On Friday, May 3, 2024, I was in attendance at a ceremony honoring Peter and Celia Scott, who are pictured above. The photo, let me reveal, dates from an earlier time - though not nearly as early as the era that Peter talked about in his remarks. As you will see, if you read on, there is a reason that I have deferred reporting on that ceremony last May until this particular day in October!
The May 3rd ceremony, held at The Resource Center For Nonviolence, in Santa Cruz, California, was hosted by the Campaign For Sustainable Transportation, which recognized Peter and Celia for their decades of work on behalf of the natural environment, with special attention paid to their leadership role in fighting destructive big freeway projects in Santa Cruz County. Of course, as Peter was quick to make clear - and as is absolutely true - lots of people have figured in our past community efforts to protect the natural environment, and to preserve the character and quality of the community.
After introductory remarks, letting those in attendance know exactly why Peter and Celia were being honored (and letting the audience know about others being honored, as well), Peter took the stage, accompanied by his banjo, and then led the crowd in singing "Dancing On The Brink Of The World." I have included the full lyrics to the song at the end of this blog posting. While there is not, unfortunately, any YouTube or comparable video of Peter and Celia singing the song, Peter has been kind enough to furnish me with a brief video excerpt, which will let readers get the flavor of the song. I am actually hoping that maybe Peter and Celia, and their musical friends, will do a recording, sometime, to make the entire song more "present" to those who love Santa Cruz, and the San Lorenzo River. It's a rather special song!
As already revealed, the song to which attendees were treated is titled, "Dancing On The Brink Of The World," but it is also known as "The River Song." The lyrics were mainly by Celia, and the song was more or less a campaign theme song during Celia's successful campaign for the Santa Cruz City Council, in 1994, a campaign which ended with Celia receiving more votes than any other candidate.
As Peter described the origins of the song, he noted the special place that October 17th (today's date) has had in Santa Cruz County history. The significance of the date has been demonstrated as recently as 1989, but October 17th has been important to Santa Cruz right from the very beginning. Here is a quick write-up by Peter:
In Don Clark’s Santa Cruz County Place Names, we discovered that Portola ́ first camped on the river on October 17, 1769, the very same day of the year that we experienced our most recent major earthquake—October 17, 1989. It was a magical coincidence. Cresp ́ı, in his diary recording the discovery in 1769, notes that in the bed of the river “...there is a thick growth of cottonwoods and alders...” and that “Besides the growth along the river there are many redwoods ...” and that “Not far from the stream, we found ... [a] variety of herbs and roses of Castile.”
Looking in Malcolm Margolin’s The Ohlone Way, we found the following: “There is an Ohlone song ... from which only one evocative line survives: 'Dancing on the brink of the World.'" We know nothing more about this song, just that one haunting line. Could this refer to earthquakes experienced by the Ohlones?
Celia and Peter's song sprang from the research that Peter has outlined above. The music springs from a love for this place, for the river and all the lands that surround it, those lands raised from beneath the Pacific Ocean to make a home for those of us privileged to live here, in Santa Cruz, now.
As I point out rather frequently, we live, actually, in "Two Worlds," simultaneously. Most immediately, we live in a world of our own design, the product of our decisions and our actions. Ultimately, though, we live in the "Natural World," and that is the world that supports every human effort and endeavor.
Let us never forget this. Let us never forget which of these two worlds is "primary." Our active and enterprising lives - and all the things we do, and create, our entire human civilization - are, indeed, a dance "on the brink of the world."
May we always celebrate that World of Nature that makes all we do possible.
May we never forget!
oooOOOooo
Dancing On The Brink Of The World
(Also Known As The River Song)
In seventeen sixty-nine,
Don Gaspar de Portola ́Camped by the riverside
’Mid the alders and the cottonwoods
And roses of Castile,
Singin’ to the redwoods
Ran a river, wild and deep:
San Lorenzo, you’re the river,Flowing down, from the mountains to the sea.By the river, Santa Cruz:You’re our home, and the place we want to be.
Long before Don Gaspar came,
Ohlones made their place here;
The river their companion
For at least five thousand years.
They made up their own language,
We know only seven words
Of a song: They sang of “...dancing
On the brink of the world...”
San Lorenzo, you’re the river,Flowing down, from the mountains to the sea.By the river, Santa Cruz:You’re our home, and the place we want to be.
For sixty million years or so
The river has been flowing,
If we could ask her just one question,
Here’s what it would be:
When the mountains rose up from the sea,
Oh did you feel the shaking
Of Mother Earth as she gave birth
To all the lands we see?
San Lorenzo, you’re the river,Flowing down, from the mountains to the sea.By the river, Santa Cruz:You’re our home, and the place we want to be.
In December nineteen fifty five
When the rains came pouring down,
You carried all that water
And you poured it o’er our town.
Then the engineers, the very next year,
They put you in a channel:
Our river, once so wild and free
Felt like an enemy.
San Lorenzo, you’re the river,Flowing down, from the mountains to the sea.By the river, Santa Cruz:You’re our home, and the place we want to be.
On the seventeenth of October
In nineteen eighty nine,
Santa Cruz deep down was shaken
By nature’s design;
From the mountain tops to the ocean cliffs
There was a mighty roar
We found that we were “...dancing
On the brink of the world...”
San Lorenzo, you’re the river,Flowing down, from the mountains to the sea.By the river, Santa Cruz:You’re our home, and the place we want to be.
In our vision for the future
There’s a river running clear,
Where the salmon and the steelhead
Raise their young ones every year;
’Mid the alders and the cottonwoods
And roses of Castile,
We shall all be “...dancing
On the brink of the world ...”
San Lorenzo, you’re the river,Flowing down, from the mountains to the sea.By the river, Santa Cruz:You’re our home, and the place we want to be.
(2) - The San Lorenzo River, Gary Patton personal photo (10-15-24)
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