She is rigged out and handsome, a maid of the sea,
bound on a journey for humanity.
She'll sail through the morning to the great ocean wide,
bearing the longing that is carried inside.
- Tom Wisner, The Land Mary-Land
I spent Maryland day down at one of my old stomping grounds, and was humming that tune from Tom Wisner when we walked down to the Maryland Dove on March 25. It might be one of the last times I'll get to see the Dove before it's decommissioned this fall.
I've spent a good amount of time at HSMC over the years, as a kid, as a college student and even for a few seasons as an employee. I also performed there with chorus students for a number of years at the annual Riverfest.
If I remember correctly, a small band of those students even lobbied in Annapolis to get the Tom Wisner song instated as Maryland's new state song. The somewhat dated original state song Maryland, My Maryland was itself recently "decommissioned", so who knows, maybe it's time to strike up the chorus again?!
I keep walking back on hitting that publish button for this video, I don't want my voice to send everyone into a frenzy. But if you want a "Living, vital sense of community" around the Chesapeake like Tom Wisner wanted, you have to "Follow the Way" and go all in!
Long before I was made in the depths of the earth,
You knew of my longing and you fashioned my birth.
With a passion to journey out over the sea
in search of the vision of the right to live free.
Oh the land, Maryland will surely reveal
a place to believe in the truth that we feel.
On the wings of the morning
in the cup of his hand,
we will carry our longing to the fair Maryland.