The pastors at the church my wife and I attend (Northfield United Methodist Church) have been preaching about the book of Ruth and idea of hesed. Hesed is a Hebrew word meaning steadfast love. But it’s more than just an emotion or feeling, but it is love in action on behalf of someone who is in need. This seems timely now doesn’t it? From acting on behalf of our literal neighbors to our fellow humans on the other side of the world, I’ve been thinking about this concept of hesed.

During this same week the song prompt for a songwriting group I’m in was “four-letter words.” Well you can imagine the first ideas that came to me. Meanwhile, with this concept of hesed still rattling around in my head, I was reading about the fall of Kabul and refugees desperately clinging to planes trying to take off. A recent veteran wrote in a comment to that NYT about his sadness and his recurring nightmares after having served and now seeing it all fall apart, questioning his sacrifice and sacrifice of “brother” lost to a roadside IED. Upon reading these accounts, and reflecting on these images, all that came to me was “maybe love and hate aren’t the only choices.” And so the “four-letter word” song began. So here it is.

And so you know it isn’t all doom and gloom, the previous song from the prompt “circumference” was the “Rotundary, Circumferency, Can’t See My Shoes Blues.”

Ta