Drive Dull Care Away (redux)

This is, to my mind, the quintessential Winter Solstice song. It appeared in all the Solstice Extravaganza shows, I think, and I still love it to pieces. My favorite line: "Life at its best is but a jest." The song comes with a great tune (I once drove 40 miles to find somebody who could sing it to me) but I wrote my own a few years ago - if I get some time together I'll post it.

DRIVE DULL CARE AWAY
English Traditional Song
Why should we at our lot complain, or grieve at our distress?
Some think if they should riches gain 'twould be true happiness.
But alas, how vain is all their strife - life's cares it cannot allay,
So while we're here with our friends so dear we'll drive dull care away!

Why should the rich despise the poor? Why should the poor repine?
When we will all in a few short years in equal friendship join...
We're all to blame, we are all the same, we are all made of one clay,
So while we're here with our friends so dear we'll drive dull care away!

The only circumstance in life that I could ever find
To conquer care or temper strife was: a contented mind.
With this in store we have much more than all things else can convey,
So while we're here with our friends so dear we'll drive dull care away!

So let us make the best of life, not rendering it a curse,
But take it as you would a wife, for better or for worse.
Life at it's best is but a jest on a dreary winter's day,
So while we're here with our friends so dear we'll drive dull care away!

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