At some point, while working on Part Two, I was listening to “I’ll Take You There”, by the Staple Singers, and I had this image of kids floating in zero gravity, laughing and bouncing around. I liked the idea, but it didn’t really fit that part of the book. It came back to me as I was working on Aedan’s playlist for Part Three.
It’s such an easy and hopeful groove, but as with so much good music, it emerges from a difficult cultural context. Easy and hopeful were aspirational and seemed a long way off. Easy and hopeful required a deep well of optimism. Easy and hopeful meant living beyond current events.
Easy and hopeful is how Aedan chose to finish his playlist for his daughters.
Excerpt:
Several minutes later, as the main engines shut off and the girls realized they were weightless, a soft funky bass line and a gospel female voice invited them to a place where nobody was crying, and nobody was worried. The music oozed comfort and good vibes. The sisters looked at each other as they floated and bobbed in their straps.
-- from Food: Generation Mars, Book Four
Easy and hopeful is a choice we must make each day, and that’s a good fit for this book.
Food: Generation Mars, Book Four is available at https://www.amazon.com/Food-Generation-Mars-Book-Four/dp/1733731083