Let Love Be Your Guide
Dan and Claudia Zanes
A Cobb Institute Appreciation
- Haitian-American music therapist / jazz vocalist Claudia Zanes and Grammy award winning performer Dan Zanes play electric folk music for all-ages.
Their music is rich in melody and texture; their lyrics invite listeners of all ages to listen to the greater hopes by which we can live. From the perspective of the Cobb Institute, there are four great hopes:
1. the hope that individuals from all walks of life grow in their capacities to become whole persons: that is, persons with a sense of purpose, with healthy relationships, with inner peace and zest for life.
2. the hope that we can build and live in whole communities that are creative, compassionate, participatory, inclusive and diverse, good for animals and good for the earth, with no one left behind.
3. the hope that we can live in a world - a planet - where people live in peace and the whole of life flourishes, and where "civilizations" are "ecological civilizations."
4. the hope that we can think in ways - inspired by art and music, science and philosophy - that enable us to live with respect and care for the community of life, thus fostering the first three hopes.
These hopes are parts of one another like the four leaves of a four-leaf clover. They emerge in us together, when we truly listen to beckonings deep within the heart.
Where do these beckonings come from? Many of us believe that these four hopes are inspired, not only by the beauty of the earth and the poignancy of human life, but by a divine calling, an inwardly felt lure, that is the Life in whose heart all lives unfold: God. These four hopes can be captured in a simple phrase that is the title of Dan and Claudia Zanes first album: Let Love Guide Us. It is indeed Love that inspires the hope and love that inspires their music.
With their music Dan and Claudia Zanes help us hear the call of Love with its four hopes. And not just "us" adults but also "us" children. A unique feature of their music is that it is for all generatations. Listen, enjoy, and let love be your guide, too.
- Jay McDaniel, September 21. 2021
NPR Interview with Dan and Claudia Zanes
about their new album and aspirations
Let Love be Your Guide: The Album
Let Love Be Your Guide, the first duo album by internationally renowned family musicians Dan + Claudia Zanes, is a collection of songs to spark intergenerational conversations about anti-racism, racial justice, and the joys of community. Conceived during the 2020 Black Lives Matter uprisings and coronavirus pandemic, the songs describe the new terms of togetherness – how we understand it, how we build it, and how we strive for more. Rooted in many different traditions, including gospel, R&B, and Haitian folk song, the eclectic, warm, and accessible music the duo makes reflects the kindness and openness that underpin their message: out of isolation and hardship we can learn how to accept and heal the wounds of the past, and how to change and face the future with grace and compassion, regardless of our age.
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Television Interview in Baltimore
The Process Movement: Four Hopes
The process movement is more, much more, than process philosophy. It is an international network of people from different parts of the world who act out of four hopes: (1) that they and others can be whole persons, filled with love, creativity, gratitude, justice, and a sense of wonder; (2) that they can help build and live in whole or compassionate communities that are just, sustainable, and joyful, and that are good for animals and the Earth as well as people; (3) that they can help sustain a whole planet in which other living beings as well as humans flourish in mutually enhancing ways, and (4) that we humans will come to think holistically, in ways that integrate science, art, ethics, and spirituality, and that invite a sense of respect and care for the community of life. Some are farmers, some poets, some theologians, some accountants. Some are teenagers, some middle aged, and some senior citizens. Some are very interested in philosophy; some not so interested. Some are "Whiteheadians" and some are shaped by other holistic philosophies: Muslim, Buddhist, Daoist, Hindu, or Indigenous, for example. All are part of the movement. All live from the four hopes. These are the hopes at the heart of the Cobb Institute for Community and Practice.