Here at Watchfire Music we like to define Inspirational music as a very wide umbrella incorporating not only sacred music of all denominations, but also any music that uplifts the mind, that enlivens the soul, that inspires.  So love songs are inspirational, motivational songs are inspirational and even issue songs can be inspirational.

To that end, I have been working on just such an issue song for the last month that has got me lying awake at night.  I can’t get the energies, the melodies, the rhythms and the words out of my brain long enough to go to sleep.  Now its haunting me with both its intent and its intensity.

For the last year now I had been mulling over an idea that intrigued me.  Now it seems to be blossoming full to greet us some time this spring.  I’ve lived with the title Silk Road for some time now.  I didn’t know why I thought it was a song, but I’ve since discovered it in full.

My research discovered that “The Silk Routes (collectively known as the “Silk Road”) were important paths for cultural, commercial and technological exchange between traders, merchants, pilgrims, missionaries, soldiers, nomads and urban dwellers from Ancient China, Ancient India, Ancient Tibet, Persian Empire and Mediterranean countries for almost 3,000 years.^[5] It gets its name from the lucrative Chinese silk trade, which began during the Han Dynasty (206 BCE – 220 CE).”

“Extending 4,000 miles (6,500 km), the routes enabled people to transport goods, slaves and luxuries such as silk, satin, hemp and other fine fabrics, musk, other perfumes, spices, medicines, jewels, glassware and even rhubarb, as well as serving as a conduit for the spread of knowledge, ideas, cultures, zoological specimens and some non indigenous disease conditions^[6] between Ancient China, Ancient India (Indus valley, now Pakistan), Asia Minor and the Mediterranean. Trade on the Silk Road was a significant factor in the development of the great civilizations of China, India, Egypt, Persia(Ancient Iran), Arabia, and Rome, and in several respects helped lay the foundations for the modern world.”

“Richard Foltz, Xinru Liu and others have described how trading activities along the Silk Road over many centuries facilitated the transmission not just of goods but also ideas and culture, notably in the area of religions. Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Buddhism, Christianity, Manichaeism, and Islam all spread across Eurasia through trade networks that were tied to specific religious communities and their institutions.”

I was watching the news about 2 weeks ago and was fascinated at how fast the mostly peaceful demonstrations for change in Egypt were spreading throughout the world.  Libya was just beginning to get the idea that they too did not have to live under the madness of a wacko dictator and they were just beginning to demonstrate as well.

The idea that people just did not have to take it anymore seemed to be sweeping the globe.  I thought to myself, “In this accelerated world of ours, good ideas get transported in next to no time now.”  Countries are no longer sheltered from the rest of the world like China was back in the 50s.  Today, news travels like lightening over radio, television and now the Internet.

It came to me that the Internet is today’s Silk Road.  It connects the people of the world and transports ideas among its people.  Yesteryear it might have taken months to travel from Europe to China, but today even the common man knows this morning what happened nearly everywhere last night.

Travelling down the Silk Road
Travelling down the Silk Road
Weaving the silver threads of knowledge
We spin our lives
Travelling down the Silk Road

Travelling down the Silk Road
Travelling down the Silk Road
Spanning a world in evolution
We journey on
Travelling down the Silk Road

We’re travelling down the Silk Road
To a different drum
To a different sound
To a better world
To a higher ground

We have a chance now
There’s a Silk Road connecting minds and hearts
Showing all mankind
Just what could be
And what should be
On the Silk Road

It’s a revolution of the common man
Saying, “Just let us live our lives in peace
No sleepless nights,
No crying child
No fear, you hear?
No bloodshed
No thousands dead in Libya
Just peace instead
On the Silk Road”

In ancient times this road transported
Silk and satin
Herbs and spices
Cinnamon ginger
Clove and nutmeg
Musk ivory jade glass and gold
The intercourse of mankind young and old…

…Today we still travel this road
It’s a different time
But the same old tale
Trying to right the wrong
But on a larger scale

We have a chance now
With this gathering of ideas, cultures, technology!
To show all mankind
Just what could be
And what should be
On the Silk Road

Spreading through the minds of the common man
Saying, “We just don’t have to live like this
Or die like this
Or think like this
Or fear like this
Or take it”
We’ll live our lives in peaceful times
And carry on
Down the Silk Road”

It happened in America
With Martin Luther King
It happened in India
With Mahatma Gandhi
It happened in Egypt
With the people
The common man
The common man
The common man

Travelling down the Silk Road
Travelling down the Silk Road
Chasing the Age of Information
And on we go
Travelling down the Silk Road

Travelling down the Silk Road
Travelling down the Silk Road
Bridging the thoughts and grand ideas
Of all mankind
Travelling down the Silk Road

Stay tuned…