was the struggle worth the cost

Then you see someone too young to know the difference
And a veil of isolation in their eyes
And inside you know you've got to leave them something
Or the hope for something better slowly dies

Carry on my sweet survivor
Carry on my lonely friends
Don't give up on the dream and don't you let it end

Carry on my sweet survivor
Though you know that something's gone
For everything that matters, carry on

Carry on my sweet survivor
You've carried it so long
So it may come again, carry on
Carry on, carry on

Catherine Linda Michel