ARTIST: Gunther Anderson and Donna Dubé
TITLE: A Ray of Hope
Lyrics and Chords
Virgil left me at the doors of Heaven
Sayin', "I've taken you as far as I can
You've taken your first steps in a larger world
Even if they were giant leaps for a man"
/ C - F C / Bb F C - / :
"Roger, Ed and me, we weren't the first to go
And everybody knows we won't be the last
So when you look to the sky with a tear in your eye
Promise me our dream won't die in the past"
/ Dm - C - / Bb F C - / Bb - F - / - - C - /
{Refrain}
'Cause it's a ray of hope in a weary world
When you reach out for the sky
And the craziest thing that you've ever heard
Is that men have learned to fly
But when the sun shines bright on the rocket's flight
And they're sailing into the sky
We can slip the surly bonds of earth
And we'll teach our hearts to fly
/ F - Em - / F G C - / 1st, 2nd /
/ Am - C - / Dm - C - / Gm - F - / Bb - C - /
When Kennedy told us back in '61
That our destiny would lead to the moon
We were all pioneers in that great space race
Even if some of us would leave it too soon
We all dreamed of rockets and adventures in space
And everybody knew the ones who would go
How I wished I could fly with those men in the sky
Smiling down upon the world below
{Refrain}
I sat outside on my porch this morning
Waiting for the sonic boom to arrive
But something went wrong 40 miles above
And our family vanished into the sky
It's been almost 20 years and still I feel the pain
Of watching Challenger fall into the sea
And now there's seven more names written on the wall
They paid the price for our destiny
{Refrain}
When Virgil left me at the doors of Heaven
He said, "It's time for you to walk on your own
Those brave men and women taught you how to be strong
And they taught you not to fear the unknown"
"We all knew the danger and we all knew the price
And you know we'd do it over again
Not for the glory and not for the fame
But for the reasons that we'd keep to the end"
{As refrain}
'Cause it's a ray of hope in a weary world
When you reach out for the stars
And the bravest thing that you've ever heard
Is that men will walk on Mars
And when the sun shines bright on the shuttle's flight
And we're sailing into the sky
We all know the danger and we all know the price
Where would we be if we didn't try
Virgil left me at the doors of Heaven
And he smiled when I ventured inside
/ C - F C - - - / Bb F C - /
Apollo 1, 1967, Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom, Roger Chaffee and Ed White
Challenger, 1986, Michael Smith, Dick Scobee, Judith Resnik, Ronald McNair, Ellison Onizuka, Gregory Jarvis and Christa McAuliffe
Columbia, 2003, Willie McCool, Kalpana "KC" Chawla, Mike Anderson, Dave Brown, Laurel Clark, Rick Husband and Ilan Ramon
In Dante's Divine Comedy, the poet Virgil is Dante's guide through the Inferno and the Purgatorio. Virgil, as a virtuous pagan, is not permitted to enter heaven, and is capable of taking Dante only as far as reason can lead man. So he must leave Dante at the entrance to Paradise to make the leap of faith without him (Statius and Beatrice complete the journey).