As we ponder the garden, let us consider the poetics of Joni Mitchell, “We’ve got to get ourselves back to the garden.” There is a common tendency to lean upon the foggy lens of nostalgia in framing our past and in this case, our natural being. Creation is messy, involving dead ends and unrealized aspirations. But the leaf upon the branch finds light and nourishment, and leans toward the sun where its future lies.
Another line from Woodstock, “We are stardust, we are golden” lays claim to the grounding quality of our common humanity. A college astronomy professor of mine once made me literally bolt upright in my seat by stating, “You were once part of a star.” Yes, all of our chemical makeup at the cellular level was once hurling through space contained within the heavenly bodies. Our DNA, our mitochondria was and is stardust, remnants of the Big Bang.
Might we come to learn to appreciate our biological communion with the cosmic structure of the universe?
“I came upon a child of god
He was walking along the road
And I asked him, where are you going
And this he told me
I’m going on down to Yasgur’s farm
I’m going to join in a rock ‘n roll band
I’m going to camp out on the land
I’m going to try and get my soul free
We are stardust
We are golden
And we’ve got to get ourselves
Back to the garden
Then can I walk beside you
I have come here to lose the smog
And I feel to be a cog in something turning
Well maybe it is just the time of year
Or maybe its the time of man
I don’t know who l am
But you know life is for learning
We are stardust
We are golden
And we’ve got to get ourselves
Back to the garden
By the time we got to Woodstock
We were half a million strong
And everywhere there was song and celebration
And I dreamed I saw the bombers
Riding shotgun in the sky
And they were turning into butterflies
Above our nation
We are stardust, billion year old carbon
We are golden, caught in the devils bargain
And we’ve got to get ourselves
Back to the garden”
© 1970 Siquomb Publishing Corp, Reprise / Warner Music
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