{"id":1147,"date":"2018-01-27T14:44:25","date_gmt":"2018-01-27T21:44:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pnwfolklore.org\/wp-nwhoot\/?p=1147"},"modified":"2018-05-27T10:17:32","modified_gmt":"2018-05-27T17:17:32","slug":"the-power-of-song-the-endless-mile-by-bruce-baker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/pnwfolklore.org\/wp-nwhoot\/index.php\/2018\/01\/27\/the-power-of-song-the-endless-mile-by-bruce-baker\/","title":{"rendered":"The Power of Song \u2013 The Endless Mile, by Bruce Baker"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium\" src=\"http:\/\/pnwfolklore.org\/HomelessWoman.jpg\" width=\"600\" height=\"363\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">sketch by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.peterwieben.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Peter Wieben<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><em>The Endless Mile<\/em> is a song written by Julie Snow \u2013 &#8220;<em>Here came a wanderer, a woman with no name, she said \u2018I only have one question, am I crazy or sane.<\/em>\u2019&#8221; I enjoy singing this song, but this morning it was different.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>I ride the bus and walk the streets of downtown Seattle saying HI to my normal familiar faces today.\u00a0 But a mere 50 feet from my office, I encounter a woman, stoned out of her mind, laying out expletives and doing a dance in the 60 degree morning.\u00a0 I am reminded of the song &#8220;<em>The Endless Mile.<\/em>&#8221;\u00a0 I realize that I have a calling that reached out to me at that time.\u00a0 I ask her if I can walk her to a nearby shelter.\u00a0 Expecting no, she says yes. So we turn about and walk almost a half mile to the YWCA.\u00a0 We talk, she dances on the way.\u00a0 People look in puzzlement trying to understand how these two so different people found a path together.\u00a0 It was not an easy walk.\u00a0\u00a0 She was not accustomed to any show of kindness, and I cautioned her of glass some places with her bare feet.<\/p>\n<p>At the shelter, as I looked at the faces of the faceless there, I wished I had a guitar instead of a briefcase, able to give them a moment&#8217;s comfort in a world that wants them to be consigned to be mere statistics &#8230; <em>Bruce Baker<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Post note from Julie Snow: &#8220;Every time a song I\u2019ve written reaches someone on a personal level, it enriches my life as well&#8221;.<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>The Endless Mile<br \/>\n<\/strong> written by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.juliesnowsongs.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Julie Snow<\/a>, sung by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.luicollins.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Lui Collins<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Enks71iwchE\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>Here came a wanderer, a woman with no name, she said<\/em><br \/>\n<em>&#8220;I only have one question, am I crazy or sane<\/em><br \/>\n<em>To look for love more binding than the moon&#8217;s pull on me<\/em><br \/>\n<em>So I can stop all this wandering, set my poor soul free.&#8221;<\/em><br \/>\n<em>&#8220;Oh this may not make sense to you,&#8221;\u00a0 she said, and then she cried<\/em><br \/>\n<em>&#8220;Oh there is no darker prison than the endless mile.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>To fly, though your wings are tired<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Run, though your heart is crying<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Somebody hold me close by the fire<\/em><br \/>\n<em>There&#8217;s no darker prison than the endless mile.<\/em><br \/>\n<em>No darker prison than the endless mile.<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>Love has touched me many times, I&#8217;ve never lived alone<\/em><br \/>\n<em>But like a stranger in a dream I could not hold on.<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Slip away like a sunny day when the clouds come rolling in<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Then run like hell from the hurricane, seek shelter within.<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>And fly, though my wings were tired<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Run, though my heart was crying<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Somebody hold me close by the fire<\/em><br \/>\n<em>There&#8217;s no darker prison than the endless mile<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Endless Mile is a song written by Julie Snow \u2013 &#8220;Here came a wanderer, a woman with no name, she said \u2018I only have one question, am I crazy or sane.\u2019&#8221; I enjoy singing this song, but this morning it was different.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7,3],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/pnwfolklore.org\/wp-nwhoot\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1147"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/pnwfolklore.org\/wp-nwhoot\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/pnwfolklore.org\/wp-nwhoot\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pnwfolklore.org\/wp-nwhoot\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pnwfolklore.org\/wp-nwhoot\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1147"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"http:\/\/pnwfolklore.org\/wp-nwhoot\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1147\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1205,"href":"http:\/\/pnwfolklore.org\/wp-nwhoot\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1147\/revisions\/1205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/pnwfolklore.org\/wp-nwhoot\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pnwfolklore.org\/wp-nwhoot\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pnwfolklore.org\/wp-nwhoot\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}