Kris Kristofferson – Sunday morning coming down (1970)

Kris Kristofferson – Sunday morning coming down (1970)

Blog 3261 – 10.06.2024

Sunday Morning Coming Down

In a little less than a month, the day after Halloween will mark a day that I have remembered since I was a small boy, November 1st, my mother’s birthday. Had she not decided twenty-four years ago to end her own life, Alene Florence Davison White would perhaps be celebrating her ninety-third birthday this year.

She told me once that one of her favorite songs was Johnny Cash singing “Sunday Morning Coming Down. This past week Kris Kirstofferson, the author of that song and many more, died at the age of eighty-eight. Kris like all of us had his share of tragedies and disappointments in his life, but he chose to stick it out to its conclusion. I wish my mother had. I have certainly missed the time I might have had with her as others who loved her as I have did too I am sure.

Mom, as long as I remember had a tendency to see the darker side of things. The Hank Williams song, I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry, came out the year before my mom and dad were married. She was eighteen and dad was twenty-five. They were married forty-seven years, never very on happily married, till dad died suddenly in July of 1997. Mom never forgave him for “leaving her” and lost her will to live, in the words of Hank’s song.

I’M SO LONESOME I COULD CRY (1949) by Hank Williams

I’M SO LONESOME I COULD CRY (1949) by Hank Williams

On this Sunday morning coming down, twenty-four years after Mama ended her life, I am thinking of all the lonely people like my mom and Elenor Rigby that the Beatles wrote and sang about, people who for whatever reason feel disconnected and alone, and who have perhaps lost the will to live.

Eleanor Rigby (Remastered 2015)

Eleanor Rigby (Remastered 2015)

I am thinking of yet another song and can hear it my heart and mind, the sweet voice of Diana Ross singing: “Reach out and touch somebody’s hand, make this world a better place if you can.” Kris Kristofferson did that, Johnny Cash did that, Diana Ross has too and so can we to remind people, “You not alone.”

Your friend and fellow traveler,

David White

Johnny Cash – Sunday Morning Coming Down (The Best Of The Johnny Cash TV Show)

Johnny Cash – Sunday Morning Coming Down (The Best Of The Johnny Cash TV Show)