Harry Chapin...A Guy Who Deserved More Time

In case you did not notice it in the Courier Journal today, Harry Chapin was born on December 7, 1942. They reprinted a lyric from one of his songs called "I Wonder What Would Happen To This World." It is the epitaph on his headstone. Oh if a man tried/ To take his time on Earth/ And prove before he died/ What one man's life could be worth/ I wonder what would happen/ to this world.

See? I told you he deserved more time. Here are the lyrics to that song in total:

I Wonder What Would Happen to this World
by Harry Chapin

Oh well I wonder
Yes I wonder
What would happen
What would happen to this world
Well I wonder what would happen to this world

Now if a man tried
To take his time on Earth
And prove before he died
What one man's life could be worth
Well I wonder what would happen to this world

And if a woman
She used a life line
As something more than
Some man's servant mother wife time
Well I wonder what would happen to this world

Oh well I wonder
Yes I wonder
Oh yes I wonder
'Bout what would happen
What would happen to this world
Well I wonder what would happen to this world

As I look around us
There's such strange things
There's muggers and there's jugglers
And we are led by clowns
If an answer ever found us
Would we change things
Or are we just a people
Rotten ready for the ground

And if our future
Lies on the final line
Are we brave enough
To see the signals and the signs
I wonder what would happen to this world

We see the people
We see them marchin' down
Do we join the parade
Or do we try and turn around
Well I wonder what would happen to this world

Disciple children walk the streets
Selling books and flowers
Can they be last ones
With a semblance of a dream
If we say that no one's out there
And we say we're goin' nowhere
And we avoid the question
Is this all that it means?

Oh if a man tried
To take his time on earth
And prove before he died
What one man's life could be worth
I wonder what would happen to this world