Bob Schwartz

At this moment, the mountains, sun and clouds are related. Soon after, the sun rises higher and lightens the whole mountains, the clouds dissipate, and the mountains stand there.

It is an overstatement to say that any one photo captures an era.

And yet, this photo of two models and two American presidents (or to-be) is bursting with meaning.

The least recognizable person is model Kylie Bax, a long-time friend of Donald Trump.

The other three are major American figures. Donald Trump and Bill Clinton need no introduction, and Melania Knauss (later Melania Trump) is also well-known.

It is difficult, near impossible, not to interpret the photo based on everything we now know or assume. Worth way more than a thousand words.

There are many ways to point out the importance, primacy, essentiality of personal transformation.

That begs three questions: important for what, transformation to what, and how? Let me sidestep those monumental questions, saying only and simply: important to make you and others happy, in one of the many ways available.

A thing that prompts this is my observation of how many initiatives—religion, economics, politics being just a few—are devoted to engagement and practices aimed at “better” outcomes for yourself and others (going to heaven, joining a community, making money, donating money, getting a president elected), but leaving you the same as you were before. Not that all those outcomes aren’t worthy in themselves. But what about you? How would a different mind make a difference?

Above is my favorite expression of the imperative for personal transformation, equal to or better than the words of the wisest masters. It comes from the title of a 1970 Funkadelic album. The album cover is also a favorite.

Free your mind…and your ass will follow. True that.

In 1984, Bob Geldof organized an all-star recording to raise consciousness about famine in Ethiopia and raise money to help alleviate it. Now an ultimate mix has been released, combining the original recording with later anniversary versions created in 2004 and 2014. The Guardian reports:

For 40 years, Band Aid’s Do They Know It’s Christmas? has been praised by some as a triumph of charitable fundraising and festive songwriting – and condemned by others as the most high-profile example of white saviourhood in pop.

Now, to mark its latest anniversary, the song is coming back around for a fourth time, in the form of an all-star splicing of the three previous official versions.

Announcing the new version, Bob Geldof, who masterminded the 1984 original, says Do They Know It’s Christmas? “tells the story not just of unbelievably great generational British talent, but still stands as a rebuke to that period in which it was first heard. The 80s proclaimed that ‘greed is good’. This song says it isn’t. It says it’s stupid.” Proceeds will benefit the Band Aid Charitable Trust, which supports health and anti-poverty initiatives across Africa.

Criticism from artists and activists have increased over the years. They say: It is an example of paternalism. It is an example of otherness. It leaves the wrong impression about Africa. Artists also complain that it is not a very good piece of music.

My thoughts:

If it wasn’t for charities, or in this case a song, pleading with people to donate, there would not be broader recognition of how widespread food insecurity and starvation is, not just in Africa and other places of crisis, but right here in America.

Ideology has its place, though it often goes places it shouldn’t. If people are hungry or starving, feed them. Since it is Christmas time, I am bound to mention that the main figure of that holiday told us all, whatever our tradition, to do just that.

If a catchy recording featuring mega-stars brings attention to this, I would rather listen to it a thousand times rather than being reminded incessantly about how buying stuff and giving stuff is the reason for the season. It isn’t.

Final thought: To those who are younger, it may seem that all this fuss about Band Aid is “nostalgia” for a long-gone time, featuring some “really old” artists. Unfortunately, starvation never goes out of style, but fortunately neither does helping.