Sorrows

Pack up your sorrows by Richard Farina and Pauline Baez Marden was covered by some big names--the link is Johnny Cash. A duo at the Corn Fest played the song this evening--the first time I'd heard it since the early 70's.

Strangely enough, the last time I'd heard it was in church. "But if somehow you could pack up your sorrows And give them all to me You would lose them, I know how to use them, give them all to me."

It seems to fit about as well in church, maybe a tad better. An artist telling someone that he know how to use sorrows (presumably making songs of them) seems a bit callous, and the unlikely "you would lose them" is conditional on that "if somehow."

Jesus, on the other hand, can use sorrows. I suggested a time or two or three that suffering can be a means of union with God. For some of us it seems to be the main means here on Earth.

Once again though, you don't "lose" those sorrows. That seemed to be the implication of the song's use in that youth group eons ago, but I think I'm safe in saying that it just isn't true. There can be compensating joys, and sharing sorrows can sometimes lessen the pain. "I know. Grief is great. Only you and I in this land know that yet. Let us be good to one another."