Cat Stevens -- Where do the children play?

I just discovered Cat Steven's song, Where do the children play? and I got shivers, while working on the computer. Buy it on itunes, or wherever. (Our credit card is linked to itunes, so we can explore and find a song or two of various artists we come across. I don't even have an ipod, but itunes is great.) Music is really important.

I feel artists pick up, and channel messages bigger than them.

Here are the words, as I want to really listen to them. But just listen to it k.

Well I think it's fine, building jumbo planes.
Or taking a ride on a cosmic train.
Switch on summer from a slot machine.
Yes, get what you want to if you want, 'cause you can get anything.

I know we've come a long way,
We're changing day to day,
But tell me, where do the children play?

Well you roll on roads over fresh green grass.
For your lorry loads pumping petrol gas.And you make them long, and you make them tough.
But they just go on and on, and it seems that you can't get off.

Oh, I know we've come a long way,
We're changing day to day,
But tell me, where do the children play?

Well you've cracked the sky, scrapers fill the air.
But will you keep on building higher
'til there's no more room up there?
Will you make us laugh, will you make us cry?
Will you tell us when to live, will you tell us when to die?
I know we've come a long way,
We're changing day to day,
But tell me, where do the children play?
As a mother, all I do is herd my children beside and away from roads. They can't run free outside because of roads (or developed space). So I really understand this. I also realize by my instincts, how much they need to be running around in a country wild setting, outdoors, in the grass and trees. Because there isn't that space.

It's about our culture's belief that we have come to a great place in our culture, but actually, what do we lose? I challenge this assumption. What we lose when we develop everything is of far greater value. Freedom, wildness, birds...forts...being somewhere outside ourselves.

(Another amazing song of Cat Steven's is of course Father and Son.)

P.S. Also check out Ben Harper's Better Way.