Why Must There Be A Morning After?
Twenty four hours ago I was horribly ill. Four or five sessions of throwing up, and then came the fever. At some point the thought occurred to me, –so this is how we die. I did not dwell on the thought. The coming of dawn always makes everything better. I had several emails and a phone call to make. I attempted to listen to the news report on NPR. I had to turn it off. The report of the transition activities of the new administration to come caused me to feel much worse. I did not need to add that to my state of physical decrepitude. Sauron waits and the orcs who inhabit Mordor, and those streaming in from the hinterlands, are anxious to pledge their fealty. The last thing that I heard before switching off the radio was the statement, “The American people have chosen their new champion!” The speaker sounded like Mike Pence. I’ve lived through many presidential elections and never have I thought of the individual elected, as a gladiator, a ruthless combatant. So, this is where we have come as a society.
During my lifetime it has been cinema and pop music that have forged the myths, the stories by which 
we understand ourselves, and the forces around us. I thought of Maureen McGovern’s theme song to The Posideon Adventure movie which was released in 1972. I remember seeing it once and vaguely remember some of the scenes. The story is of a cruise ship accident. It’s an adventure only if experienced on the wide screen. In real life, we’d call this by other names. Here is the youtube video, with McGoverns beautiful rendition of the tune which resembles a prayer, an appeal to hope.
The song was written in one night by 20th Century Fox song writers Al Kasha and Joel Hirschhorn. The finished product was called Why Must There Be A Morning After? Wisely the record label changed the lyric to a more optimistic form, There’s Got To Be A Morning After.
