Them That’s Got Shall Get

Them That’s Not Shall…

Us grown folk (sticking with the title’s dialect) recognize these words from a Billie Holiday classic:  God Bless the Child. But whether you listen to Billie’s version or those sung by Diana Ross (portraying Billie Holliday), Aretha Franklin, Whitney Houston, or literally dozens of others, they all stem from the shared melancholic African American experience at the time of the song’s origin.

Outside of us “boomers” as some like to call us, young’uns might fail to delve beyond the melancholy message rendered at the beginning of the song.  By doing so, they desert the song before it reaches the message of hope that lies buried beneath the sadness.

You see it’s true that ‘them that’s got shall get.’ It is also true that ‘them that’s not shall lose’ but only if they pass up the opportunity to get what they would otherwise lose. You see sometimes you have to reach way down and dig deep to muster up the strength, courage, and the vision of hope. Hope alone is not the answer. Belief and action must accompany hope. Hope on its own is futile but realizing that there is always reason to hope is the opening that we often need to reach higher.

God Bless the Child by Billie Holliday remains a classic rendition of a combination of melancholy and hope. However, we have to allow our minds to receive messages in their entirety and not get stuck on repeat of the downtrodden aspects (of life).

Keep hope alive and God bless the child that gets your own.