Word Power

Pete Seeger song taken from the Bible: Ecclesiastes chapter3 v1-8

To every thing, turn, turn, turn

There is a season, turn, turn, turn

And a time to every purpose under heaven

A time to be born, a time to die

A time to plant, a time to reap

A time to kill, a time to heal

A time to laugh, a time to weep


To everything, turn, turn, turn

There is a season, turn, turn, turn

And a time to every purpose under heaven

A time to build up, a time to break down

A time to dance, a time to mourn

A time to cast away stones

A time to gather stones together


To everything, turn, turn, turn

There is a season, turn, turn, turn

And a time to every purpose under heaven



A time of love, a time of hate

A time of war, a time of peace

A time you may embrace

A time to refrain from embracing



To everything, turn, turn, turn

There is a season, turn, turn, turn

And a time to every purpose under heaven

A time to gain, a time to lose

A time to rend, a time to sew

A time to love, a time to hate

A time for peace, I swear it's not too late

Pete Seeger wrote this song in the late 1950s, and I am one of the many people whose mind was conditioned by these words. Now commonly called 'Baby Boomers', we relished the idea that words from the Bible could be used to stop war, and secretly wanted to be one of those 'hippies' that were seen on television, stoned out of their minds, but looking happy as they gave flowers to policemen. My parents were horrified about the whole situation and vilified Bob Dylan for telling us young people that our parent's no longer had any control over us. Of course, this made the parents work even harder at keeping control and many teenagers suffered badly throughout those years. We blamed our parents for their authoritarian attitudes, the cockiness of youth never stopping to analyse the lives that our parents had led. We knew that they were wrong. All the while these songs were played on our 'Dansette' record players left on the repeat setting. We wanted to show the older generation that we could quote from the Bible that they loved to quote at us. Even though my own parent's weren't church goers, they still knew what the Bible said, and it said that we had to respect the authority of our parents. They were right, the Bible does say this. We didn't know it at the time, but we were confused young people. We had been brainwashed, and many of us are still brainwashed today. It is still heresy in some families to criticise the Bible, because the importance of the written word, and the spoken word, and even the sung word are disregarded as unimportant, and we need to change this perception. There is never a time to kill, there is never a time to hate and no-one ever needs to refrain from embracing another human being. To believe that there is ever a time for war is beyond belief, the world is one, we never need to fight one another, there are far more powerful ways to live in harmony with our neighbours.

These words were written by religious zealots who feared being controlled by other nations and tribes, and yet thousands of years later we still repeat them like a mantra. A time to hate is a curse put upon the people. Hating someone is the same as drinking a cup of poison and expecting the other person to drop dead, it will never happen. If we want our lives to be peaceful, loving and filled with the love of others we need to learn how to forgive, a word not mentioned in the song.


The Byrds took up the mantra from Pete Seeger, The Seekers, Dolly Parton and in 2006 Bruce Springsteen added his authority to these beliefs. There is now a young generation of believers who can't see anything wrong with invading other countries to put right perceived wrongs. Young people that aren't taught that they are all powerful, that they need fear no-one or no-thing, this true belief would not serve the war mongers who believe that fighting is the way to steal a needed commodity or space. As a race we are in need of a complete makeover in our belief systems. It can be done, all it needs is personal courage and knowledge.


If you want to start your personal makeover visit: http://www.keystoattainment.net where you will find all the keys to open the doors to your peaceful kingdom.