Happy May Day!
I'm listening to Alison Krauss's "Gravity." Now, there are a lot of Alison Krauss songs that I love, but I think this one is my favorite. It's a quieter song, less country-ish than a lot of Union Station's other songs. But the lyrics also draw me in:
And all the answers that I started with
Turned out questions in the end
I've found this to be the case in my life--that certainties turn into uncertainties, that answers actually aren't answers at all. If you'd asked me certain questions when I was 18, I would have given you straight-forward, absolute answers. I'm more apt to ramble these days, to circle around questions, to see different points of view. Part of growing up, I think.
There are still things that I am certain of: I think all kids have a right to a good education; we should treat everyone with respect and kindness; "different" does not equal "bad." So on and so forth. But, in general, I ask more questions than I have answers.
Or, if you ask my crankier self:
I have NUANCE, dammit. I will quote Whitman at you!
Do I contradict myself? Very well, then I contradict myself.
I am large, I contain multitudes.
(Most of the time I am not cranky. But I like Whitman. And I like Alison Krauss.)
And the people who love me still ask me
When are you coming back to town?
And I answer, quite frankly,
When they stop building roads
And all God needs is gravity to hold me down
I refer to Fitz.
ReplyDelete"At eighteen our convictions are hills from which we look; at forty-five they are caves in which we hide."
"The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function."
Well, I'm between 18 and 45, so I'm not hiding in the caves yet.
ReplyDeleteDylan's "My Back Pages" is what I should really quote: "But I was so much older then/I'm younger than that now."
I think the key is to simply exert so much gravity that time slows around you.
ReplyDeleteSometimes, in my dreams, I'm a massive neutron star or a black hole, but then I wake up and I remember I'm the world.
My musical tastes have had too much influence on you!
ReplyDelete