I Want to Know

I want to know where all the things that I use come from
I want to know whose hands proced them all & brought them
I want to see the faces of the ones who labored
So I can know to who I owe my gratitude

C F C - / - - G7 - / F Am G7 - / F - C -

Sitting in the kitchen of her daughter's suburban home
Tears pouring down her cheeks, she tells me her heart's woes
She aches with longing for the life she'd left in Iran
The connecting ways of her village life seem forever gone

G - F G / - - F Am / F Am G - / F - Dm G

Now stranded in the USA where her children want to be
The neighbors all stay locked inside: are they really free?
No outdoor markets filled with food the farmers brought with pride
No people gathered trading goods - with hearts open wide

Now Raama goes to work each day, sewing hats in a factory
Her hopes for more community are dashed with every seam
She asks me why no one knows the fabric of their lives
The web that holds us all together, from which we all survive

(bridge)
Sometimes in life you meet someone who opens up your eyes
Now I see how much we've lost by severing the ties
That link us to the source & truth of everything we use
Instead we live in veiled deceit - is the the world we choose?

words & music by Paulette Meier (c) author. Used by permission.

from the "Just One Earth: One Planet, One People, One Future" album with Jamie Fota, Paulette Meier, Diane Porter & Len Webb