I’m not sure how old I was when I first heard Stevie Wonder’s “Heaven Help Us All.”  I was alive when it was first released in 1970, but I was only 3, so I’m not sure if I remember it from such a tender age.

However, as I’ve been watching and listening and reading the news lately, I’ve been struck by how timeless Stevie Wonder’s lyrics are.  It’s 45 years since the song was released, and yet we seemingly need as much or more help from up above than we ever did.  With the recent events in Baltimore and Ferguson and Staten Island, with Climate Change threatening our very existence, with the violence of the Middle East continuing, with the rich getting richer and the Middle Class disappearing, we truly need Heaven’s Help.

Of course, we all know that waiting for divine intervention is not the solution.  We have free will.  We have the ability to make change.  That is the great gift given us by the Creator or Nature or whatever or whoever created us.  We have the ability to reason and analyze and think and act accordingly.  We can change.  We can evolve.  We can improve.  And, we don’t need be bionic to do that.

So, on this day, Stevie Wonder’s Birthday, I say “Happy Birthday Stevie! Thank you for all the wonderful music. And, I agree with you . . . Heaven Help Us All.”