Up on the Roof

Can We Find Our Way?

Carole King and Gerry Goffin wrote the song back in 1962. The Drifters made it a big hit that same year.

Other people also sang it, including Julie Grant, Kenny Lynch, Little Eva, Jimmy Justice, Richard Anthony, Laura Nyro, Ike and Tina Turner, Kenny Rankin, the Nylons, the Cover Girls, and Tuck and Patti.

Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band covered the song live in 1975 during their initial Born to Run Tour. And James Taylor did a version that remains his last top 40 hit as a soloist.

I’m talking about the iconic “Up on the Roof,” with lyrics that begin:
When this old world starts getting me down
And people are just too much for me to face
I climb way up to the top of the stairs
And all my cares just drift right into space

Right now for many of us, going Up on the Roof doesn’t sound like a bad idea. This old world is getting a lot of us down, and many people are just too much for us to face. It would be a mighty fine feeling for all cares to just drift right off into space.

I don’t blame you for thinking that way. It’s been a season of turbulence. We’re seeing weather extremes, from hurricanes, storms, severe heat, fires, floods, earthquakes, and more, all within the context of the recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report saying we are nearing a tipping point on climate change.

We’re seeing the ravages of war, as the U.S. ended their folly in Afghanistan, a war that never should have begun.

We’re seeing an economic system of unfettered capitalism shattering the social contract of society, creating a level of wealth inequality that makes the Gilded Age of the late 19th century look like peanuts.

We’re seeing a pandemic that seemingly has no end.

And we’re seeing people at each other’s throats, over all these issues, ready to seemingly kill one another.

Can we find our way? Or is the only answer to go Up on the Roof?

We are warring with other nations, especially nations rich in natural resources and impoverished people. We are also warring among ourselves, and ultimately, we are warring with our own psyches, stuck in an endless cycle of anger, fear, hate, greed, selfishness, loneliness, fragmentation, trauma, abuse, addiction, and more.

We need to love more, and be loved more, We need to be heard, and hear others, We need to care for others, and be cared for. We need to give more to others, without asking for anything in return. We need to appreciate our differences. And we need to slow down.

Furthermore, it can’t be all about money and power over others. There is an entire world out there that emphasizes the Commons and the public good, with no money attached–the water, the air, the forests, and all other living and nonliving organisms. We can live in synergy with all these, if we want. Or we can choose the path of destruction.

The choice is ours. I think the answer is obvious, in that most of us want peace. And love.

There is a path forward. Through social cohesion, in which we come together as a people, we can move away from this dystopic nightmare and move towards a more just, compassionate, caring, sustainable, regenerative and wise future.

There is a way to get there. It will take political will, an economic transformation, and perhaps most importantly, a change in mindest–akin to a spiritual transformation. We need to go from a scarcity way of living to an abundance approach.

The famed economist John Maynard Keynes envisioned a world that was a post-scarcity society and spoke about it In an essay he wrote in 1930, “Economic Possibilities for Our Grandchildren.” In it, he saw a coming age of abundance within 100 years. That means we’ve got nine years to bring Keynes’ vision to fruition.

Man, do we have a lot of work ahead of us. But we can do it. I have faith.

Just remember, it’s all about the Commons and the public good. By focusing on these, we can find our way.

To put it in easy to remember terms: share and care, collaborate and cooperate. And also, the best things in life are free–as sung by the Ink Spots, Sam Cooke, Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra and others, from the 1927 song The Best Things in Life Are Free, written by the songwriting team of DeSylva, Brown and Henderson:

The moon belongs to everyone
The best things in life are free
The stars belong to everyone
They gleam there for you and for me

The flowers in spring, the robins that sing
The moonbeams that shine
They’re yours, they’re mine

And love can come to everyone
The best things in life are free
And love can come to everyone
The best things in life are free

In the interim, if you do feel like going Up on the Roof so that all your cares just drift off into space, be my guest. And when you come back down, be ready to have a renewed vigor for the transformation ahead. 

We can do it.