Musical Monday - Just One Person by Kevin Clash, Dave Goelz, Richard Hunt, Jerry Nelson, Frank Oz, and Steve Witmire

So, another school shooting, this time in Parkland, Florida, this time the body count was seventeen. This seems all too familiar, too tragically "normal". But this time the survivors have come out demanding that real change take place. There are some people who have become tired of fighting the lobbying efforts of the NRA, and view such efforts as little more than tilting at windmills, but the teens at the center of this have not yet succumbed to such cynicism and fatigue. They believe that change can take place if they just push hard enough, and on a fundamental level, they are correct. This is why every political movement needs fresh blood on a regular basis - to inject optimism and hope into it. It is possible that out of the Parkland tragedy, something good might finally happen.

I've said this before, and it is still true: The message that Jim Henson's work sends is that we could live in a better world, and that we should aspire to make the world we live in that better world. Though this song is mostly about believing in oneself, the message it sends applies really to any kind of cause. All it takes is one person to start something that can build into a force. Mothers Against Drunk Driving was started by one mother who lost her child, and it ended up changing not just the laws concerning the laws about drunk driving, but how society viewed the issue as well. Things can be changed, we just have to believe that they can and then act on those beliefs.

This performance is from Jim Henson's memorial service, and is the tail end of a medley of his favorite songs sung by his closest collaborators. They performed most of the medley as themselves, but I think it is somewhat significant that they chose to perform this song as their Muppet alter egos. The obvious reason is that they wanted to pay homage to what Henson had created, but I think the deeper reason is that the Muppets inhabit a better world than ours. They live in the world that we could inhabit if we just chose to make it happen one person at a time.

Previous Musical Monday: Simon Zealotes by Larry Marshall

Subsequent Musical Monday: I'm Gonna Getcha Good by Shania Twain

Kevin Clash     Dave Goelz     Richard Hunt

Jerry Nelson     Frank Oz     Steve Whitmire

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