Poles between divide us
Hands and feet are holding life

The story:

Actually, this is not a funny story. When my 4-month-old son was in the ICU with a near-fatal infection, I listened to this song on the way to and from the hospital, crying. There was a huge ventilator on one side of him, and IV's and tubes everywhere, and all I could touch were his hands and feet and the top of his head. So I thought Dave wrote this song for sick children. Miraculously, my son survived. A year later, I listened to this song without tears in my ears and wondered why a flag would be burned in a hospital. Turns out it's a song about civil rights. But my misheard version gave me so much hope during that horrible time that I think Dave should release it with new hospital-themed lyrics; so much of the song seemed to fit the circumstances! I'm getting all teared up again just thinking about it.