Moon River

Dear Friends,

We were talking about the song, Moon River, the other day. I sang it in my meditation group, and we were talking about what it means:

The singer and the river have a friendship. The singer loves the river because it is beautiful, wider than a mile, and she believes that someday she will “cross it in style.”

They are two drifters, the singer and the river, going out into the world together.

In this journey they are after the same rainbow’s end,

It’s waiting ‘round the bend,

My Huckleberry friend, that is,

Moon River, and me.

As we discussed this, I talked about the huckleberry bushes along side of the river. And one of the other meditation participants corrected me and explained what a “Huckleberry friend” is. She said that there is one line in the book, Huckleberry Finn which describes this type of friend: When Finn was helping Jim, the enslaved African, to escape, he heard the hunting-dogs coming from behind them, and he said, “Jim, they’re after us…” In this line, Huckleberry Finn has taken on the plight of Jim, who the slavers are after, as his own plight — “they are after us.” A “Huckleberry friend” is a friend to the end, a friend who will take on your plight as it if it is her own.

Moon River is a Huckleberry friend to the person singing this ode to the river, because it has always been there for her, and has never wavered in its devotion to her.

I want to learn how to be a Huckleberry friend.

Love

Alexander Lynn

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