"Once in a lifetime, hope and history rhyme."

This is how the Irish national news broadcast ended on Saturday, November 7th, after Joe Biden was declared the winner of the 2020 Presidential election. It is a must-watch.

The words come from the great Irish poet Seamus Heaney's The Cure at Troy: A Version of Sophocles' Philoctetes, a verse adaptation of Sophocles' play Philoctetes, first published in 1991.

Human being suffer.

They torture one another

They get hurt, and get hard.

No poem, or play, or song

Can fully write the wrong

Inflicted and endured.

History says, don't hope

On this side of the grave.

But then, once in a lifetime

The longed-for tidal wave

Of justice can rise up,

And hope and history rhyme.

So hope for a great sea-change

On the far side of revenge.

Believe that a further shore

Is reachable from here.

Believe in miracle

And cures and healing wells.

Call miracle self-healing:

The utter, self-revealing

Double-take of feeling.

If there's fire on the mountain

Or lightning and storm

And a god speaks from the sky

That means someone is hearing

The outcry and the birth-cry

Of new life at its term.

It means once in a lifetime,

justice can rise up

and hope and history rhyme.

***

I could think of no more appropriate song to accompany this post than "Drowning Man," one of U2's most beautiful songs, from their 1983 album War. The song, whose lyrics were adapted by Bono from the Bible (Isaiah 40 v28-31), was written about bassist Adam Clayton, who was struggling with serious substance abuse problems while the album was being recorded. Its message of brotherhood, perseverance, and hope, however, are timeless, and universal.

Take my hand

You know I'll be there

If you can

I'll cross the sky for your love

For I have promised

Oh, to be with you tonight

And for the time that will come

Take my hand

You know I'll be there

If you can

I'll cross the sky for your love

And I understand

These winds and tides

This change of times

Won't drag you away

Hold on, and hold on tightly

Hold on, and don't let go of my love

The storms will pass (the storm will pass)

It won't be long now (it won't be long now)

His love will last

His love will last, forever

Take my hand

You know I'll be there

If you can

I'll cross the sky for your love

Give you what I hold dear

Hold on, hold on tightly

Hold on, hold on tightly

Rise up, rise up

With wings like eagles

You run, you run

You run and not grow weary

Hold on, hold on tightly

Hold on, hold on tightly

To this love last forever

To this love last forever

Take my hand

Take my hand