All I really need...

"All I really need
is a song in my heart
food in my belly
love in my family"

"Ching lives in China, Maria lives in Italy...
Each one is just like the other
The child of a mother and a father
a very special son or daughter
A lot like me and you"

"When the rain comes down (when a baby smiles/when the sun shines)
It comes down on everyone
When the rain comes down
It comes down on everyone,
No matter if you're rich or poor
No matter if you're great or small
when the rain comes down
It comes down on us all."

The single most-played DVD in our house is the Raffi video. For those unfamiliar with Raffi, he is a children's composer/singer. Known for his simple, gentle and soft-spoken presence, he's been much loved by kids for over 20 years. There are no big colors, animated dances, or flashy pictures; just a plain guy strumming guitar and singing away with a small band behind. The kids can't get enough of him, and the songs get hummed all day in the house, even by Paul and me. We also love music by Cathy Fink and Marci Marxer. Simple tunes and lyrics that ring beautifully in your head.

What really draws me to these artists is the message their songs convey. Though always simple and universal, I am shocked to be reminded that such messages don't get across in the adult world much at all. At what point do we stop telling children abou t them?

Even since Noah was born, I have often been moved to tears by some of the children's songs. It's a little embarrassing... At first I thought it was the post-partum hormones. But until today, when songs remind us of the universality of human kind, the fact that each and every child is in a way the same, has the same basic needs, deserves the same love and care, I have the same feelings. These are, you would say, absolute truisms, of course. I think it's precisely because they are so true that makes me sad. Looking into the eyes of a little child, it's so easy and intuitive to see your own child. At the very simple and basic level, we are really all the same. If some of the world's decision-makers became sympathetic to this fact, would it be a slightfly more peaceful world?

When traveling or relocating to a foreign place, we tend to first see what's different. People tend to ask about the differences. Reporting on the differences help us define our ways of life, and sometimes differences annoy us or even cause prejudices against "those others". While the reportability of novelty provides conversational topics and laughters, I only recently have reminded myself, perhaps seeing things from this perspective inevitably makes us ignore the simple and important qualities that we all share, the values that we all posess, the universality in motherhood, in friendship, in love.