Keep Your Hand on the Plow, Mahalia Jackson; Ralph Vaughn Williams, Lark Ascending

Sixty-plus years ago, when I was just another white kid from Brooklyn, a friend introduced me to gospel. Later, as a young woman starting out in the Big City and needing all the encouragement I could get, I heard Mahalia Jackson on an old LP singing and exhortng us to hold on. She may have been the only one at the time to record "Hold On to the Plow," and through all these years, when I need spiritual strength, I turn to it and her. My original record is long gone, but I've replaced it. Similarly, when I seek solace, peace, and hope, I play Ralph Vaughn William's "Lark Ascending." Totally different, of course, but both these selections encouage me to look forward.

Ms. Gerry Gould