Steve Russell: Music forms the soundtrack of our lives and times

By the time you are pushing 40, you understand why oldies radio stations are common coast to coast. You hear the first few bars and you can name the tune and the artist. Even more important, the music transports you to a time and place.

Where you lived, where you went to school or worked, which car you drove and who your lover was—all these memories hide, for my generation, in grooves on vinyl. I internalized this when I caught myself singing along with the radio and enjoying a tune I could not stand when it was popular. It failed to carry enough meaning to satisfy me when it was new, but now it illustrates some months of my life. I listen to enjoy the view.

Unfortunately, soundtracks of the parts of my life that mean the most to me now do not get on the radio. I treasure most my years of involvement in the Civil Rights Movement, when we dared greatly and achieved greatly.

We changed the world and most of us changed ourselves in the process. We lived though the kind of adversity that bonds people together no less than military combat, and that adversity had a wonderful way of clarifying values.

The Civil Rights Movement reconciled me to Christians. It didn’t make me a Christian but I became tolerant of people who attributed their own goodness to fear that a powerful Invisible Friend would punish evil acts. I’ve witnessed selflessness and courage that command respect no matter what the source.