"SHARE!" liner notes
The lyrics of "SHARE!" were born in Palestine, a land that has absorbed so many tears from the people who live or have lived there.
by Ryokyu Endo
There was a reason that I wrote lyrics for this tune, even though I had only been composing and playing instrumental music up until that point.
At the time, I was in the middle east to organize a peace and healing pilgrimage from Hiroshima to Jerusalem through Europe, called the Earth Caravan.
I was in the west bank of Palestine during the air assault on Gaza. Almost every day for over 45 days, innocent women and children were killed or critically wounded by bombs from the air raids.
I was swallowing my anger and my sadness into my stomach, with a powerless feeling, being so close to Gaza, where the violence was happening. I needed to find the words to give me hope for the future.
One day I visited a Palestinian boy in the hospital who had been wounded in one of the air raids. The hospital was located in Palestinian East Jeruselem. The scene was chaotic. After getting permission from a nurse, I was guided through the chaos into one of the rooms.
As I entered, I saw the boy's father, a short, gentle-natured man. And on the bed there his son lay, about 10 years of age, looking destitute and in shock.
Looking at the boy, I was speechless.
His legs were amputated below his knees...
I couldn't do anything. I could do nothing but cry.
I could only cry and cuddle, hug him tight.
This boy will never walk with his two legs again. I had no words to console him and his father. In the blurry hospital room because of the tears in my eyes, by telling myself: "There is no one who would not hope for a world in which no child will get hurt," the lyrics for "SHARE!", the theme song of the Earth Caravan, were born.