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For the third Sunday in a row I present to you a song by Lakota Sioux folk singer Floyd Red Crow Westerman. I didn't mean to make a Sunday night series out of it, but now I think I will...for his songs have meaning in a way that seriously lacks in todays music. Red Crows mother watched as he was taken away to residential school. They never got to really know each other.

It may not be immediately comparable...but many of us have been separated from one or both parents. I never knew really knew my father. My mother is so dear to me. I had dinner with the mother of my kids tonight as a token towards my birthday. Maybe that's why this song of Floyd's is so on my heart. The forces of capitalism, imperialism, colonization and more have made it so hard to just be with the ones who love us. There is so much heartbreak. There is so much need for connection, the kind of connection only strong family makes.

Many of us cannot get over the fact that we never found genuine security in family. If that was hard to live with...can you imagine the damage that was done by the residential school system! This was more than the destruction of families. It was the destruction of culture. The damage done is not a thing of the past, it's something we carry and pass on. Some healing comes in time...but it's a collective effort.

I'm so glad I have this Red Crow album on vinyl record. For more than a decade it's been my favorite album in the house. It chokes me up and hits me deep in the heart. What a beautiful voice, a beautiful man, a beautiful album.