From a Distance -- jcarolek

When my daughter was in fourth grade, she sang in the school's annual talent show.  The song she sang was the Bette Midler one, "From a Distance."  Her voice was clear and strong and the auditorium of parents and family members actually hushed....

"From a distance the world looks blue and green,
and the snow-capped mountains white.
From a distance the ocean meets the stream,
and the eagle takes to flight.

From a distance, there is harmony,
and it echoes through the land.
It's the voice of hope, it's the voice of peace,
it's the voice of every man.

From a distance we all have enough,
and no one is in need.
And there are no guns, no bombs, and no disease,
no hungry mouths to feed.

From a distance we are instruments
marching in a common band.
Playing songs of hope, playing songs of peace.
They're the songs of every man.
God is watching us. God is watching us.
God is watching us from a distance.

From a distance you look like my friend,
even though we are at war.
From a distance I just cannot comprehend
what all this fighting is for.

From a distance there is harmony,
and it echoes through the land.
And it's the hope of hopes, it's the love of loves,
it's the heart of every man.

It's the hope of hopes, it's the love of loves.
This is the song of every man.
And God is watching us, God is watching us,
God is watching us from a distance.
Oh, God is watching us, God is watching.
God is watching us from a distance."

It was a beautiful song then and I can still hear her voice as she sang with the innocence of a 9 year old.  Now, 16 years later, she has a better understanding of the words and it is still a favorite of hers.  Today, as I looked out of the window of the plane, briefly awakening from my high altitude slumbers, I was struck by the blues and the greens, and that song rang gently in my mind.  And I pulled my camera out of the satchel under the seat in front of me, and took a few shots...OK, OK, I took about 150 shots from the plane.  And interestingly, though the window through which I snapped my photos was rather grimy, and the plane was moving at a speed making close-up shots too blurry to use, I was still able to capture a few that come close to what my eyes saw, as I viewed our land below.  From patchwork quilt flatlands to mountains, to deserts....from earth to sky...this land IS your land, and mine, and from Virginia to CA, it was a beautiful show.