Shoulders come in all shapes and sizes. Some shoulders can be used as a ladder up, some a safe place to lean on. Some people have a “good head on their shoulders” and others “feel the weight of the world on their shoulders.”
I have powerful memories of shoulders. I stand on the shoulders of David Elcott, who urged me to write my first song, and Shelly Dorph, who underwrote my first album and David Wolpe who pushed me to create Friday Night Live with him.
I even stand on the shoulders of a relative who told me, “You’ll never amount to anything.” I was eight years old. Some would say he stood on my toes, I used – and still use – his words as motivation to try harder and do better.
The theme for Jewels would not exist had I not heard Doug Cotler’s song, “Standing on the Shoulders.” And the Pico Union Project would not exist without the inspiration of Christians, Jews and Arabs who lived together behind the old walls of Toledo for hundreds of years during the Golden Age of Spain.
I hope these Jewels motivate you to look back, look in, and look forward. It’s by telling and listening to stories that we remember how we got here, and who we are.
It’s the most human thing we can do.
Craig Taubman is a musician, appointed Los Angeles County Commissioner and the founder of the Pico Union Project www.picounionproject.org
Standing on the Shoulders
In the garden there’s a tree
Planted by someone who only imagined me.
What love! What vision!
I marvel at the gift.
No fruit could be sweeter than this.
I’m standing on the shoulders of the ones who came before me
As my people went from land to land,
Something passed from hand to hand.
And it isn’t just the words and stories
Of the ancient laws and golden glories.
It’s the way we study
The Book we study.
It’s the way we study the way.
I’m standing on the shoulders of the ones who came before me
Today my life is full of choice,
Because a young man raised his voice.
Because a young girl took a chance,
I am freedom’s inheritance.
Years ago they crossed the sea,
And they made a life that’s come to me.
I’m standing on the shoulders of the ones who came before me
So in the garden I’ll plant a seed,
A tree of life for you to read.
The fruit will ripen in the sun.
The words will sound when I am gone.
These are the things I pass along:
The fruit, the book, and the song.
I’m standing on the shoulders of the ones who came before me
Lanny, Steve & Doug Cotler
