As a songwriter, Graham Nash is widely known for his breezy and peaceful style—one illustrated on a handful of classic singles ("Our House," "Teach Your Children," "Just a Song Before I Go") with folk-rock supergroup Crosby, Stills & Nash. Unlike, say, the psychedelic sizzle of The Doors, his music doesn’t necessarily scream "LSD." But Nash has often noted the major impact that acid had on him, using the story of his song "Cathedral" as the clear example.
In a June 2025 interview with Vulture, asked about his "most therapeutic recording experience," Nash detailed the surreal tale that inspired the 1977 track. "I had just come from lying in the middle of the grass in Stonehenge," he said, explaining how he walked into a church and spoke to a man dressed like a "Beefeater," who shared some profound advice. "He said, 'Wait a second—you are a traveler. Don’t you know?'" Nash recalled. "Excuse me? He said, 'You are a traveler. Don’t you know it’s just okay to be?' Even behind the acid, that was an incredible statement to make to me at that moment: 'Don’t you know it’s just okay to be?'"
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Nash said he "walked up to the nave toward a statue of Jesus" and felt an "incredible feeling" in his legs that made him look down. "It was like I was standing on the grave of a soldier who had died in 1799," he said. "Ever since that moment, I’ve tried to be me. After I took LSD, everything changed in my life. I began to realize that we were a ball of mud spinning in space in a galaxy that has a hundred-million suns, which is one of billions of galaxies. I realized at that moment that everything was meaningless in a way—but at the same time, it was meaningful."
"Cathedral," a dramatic and dynamic ballad released on Crosby, Stills & Nash’s album CSN, directly references that acid trip—and the religious themes that its setting apparently conjured. "I’m flying in Winchester Cathedral," Nash sings. "All religion has to have its day / Expressions on the face of the savior / Made me say, 'I can’t stay' / Open up the gates of the church / And let me out of here / Too many people have lied in the name of Christ / For anyone to heed the call / So many people have died in the name of Christ / That I can’t believe it all."
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In 2022, Nash spoke about the song with WAMC Northeast Public Radio, saying it took him four years to finesse the lyrics. "[W]hen you're talking about people's religion, you better make sure every single word is correct," he said. "And because ‘Cathedral’ was a song about an acid trip that I took many years ago to Stonehenge and to Winchester Cathedral. You know, it was it was basically about what acid had taught me, that you know that people's religion is precious to them, and that I better make sure that I got all the words correct. And that's why it took me a long time to write 'Cathedral.'"
The songwriter spoke more broadly about the psychedelic experience in a 2013 interview with Commonwealth Club World Affairs. "I’m not condoning anyone taking drugs, but it was good for me," he said. "[T]aking LSD taught me something immediately, and it was a very profound piece of knowledge—and that was that I was a piece of lent on a ball of mud spinning around in an incredibly huge, ever-expanding universe." He also spread the same message he’d share years later with Vulture, saying, "[A]cid taught me that everything was completely meaningfulness—it’s all meaningless. If every single one of us dropped dead right now, the world would still go on spinning…If everything is meaningless, then everything has to be completely meaningful."
This lesson seems to focus on the absurdity—and unpredictability—of life. "If this is life as we know it, to me, if I’m OK and my wife is OK and my children are OK and my friends are OK, the rest is a joke," he said. "The rest is a joke to be played the best way that you can. You have very little control over a lot of your life, so the way that I deal with my life is that I find the most positive—the funnest—way through all of it. It’s a joke, this!"
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Ketel Marte was brought to tears during an MLB game after facing a shameful fan taunt.
Baseball manager's poignant support for a player brought to tears after shameful fan taunt
Whether they’re expecting perfection from their favorite players or, worse, behaving callously toward opposing teams, sports fans often forget that athletes are human beings. But athletic competition has the ability to unify and uplift, even amid such painful and unpleasant encounters. Take, for example, a major-league baseball game held June 24, 2025 between the home team Chicago White Sox and visiting Arizona Diamondbacks.
A shameful low point occurred when Diamondbacks second baseman Ketel Marte was at bat in the seventh inning. Per ESPN, a fan reportedly yelled out a comment regarding Marte’s late mother, Elpidia Valdez, who died in a 2017 car accident in the Dominican Republic. Team personnel, including manager Torey Lovullo, then requested the 22-year-old fan be ejected. (Though he was remorseful and admitted his actions were inappropriate, according to an ESPN source, he was nonetheless banned indefinitely from all MLB ballparks.) "We commend the White Sox for taking immediate action in removing the fan," the MLB said in a statement. Marte reportedly declined to comment.
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While the fan’s behavior is inexcusable, it did spark a powerful and inspiring moment. After hearing the comment, Marte was visibly upset, prompting Lovullo to walk on the field, put his arm around him, and offer some words of encouragement. "[I said,] 'I love you, and I’m with you, and we’re all together, and you’re not alone,'" Lovullo said in a post-game interview, as documented by The Rich Eisen Show. "'No matter what happens, no matter what was said or what you’re heard, that guy is an idiot.’"
According to Arizona Republic, Lovullo heard the fan’s comment but didn’t want to repeat it. “I looked right at [Marte] when I heard,” he said. “I looked right at him, and he looked at the person, as well. He put his head down and I could tell it had an immediate impact on him, for sure."
Elsewhere in the post-game interview, the manager called the moment "terrible" and reflected on why he stood up for Marte. "Fans are nasty, and fans go too far sometimes," he said. "I love my players, and I’m gonna protect them…I’ve known Ketel for nine years. He’s had some unbelievably great moments and some hardships as well and some really tough moments in his life. I know those. At the end of the day, we’re human beings, and we have emotions. I saw him hurting, and I wanted to protect him."
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The following day, the Chicago White Sox X account sent out a message in support of Marte, writing, "We’re with you" and "Baseball is family." On The Rich Eisen Show, the show's host addressed the need to eradicate this kind of toxic athlete-fan interaction: "I was hearing [people saying], 'There’s no place for this in major league baseball.' There isn’t. There’s no place for this in our society. I understand that people are saying the MLB has got to do something about this. Fans have a right to heckle players—this is something that has happened forever…But there is a line."
In another recent, depressing sports moment with a beautiful coda, let’s look to Game 7 of the NBA Finals between the Indiana Pacers and the eventual champions, the Oklahoma City Thunder. During the first quarter, Pacers point guard Tyrese Haliburton tore his right Achilles tendon—a devastating injury that could potentially sideline him for most of the 2025-2026 season. Following the game, in a lovely display of sportsmanship, Thunder point-guard and league MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander went to the Pacers locker room to check on his competitor. In a press conference, he said, "You just hate to see it, in sports in general. But in this moment, my heart dropped for him. I can't imagine playing the biggest game of my life and something like that happening. It’s so unfortunate."
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