I woke the other morning with these words doing circle work in my brain. “Where seldom is heard a discouraging word” the line of course comes from the old song, “Home on the range” which I remember learning in primary school. It was either a choir piece or a band piece but may also have been a recorder or piano piece. Regardless, I would not have heard the song in 45 years and certainly it has not had any head space of mine for about as long.

So imagine my surprise when I woke up pondering the line as it rattled through my head. I even found myself mouthing the words, silently of course, as my bride was still asleep. I wondered how lovely a world it would be if “seldom was heard a discouraging word” and I what should I be doing to make this happen? Was it a message? A hint perhaps or some sort of direction? Was I discouraging someone?

Here is what I settled upon, via my stream of consciousness. How annoying that even 45 years later, words from popular American frontier folk tunes can pop into my head, they have no business being there and why did I even have to learn them in the first place? American folk music and English history took the place of so much of what I should have been learning in school. Why was our Australian education process so keen to rewrite history where Australian Aboriginals were concerned. What a disparity there was between the best and worst of my school education. How often is seldom? Is thinking a discouraging word pretty much the same as saying it? Who would I discourage if I could?

Is someone discouraging me? How could I possibly let anyone do that to me? What was I thinking, allowing that to happen? Who are these people?

As you can see my brain is a strange and sometimes conflicted place at 5am.