This is one of my favourite James Taylor songs, and though there are reasons why I find myself feeling sad as I listen to it, I still choose to do so. It's a sort of cowboy song, and at the same time a sort of lullaby; I believe he wrote it for his baby nephew and namesake. As a song it has a sense of disconnectedness from the world that, when I think about it, is a feature of many of the songs I count among my favourites.
We are waiting for a baby right now. A grandson. Not James, but Alex (the name, by the way, of the father of the James in Taylor's song). He's a bit late, having been expected a week ago (though I suppose that's our schedule, not his!). As a family, we're operating according to a sort of interim programme, or working timetable, that will need to be immediately and drastically revised once we get the news. In other words, we're all on tenterhooks.
Back to the song, though. I suppose I find appeal in the solitariness of the singer, and the sense as he sings of an almost timeless journey just beginning. I envy the contentment of those who are quite secure and settled in their own little bit of the world, and their set routines and established customs . . . I see them and often I'd like to be like them, but I can't be, it isn't me. I have a troubled and questing mind that isn't for settling down, and a sneaking sense of a truth glimpsed in the dream times that I can never catch and hold in this world however far and wide I search.
An almost timeless journey just beginning: every next moment is adventure and possibility, and never more so than at a time like this, when we wait together for a new birth, and a new child's first cry.
No comments:
Post a Comment