Donovan Receives Cultural Award

This story will probably mean more to an old hippie like me, than to some of you younger readers. I'll bet some of you have never heard of Donovan. He was a folk-rock singer of the 1960's and 70's -- a contemporay of and friend of Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Joni Mitchell and the Beatles.

While most of the folk-rock crowd sang of society's ills and problems or the heartache and misery of the individual, Donovan's music was more light-hearted and positive and his words were poetic. He was a breath of fresh air in a troubled and tumultuous time. Among his number one hits were "Sunshine Superman", "Mellow Yellow" and "Hurdy Gurdy Man".

Last week in Cannes (France), Donovan was given the prestigious Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French government. Culture Minister Christine Albanel presented the award and hailed the musician as "a true poet". Still true to his hippie roots, Donovan had Albanel pin the award to his long dark purple velvet jacket (see picture).

After receiving the honor, Donovan said, "I take it for all the work I've done over the years to bring poetry back to popular culture. To get an honour like this confirmed to me that it was successful, that my work was accepted on my terms, rather than becoming an entertainer. I wanted to be entertaining, but to bring to the world a sense of meaning again."

These days, Donovan is working with director David Lynch to encourage meditation in schools. They believe that meditation can help improve student concentration and behavior. So far, their program has over 60,000 students meditating in school twice a day -- ten minutes in the morning and another ten minutes in the afternoon.

I don't know if the meditation program will accomplish everything they want it to, but it sure can't hurt.